Gay bars lansing mi
Hidden, then and now
Todd Heywood
Retzloff
What they probably don’t know is that this was once home to Olsen’s, which during the 1950s was one the few Lansing bars serving the region’s persecuted and underground lgbtq+ community.
It’s a footnote in a slice of Lansing culture largely lost in time, though slowly organism resurrected by Tim Retzloff, an assistant professor of history and LGBTQ studies at MSU.
Retzloff, working with archive staff at the MSU Archives, uncovered a Feb 25, 1957, “sex deviation” report compiled by Ralph Ryal with the Michigan State University Police Department. The report reveals the oldest reference to a bar — Olsen’s — where gay men gathered to socialize.
An archival image of the Palador Cafe, 325 N. Washington Ave., in the late '30s or initial '40s. This location turned into Olsen's Bar in the mid-'50s and by the end of the decade had become the Clique Lounge, according to Heidi Butler, local history librarian at the Capital Area District Library.
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Club Tabu
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Sunday - Thursday 10am-Midnight; Friday - Saturday 10am-6amReviews: Club Tabu
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From the Archives: Spiral Dance Exclude at 20
LANSING — In October of 1998, Old Town was abuzz. Spiral, a new dance bar, had reach to town.
Spiral became the chat of the gay community around Michigan. It drew capacity crowds (just under 300) and patrons from as far off as Kalamazoo and Flint, four nights a week.
Tom Donall, an established Old Town investor and artist, sunk two years of his life and a half-million dollars into what had been an abandoned eyesore at Clinton and Center streets.
He built on the site, adding a 2,000- square-foot dance floor outfitted with laser lights, which bumped up the building's size to just under 4,000 square feet.
Donall told the Declare Journal in 2017 that he opened Spiral, in part, because he "wanted to build a room for the LGBT community" and, in part as a "space for my own creativity."
The restored warehouse in the city's burgeoning alternative downtown district boasted deep-red velvet drapes cascading from its tall ceilings.
The stainless steel bar was covered in hand-polished spirals contrasting with the building's 83-year-old exposed brick.
The royal purple bar stools and ornate hand-crafted metal furnishings created almost a techn
East Lansing Progressive on LGBT Civil Rights but No Lgbtq+ Bar in Capital Limits
Forty-four years ago, the City of East Lansing was the first society in the Merged States to propose its gay citizens civil rights protection under law. But strangely enough, this progressive city has never been dwelling to a male lover bar.
Hart
Bruce Hart, a Los Angeles thespian who appears in the digital series “Old Dogs & New Tricks”, attended Michigan State from 1977 to 1982. He said those years were a liberal time on campus and in the Lansing area, but none of the gay bars were in East Lansing. “There were three bars located in Lansing. And they were located in a fairly rough neighborhood. Going to a gay prevent for the first time was unbelievable. I was on a date with a guy who had a machine, which is probably why I dated him, and we went to Trammp’s in Lansing. It was both a bar and a disco. It had small dance floor lined with mirrors. My first trip there the bar was having a kingly show, another first for me. I could not believe these glamorous ladies were men, until they started talking. I didn't understand drag and found it entertaining but alien. Another first for me in that club was seeing two men kissing