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Mary Byrne recalls protesting outside the rally. She was there to promote a bill in the Indiana General Assembly (championed by a Greenwood lawmaker named, ironically, Don Boys) that would criminalize sodomy. Politically, gays in Indianapolis didn't band together until October 1977, when the recording artist/former Miss USA/Florida Citrus Commission spokeswoman Anita Bryant led a rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. "If you 'came out' back then, you'd have been beat to death," said Warman, who at the time was married to a woman, as was Palmer. Instead, they paid their fines and slinked away. McCann said that was "the first time I remember people actually being nice to each other."īut no one stood up and protested the raids. When people needed to use the toilet, a phalanx of men would stand up and form a wall to give privacy. They were herded together into a large cell with open toilets where they spent the night. McCann said that in 1964, he was one of some 80 gay men loaded into 12 paddy wagons and hauled to the Marion County Jail. "We'd quick drop our partner and grab a lesbian," said David McCann, 70, who lived in Kokomo but frequently socialized in Indianapolis.īut often such raids led to nights in jail, especially if the gay patrons didn't have I.D. She saw the police approach, flipped a light switch, a signal familiar to her patrons. But the proprietor, Betty Keller, was too quick for them. " 'Visiting a dive,' is what they'd call it," Warman said. Warman recalled being at Betty K's, a club that occupied a big old Victorian house at 17th and Central (since torn down) in the mid-'60s, when police came in to bust men for dancing with other men. "Young kids don't realize what it used to be like, what older people went through." "There's a lot of history behind where we are now," said Coby Palmer, 65, a florist and longtime gay civic leader. "Even way back there was a lot going on here," Bohr said. This at a time when Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, had just two each. He said that in 1970, the year he stopped concealing his homosexuality, Indianapolis had more than a dozen gay bars. Indianapolis gay bars used to be in the dark, not just figuratively but literally - they didn't used to have windows. "The afternoon light just came busting through and hit you," said Bill.
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Since the 1970s, when Downtown Olly's was a different gay bar called Brothers, the wall had sealed off two huge picture windows in front. Several years ago, he was at that same bar, during a remodeling, as workers tore away a wall. He was 90 days sober and figured it would look bad to his AA sponsor, never mind he was drinking Diet Coke.īut he had something interesting, something metaphorical, to say, as "Rock me, Amadeus" played in the background at Downtown Olly's, 822 N. Not because he was in a gay bar, but because he was in a bar period. Actors will bring to life six locations in Indianapolis Old Northside tickets: $60.īill declined to disclose his last name. Indiana Humanities is hosting an LGBT history bar crawl on June 20 at 6 p.m.
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This story was originally published June 8, 2012.