The Mattachine Society was the respectable face of gay liberation back in the late 50s and early 60s and the ‘Sip-In’ was a non-violent, alcohol-based act of civil disobedience – albeit carried out in smart jackets and ties – against regulations prohibiting the sale of booze to openly gay men, who were considered ‘disorderly’, just by being gay. Bearing in mind this is probably the first bona fide gay bar in the whole wide world, it’s great to see there’s still life at the location where they recently celebrated the 52nd anniversary of the Mattachine Society’s ‘Sip-In’, which happened right there at that long, brown bar where cocktails have been rested since the 1800s. So New York, the city that never sleeps but sometimes passes out drunk on the bed.
It doesn’t look much from the inside either.Ī spur-of-the-moment Vogue-ing ball has just broken out among some gay boys too young to know the history they are trampling, and little do we realise that it’s all going to end in a conga round the bar to something by Gloria Estefan. It’s Julius’, the oldest gay bar in New York, and who knows what time it is because daylight would never dare come in here.
