Girl, I Want to Take you to a Gay Bar

The concept of a gay bar is not what you would call new.  You could easily say that they had been around for quite a while.  Eighteenth-century London was a city of sex.  Gentlemen had to put in little effort to find a prostitute to their liking, whether a woman, man, or even child.  Men searching for the intimate company of other men would find it in molly houses (quite literally meaning gay houses).

Were molly houses gay brothels? Well, I suppose that depends on which molly house you would be going to.  Some of the houses were in fact a place to find a male prostitute and like any other brothel you could be supplied with a room, liquor, or even a delicious meal if you so pleased.  Other molly houses were gathering places for the gay man, the equivalent of a gay bar.  Liquor, dancing, music and drag queens would be found here, as well as a good time.  Additionally, there were several rooms for rent so if things got hot and heavy on the dance floor you could take the romance to a place more private and equally nonjudgmental- for a price of course.  Margaret "Mother" Clap was a notorious molly house procuress, who presumably ran her business out of her own home and did it for the pleasure of the company; a true fag hag.

Many similarities exist between our contemporary and ancestral gay hang-outs.  Just as metropolises now tend to have regions that the gay community make their own so did London.  Moorfields was one of the notable gay haunts of the city, so much so that it had a "Sodomite's Walk."  Like today, many gay men were known to refer to each other as "queens" which I personally find interesting since many female sovereigns existed at the time.  Queenly spats were also not wholly unusual either as Joseph Sellers describes from personal experience:

"As soon as we came in, Gabriel Lawrence (since hang'd for Sodomy) began to scold at Mark Patridge, calling him a vile Dog, a blowing-up Bitch and other ill Names because Partridge had blab'd out something about one Harrington's being concern'd with him in such Practice."

Oh the dramz! Don't you hate when someone has to cause a scene at the bar?

Spats could be the least of problems regulars at molly houses could have.  Sodomy was a very serious offense, punishable by death (as seen above).  Luckily, evidence was needed in order to charge someone with that offense and that could be a tricky task for the law.  Molly houses were prone to raids which famously happened to Mother Clap's house in 1726 leading to her arrest.  Thank goodness today the only raids that gay bars may suffer from would be those used to catch serving minors!

Guys Night Out: Gentlemen's Clubs

When men of rank or celebrity needed a night away from the nagging wife and the screaming children, the gentlemen's clubs was a necessary luxury. Of course, many of these men legally had the right to punish wives for nagging and servants took care of any children running around...but any excuse was a good enough excuse to take a stroll down to the West End for a bit of fun with the lads.

The clubs were an evolved form of the coffeehouse but with the design of being a home away from home. Think: clean and luxurious frat house. In fact, I think I could name a few gents who probably wouldn't mind spending their nights there today! Inside you could find plenty of booze and plenty of gambling. A typical night consisted of arriving, having a bite to eat, drinking, more drinking, and gambling until eleven in the morning, all while not even leaving the gaming table. Of course there were regulars there so the clubs ended up being like Cheers, "where everybody knows your name." One of the more famous clubs (and still in existence, except more uppity and less fun) was Brooks. You could find the Duke of Devonshire here with other prominant Whigs as well as Samuel Johnson, not to mention the Prince of Wales, Charles James Fox, heck, even William Pitt the Younger was a member!

Sometimes the home away from home was almost...a home! Arrangements could be made at some clubs if you were too exhausted to be able to make your way back home and needed to spend the night. It's a wonder that the gentlemen actually made it out of the clubs with all the fun they contained inside, although there was that one rumour about Fox not emerging from Brooks for days...