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WITH THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE AIDS CRISIS IN THE 1980s, THE CROSSROADS BECAME NOT ONLY AN ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT, BUT ALSO A CENTER FOR POLITICAL ACTIVISM, SOCIAL SERVICES AND MEDICAL TESTING.ĪS THE HISTORIC HEART OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY OF DALLAS, THE CROSSROADS REMAINS THE LOCATION OF THE OLDEST GAY BUSINESSES IN THE CITY AND AS THE PRIMARY GATHERING POINT FOR LGBTQ POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EVENTS, INCLUDING THE ALAN ROSS FREEDOM PARADE. MORE GAY-OWNED BUSINESSES AND BARS FOLLOWED, AND BY THE END OF THE 1970s, THE MAJORITY OF BUSINESSES IN THE AREA CATERED TO THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY. GAYS AND LESBIANS BEGAN MOVING TO THE AREA, DRAWN TO ITS BOHEMIAN IMAGE AND PICTURESQUE ARCHITECTURE. THE AREA SURROUNDING THE INTERSECTION OF THROCKMORTON STREET AND CEDAR SPRINGS ROAD HAS BEEN CONSIDERED THE CENTER OF THE DALLAS LGBTQ COMMUNITY SINCE THE EARLY 1970s AND IS KNOWN AS "THE GAY CROSSROADS" OR "THE CROSSROADS." IN THE LATE 1960s AND EARLY 1970s, THE CROSSROADS WAS A MAGNET FOR THE CITY'S COUNTERCULTURE MOVEMENTS. They’ve resisted because the price was scraping. More recent years have seen a crush of developers wanting them to sell. For decades it has been a place where men and women gather to celebrate when the news is good and come for help when things get bad.Ĭedar Springs at Throckmorton Street, where JR's sits, has always been especially important. The intersection had been known as The Crossroads since the late 1960s, but its legacy was forever cemented in 1980 with the opening of the namesake market there that became the community's bookstore and meeting place. For years, Caven Enterprises has bought up the lands under and around their ubiquitous bars JR’s, TMC, Village Station/Station4/S4, Sue Ellen’s and even the lot housing undie outlet Skivvies. We know it as the gayborhood, or what's left of it - the Resource Center, JR's, Sue Ellen's, Station 4 and the Round-Up Saloon. He reached out to Doty and Robert Emery and Sam Childers of the Dallas Way, keepers of this city's LGBT history, who penned the necessary narrative, submitted the paperwork and raised the money for the marker.įor most of us, I imagine, this city's LGBT history begins and ends in Oak Lawn, along Cedar Springs, where people march in parades and in protests. The Dallas Eagle is welcoming whatever your tastes in men (and drinks), and is equally suitable for a quiet pick-me-up at the start of the night as it is a full-on orgy of dancing stretching into the early hours of the next morning.But in 2016 Dwayne Jones, a former Preservation Dallas executive director now in Galveston, thought it time to tell the "undertold story" of Dallas' LGBT community.
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Don’t let the fact that this place unashamedly labels itself a leather, Levi’s and bears bar (with accompanying BDSM interior décor and Pup Socials and Underwear Nights) put you off. Gay Dallas wouldn’t be gay Dallas without Dallas Eagle, a gay bar one block over from Cedar Springs on Maple Avenue. With saloon doors that have been open for more than 30 years now, this sparkling combination of hoedown and sleek city bar with added southern pizzazz is another city favourite, welcoming everyone from the Stetson-wearing double-denim brigade seeking outline dancing to out of towners (including none other than Lady Gaga) looking for traditional Texan hospitality. Just opposite Station 4, you’ll find the Round-Up Saloon, the best of the bunch of country-themed Dallas gay bars.
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There are regular drag shows on the stage downstairs, including legend Cassie Nova’s Monday night slot, while the upstairs area hides a large patio with views up and down the strip. Sedate and relaxed, yet energetic, albeit in a different way (think the clank of pool ball on pool ball and the light hum of conversation over the long bar), the slightly more serene-minded clientele here are still not averse to having fun. Named after the main character in the strutting 1980s television hit Dallas, JR’s Bar and Grill is in many ways the complete antithesis to the chest-thumping dance tunes at Station 4. Known to pretty much everyone as S4, this two-floor extravaganza of a nightclub has one hell of a dancefloor on which to rock to the live DJ sets and kinetic light displays, more bars to grab a drink from then there are months of the year, a huge outdoor patio space in which to make the most of the fine North Texas weather while chilling out, and the second-floor Rose Room Theatre and Lounge, the place to head each weekend for the city’s foremost drag shows. Among them, you won’t fail to spot Station 4. Most gay bars Dallas are located on or close to Cedar Springs Road, the city’s very own strip, which extends from the superbly-named Dallas Love Fields Airport at its northern end to Oak Lawn, rated as one of the US’ best gaybourhoods, at the other.