By Emma Meiselwitz
Boston’s South End was a growing hub for young gay men in the 1960s and ‘70s. The then-poor neighborhood offered cheap housing and a safe space for queer folks.
Walking down the street in Boston’s South End today looks quite different. There is little evidence of what used to be a booming queer community, other than an occasional rainbow flag or Human Rights Campaign sticker.
As the heart of queer history in the Greater Boston area, the South End has earned the term “gayborhood”. A gayborhood is a geographical area inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.
The Gayborhood Foundation is a non-profit worldwide organization created to find and empower residential areas of “exceptional gay sanctuary”. The foundation composes a list of gayborhoods around the world which includes the South End. Among the list's criteria is “regular LGBTQI+ performances in local spaces, including theatre, music, drag, and cabaret.”
Notable in the queer decline of the South End is the disappearance of gay bars. Tessa Bahoosh, a Boston-based writer and journalist, conducted a project to map the former gay bars in Boston. The map clarifies the disappearance of Boston’s gay bars in the last few decades, most of which were in the South End.
The COVID-19 pandemic has since caused the closure of many more South End gay bars—Boston Eagle, Paradise, and Machine have all closed their doors. Club Cafe, a popular spot since its opening in 1983, is fighting to stay open.
Club Café has persevered in an environment where fellow queer spaces could not, and the South End’s decline of gay bars and gay-owned businesses in recent years raises questions about the area and its history as Boston’s gayborhood.
What is a gayborhood without gay bars?
While queer nightlife options aren’t the only criterion for gayborhoods, the disappearance of gay bars is alarming to many. Yet, Boston’s LGBTQ+ community has remained strong. Many queer people in Boston’s South End have found new, undefined queer spaces to hang out in.
Delux Café is just one of the area’s most popular undefined queer spaces. The spot is a cozy and eclectic dive bar often referred to as “a safe space for locals.”
The owners, wife-and-husband duo Laura Hafner and Kyle Yanney are well aware of the historical significance of the South End. Hafner attended Emerson College in 1998 and began working at Delux Café. The couple had their first date there over 20 years ago.
“I worked there forever,” Hafner said. “And then bought it from the old owner, and then brought him [Kyle] on board to do the food like as the chef/co-owner.”
Delux Café is one of the oldest bars in the area, according to Laura. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was known as Higen’s Pub. In the 1970s the space became The Elbow Room, a well-known gay bar.
“I do have a lot of friends in the neighborhood that are older and have lived in the neighborhood since that time, and tell me a lot of stories,” Hafner said. “It was a lot different then. It wasn't safe. You weren’t going around taking photos of each other as much in these places.”
In the 1980s the business was called Chez Joie, named after the then-owners wife Josephine. “Kevin, my friend who bought Chez Joie, has crazy stories,” Hafner said. “But, it's been Delux, you know, in some capacity, since 1993.”
Delux Café is barely noticeable from the exterior, other than one rusted sign with Christmas lights. Walk inside and the dive-bar lights up with lanterns, colored lights, photos, and records littering the walls. The eclectic design includes a shrine to Dolly Parton and a DIY Elvis-made-drag-queen lamp.
“Stuff kind of comes and goes but we just have fun with it. We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Hafner said. “A lot of these pieces on the wall are gifts from bars and restaurants and cafes that have closed in Boston. There is a lot of history here.”
It’s no coincidence that the funky interior design helps to create a safe space for the local queer population. But Delux isn’t marketed as a gay bar.
“I’m not trying to market myself,” Hafner said. “This is just us, it’s what we do. Everyone’s welcome. Inevitably we have a lot of queer customers, staff, and friends. That’s who we hang out with and love and support.”
“This is just us, it’s what we do. Everyone’s welcome."
Hafner is aware that Delux is a well-known safe space for queer folks. “It makes me happy to know that a lot of people come and feel that way,” she said. “Because that's definitely something that we strive to do and be in the community.”
Hafner said she felt a sense of responsibility when buying a business in the South End, especially a building with a history as a gay bar. “And more so now that the network neighborhood keeps changing, and getting expensive,” she said. “I absolutely feel that way. That's a huge priority for us.”
"We try to, you know, kind of carry the torch."
Boston is also home to many LGBTQ+ non-profit organizations, including BAGLY Inc, Greater Boston PFLAG, and Boston Area Transgender Support (BATS). A comprehensive list of resources for queer people in the Greater Boston Area can be found here.
Credits:
All photos by Emma Meiselwitz