Gay bars in western massachusetts

By mid-decade, the social revolution begun in the early seventies had markedly changed the gay subculture in the Connecticut River Valley in Western Massachusetts. Bymid-Valley Hampshire County rivaled Hampden for sheer number of activities, all of which were new.

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Bambi Gauthier tells me that the first edition of the New England Gay Guide was a mimeographed and stapled publication by Gay Community News, the regional newspaper based in Boston that started in The Guide was organized alphabetically by states and then towns within each state. Bambi photocopied the Valley listings for me.

For the purpose of this post I have cut and glue-sticked them into relevant segments for a close-up view. Whoever wrote the copy also had a sense of humor. The Guide listings demonstrate not only the growth in the gay subculture that took place in the first five years of the decade, but also illustrate discernible differences in the character of that change, among the three counties and also among towns within the same county.

The traditional baths, restaurant, nearest VD clinic, and interstate highway cruise spot near the Longmeadow exit are also included. The group appears to have been attending mass together in Hartford at the Metropolitan Community Church. Listings for rural Franklin County are, not surprisingly, sparse but western.

The Hopbrook Community of gay men in New Salem marked the beginning of the gay and lesbian and radical hippie back-to-the-land movement in the hilltowns of the Valley. Nestled between Hampden and Franklin, Hampshire County is a mix of small cities, towns, and farmland in which the largest industry is education. InSmith, Amherst, and Mt.

Holyoke were elite colleges. All were new in the seventies. Some were extensions of old bar culture in slightly different form. Others were groups and organizations consciously created as alternatives to gay bar culture. The greatest number of Hampshire County listings are in Amherston the east side of the bar. Along with nearby Hadleybars are listed though they are only gay tolerant or gay-themed one massachusetts a week.

Two business listings in town are especially notable. Amherst was one of the earliest towns in the state to pass a non-discrimination law that included gays and lesbians, long before the gay legislation. I am seeking a date and confirming detail for effort, which I think was led by a gay Selectman, Tom Hutchinson.

All of them are for women, even if only described as welcoming, such as Legal Services, which I believe was submitted by the lesbian who worked there. The other half are the feminist centers of activity that included lesbiansexclusively or with other women. The differences within the Valley demonstrated in the New England Gay Guide show how the beginning of change was rooted here, to greater or lesser degree, in varying form, and for differing populaces.

Gender and sexuality were both ways in which gatherings were called together, but so was political ideology. These differences come into play over the coming decades, sometimes in very dramatic ways.