Gay bars in madison wi
An LGBTQ+ student’s guide to Madison
Madison has been named among the gayest cities in the United States for its progressive atmosphere and rich queer history.
But for many incoming LGBTQ+ students seeking community at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, starting the search can be an overwhelming task. To kick off Pride Month, The Daily Cardinal compiled a list of activities and locations in Madison for queer people to experience community.
Campus organizations
Gender and Sexuality Campus Center: Located in the Red Gym, UW-Madison’s Gender and Sexuality Campus Center (GSCC) provides education, advocacy and resources to foster a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ students and allies. The GSCC is known for hosting popular welcome events such as Drag Bingo and offering scholarships to new students. Students can drop by during GSCC hours to peruse a collection of queer books, eat snacks or verb free printing services.
The Pride Society: Founded in upon the passage of Wisconsin’s gay rights legislation, The Pride Society is top known for its annual “P The April issue of GPU News advertised the opening of the Back Door bar with an ad, "New to Madison! The Back Door", touting "3 levels of entertainment" and listing proprietors Rodney and Jack. According to a bio of Rodney Scheel years later, the bar went through "its give of experimental phases- bar, restaurant, piano bar, boogie club, and home-away-from-home for many of the newly-liberated Gay men and Lesbians and their friends of that era". The bar held an employee/customer appreciation party in , which in became a city-wide fundraiser for Madison LGBT organizations known as the MAGIC Picnic. (MAGIC was an acronym for 'Madison Area Gay Interim Committee'.) The MAGIC picnic ran at least into the initial 's. Meanwhile, was to be a year of transition in more ways than the MAGIC Picnic. In July , a larger gay bar, Going My Way, opened. According to a later posting in a Facebook group, "When the larger 'Going My Way' on West Main Street opened, much of the dance crowd stopped going to the Back Door." For whatever reason, by October invitations went out for a "Good Bye T A woman sits at a bar, the lights beneath its surface transitioning through the colors of the rainbow. A dude drapes his arm around her. At a nearby table, another dude kisses his date's neck as his hands travel through the folds of her dress. It's Ladies Night, and one of Madison's gay bars, Plan B, is filled with straight people. Co-owner Rico Sabatini is proud that the Williamson Street bar brings in diverse crowds, but he and business partner Corey Gresen also want to ensure that Plan B retains its image as a gay establishment. That's why they've put a rainbow flag outside. After Plan B opened in , the first wave of heterosexual women to patronize the bar presented a challenge. "What follow straight women are straight men," Sabatini says. "There were…instances where women and the LGBT community didn't feel favor it was their venue or that they were safe.… If people didn't feel safe being themselves, that's a problem." Other gay bars in Madison have faced the same sort of identity crisis. Should they embrace straight people in the name Rod's bar became a gay icon and legend among gay men in the 's and 's Madison. Opened by entrepreneur Rodney Scheel and located in the lower level (basement) of the Hotel Washington building just west of downtown Madison (which Rodney owned with his brother Greg), the bar had a decidedly leather/levi type ambiance. Early on, "Rod's" took on a "tradition" of the bartenders holding surprise "spot checks" for men wearing underwear- which, if found, were promptly removed (cut off) and hung over the pipes on the ceiling of the bar. In no time the pipes running in the main bar room were draped with countless cut-off underwear. The bar became an extremely popular destination for men throughout Wisconsin and even from northern Illinois. Over occasion, the bar opened additional rooms in the back, one of which showed adult male (i.e. gay porn) videos. (On the seedier side, Rod's "men's room" had its hold little tradition: on occasion one might find, along the walls holding the urinals, someone kneeling: aficionados of "water sports" were to be found that night!) An outdoor patio was a very pop
Straight people in gay bars