To learn more about TBTeez, visit the project’s website. This project has certainly taught me a lot about where we came from. “It is my hope that these designs will bring back fond memories and, perhaps, even put a smile on your face. “What better way to celebrate our pride than to learn about our colorful past?” Smith says. Smith adds that input is always appreciated and welcome, and he can be reached via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. While Smith’s focus remains on LGBTQ establishments in the 50s through the 90s, he says it’s his goal to “include as many of our old haunts as possible.” The Flamingo design is a prominent example of that, he notes, so “the time frame is not set in stone.”Ī number of designs also benefit charities.
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Designs are offered from 2606, Chrome, Chambers, Club Manilla, El Goya, Flings, flirt, Jungle, Keith’s Bar, KiKiKi III, Knotty Pine, Lounge 714, Metropolis, Old Plantation, PLAY, Pleasuredome, Rene’s Disco, Tampa Eagle, The Male Room, Tracks, Valentines and Wranglers. Tampa venues are among the project’s most heavily featured locales.
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The location closed in 2019 after serving the area’s LGBTQ community for more than 10 years. The project’s recently unveiled 300th design also hails from St. Petersburg’s Bedrox, Club Zoo, dt’s, Grand Central Station, Engine Room, Lighted Tree, Red Devil, Sharp A’s, Suncoast Resort and Wedgwood. Included are Orlando’s Palace Club, Peacock Room, SIN and Wylde’s Sarasota’s Club Tri-Angles and St. “There are ‘vintage’ road signs, T-shirts, coffee mugs and decor … but in our world, the pickings are slim.”Ī number of Florida’s former LGBTQ hotspots are featured in the collection, from Pensacola to Miami. “You can walk into any mall or large department store and find throwback memorabilia glorifying the products and places of years gone by,” he continues. “Everyone likes to reminisce, but often the gay community is not embraced in the way that the mainstream world is,” Smith says. It specializes primarily in unisex T-shirts, tank tops and stickers, with more designs on the way. The TBTeez shop now has 300 designs from bars throughout the country. Smith sought to expand his efforts and began researching to digitally recreate logos from a number of other shuttered LGBTQ establishments. The venture was a success, raising almost $800 for the organization from out-of-state marketing alone. The design was created with the blessing of its former owner to “transport you back to those long nights on the dance floor.” As Smith wanted to incorporate a charitable element for the anniversary, 75% of proceeds from sales benefited the Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The popular establishment, which opened in 1975 and touted a 24/7 liquor license, was one of the Southeast’s largest gay bars until it 2004 closure. Smith’s TBTeez project, which sells apparel featuring logos from “bars gone by” printed by Teespring, began in late 2019 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of Atlanta’s Backstreet. While every bar in New Orleans is a welcoming one, a handful of beloved dives and dance clubs specifically cater to LGBTQ patrons of all stripes.(WM) Promoter and designer Art Smith has launched an online store highlighting defunct LGBTQ bars to honor and preserve community history. But even between festival season, there’s no shortage of spots to celebrate the queer culture that makes New Orleans the anything-goes city it is today. These Carnival krewes undoubtedly sowed seeds for the LGBTQ rights movement years before Stonewall above all, they helped establish this town’s enduring reputation as a haven for creative expression and open-mindedness.Įvery year on Labor Day weekend, New Orleans celebrates all things gay with Southern Decadence, a six-day, rainbow-drenched festival in the French Quarter. New gay krewes (Petronius, Amon-Ra, Armeinius) formed in Yuga’s wake, creating glittering spectacles and secret societies that defied harsh anti-gay laws. The first gay krewe, Yuga, was formed in 1958 four years later, police raided the Yuga ball, arresting 96 krewe members for lewd conduct and disturbing the peace.īut that didn’t stop the party. Still, tensions with law officials ran high. During Carnival season, lavish parades and balls thrown by social organizations known as “krewes” provided the perfect excuse for the queer community to get together and dance, at a time when doing so was still very much illegal.
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Mardi Gras was the one day out of the year when cross-dressing in public was tolerated by police. What they may not know, is how Mardi Gras historically served as a critical outlet for self-expression - and political resistance - for the city’s LGBTQ community. Every year, tourists swarming the Crescent City for Mardi Gras know to expect a raucous party, over-the-top costumes, and a whooole bunch of beads.