On the Significance of Black Queer History

The public perception of Black history is not often seen as LGBTQ+ history. This is regardless of having noteworthy influential Black LGBTQ+ individuals such as Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, Lorraine Hansberry, and 12% of African Americans make up the boarder American LGBTQ+ community. Yet, that history is often underrepresented, and an example of this can be found in the story of the Blues Bar Raid of 1982.

The Blues Bar Raid of 1982 is arguably the last gay bar raid to occur in New York City’s history. On September 29, 1982, the NYPD officers raided the Blues Bar on 43rd Street on Eighth Avenue, directly across from the old New York Times building. Twenty NYPD officers entered the bar, claiming its patrons had attacked two officers nearby. Various witnesses claimed the police had been at the Blues Bar weeks prior, harassing patrons and accusing the bar of being involved in crime. There was no evidence to substantiate that, however. The police did not accept denials by the bar patrons that they had not attacked any officers. Instead, the officers attacked 40 patrons, primarily Black men, and some trans women.

Simultaneously across town, during the same night of the raid, was the first Human Rights Campaign dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. Founded in 1980, the then-developing organization welcomed former Vice President Walter Mondale as its keynote speaker that year. The news of the raid shocked many of New York City’s LGBTQ+ community because raids of such an outright violent nature were uncommon after Stonewall in 1969. The response from the community was a 1500 interracial person protest in Time Square. The administration of Mayor Ed Koch launched an investigation into the action of the police, which did not go anywhere due to it requiring victims’ testimonies, which they never got (most likely due to the victims’ fears of the police). The activist LGBTQ+ organizations became overwhelmed in the years following due to the AIDS crisis.

So, why are stories such as the Blues Bar Raid important to tell? That history can often tell the stories of the life experiences of Black LGBTQ+ Americans today. Black LGBTQ+ adults are more likely to experience economic insecurity than Black non-LGBTQ+ adults; 40% of Black LGBTQ+ adults have a household income below $24,000 per year.

Black LGBTQ+ adults are more likely to be unemployed and to experience food insecurity (37% compared to 27% for nonblack). Of Black LGBQT+ adults, 56% are tested for HIV at least once a year, and 24% are never tested. Both Black and non-Black LGBTQ+ reported at least one everyday discrimination in the past year. It is slightly higher for blacks at 82% compared to nonblacks at 79%. These very same factors can be found in the story of the Blues Bar Raid.

LGBTQ+ nightlife establishments during this historical era were segregated via discriminatory carding. During this time, the majority of white LGBTQ+ bars in Greenwich Village in Manhattan would asked Black LGBTQ+ patrons for two or three different pieces of ID to gain entry. Audre Lorde, famed Black civil rights activist, poet, and intersectional feminist, described how she was always asked for her ID at the lesbian bar, The Bagatelle, while her white friends never were. She recounted, “The bouncer always asked me for my ID to prove I was twenty-one…Of course, you can never tell with Colored people.” LGBTQ+ bars of color, such as Blues, were in neighborhoods such as Times Square, which was seen as a dangerous neighborhood during this era, deeply associated with criminal activity, such as prostitution and robbery.

Many of these people faced the same dynamics that Black LGBTQ+ face today: discrimination and economic and food insecurity. Many of the victims of Blues most likely became victims of the AIDS pandemic, which still disproportionately affects the health outcomes of black LGBTQ+ today. LGBTQ+ communities and bars are still policed unfairly today.

In Greggor Mattson’s Who Needs Gay Bars: Bar Hopping through America’s Endangered LGBTQ+ Places (2023), a book which focuses on the present condition of LGBTQ+ bars in the United States, the authors surveys 120 plus gay bars throughout the country most of them were white owned. None of the white LGBTQ+ bar’s owners heard complaints from the police. While, one of the few African American LGBTQ+ bars” Club Xclusive, the only African American owned LGBTQ+ bar in Mississippi, told Mattson’s of numerous documented incidents of police harassment.

Highlighting untold stories, such as the blues bar raid in 1982, can bring forth a much more honest and complex version of African American LGBTQ+ history. However, the historical legacy of such events can also be seen as having similarities in aspects of African American LGBTQ+ life today, and acknowledging the impact of such events during this most important of heritage months is something we should not forget.