The First Time “Out”

On one of the blogs I normally read (Joe. My. God.), the ‘open thread’ today was: Tell us about your first time in a gay bar. Bar name, city, and year. Since this story came up recently over dinner with Verne, Shawn and Debbie, I thought I’d post it for everyone’s snickers, ridicule and judgment. Now remember, I was a good little “straight” Baptist boy at this point and gearing up for a trip to Mexico to do mission work over my upcoming Spring Break.

It was Mardi Gras Weekend 1995. I was a freshman at LSU and a friend of mine from the LSU Marching Band, Anni (pronounced AAH-nee) told me that I needed to go to New Orleans with her and her friends to “experience Mardi Gras with the locals.” (she was from Thibodaux, Louisiana). I agreed, along with 2 other guys, Brent and Justin, who were from Illinois. The next day we were off along with Anni’s friends Walker and Sharlene.

We arrived in New Orleans in time to get a good spot on the barricades at the corner of Canal and Tchoupitoulas (pronounced chop-a-TOOL-us) right where the parades turn. Walker and I were standing near each other and really did nothing but talk about T&A of people in the parade, and the girls standing near us. After a couple of Krews went by (I remember one was Endymion) we decided to go find something to eat and determine what to do next.

Walker was the one who mentioned it, “Let’s go to Oz!” I asked what Oz was, and Anni quickly responded, “It is a dance club, you wouldn’t want to go.” I was living large and told everyone that I’d like to go – to the shock of everyone. Yeah, I must have been uptight back then. We started walking to the bar and Anni told Brent and I that we all needed to go into a place on the way in order to get a drink. Unfortunately, Sharlene was only 17 and couldn’t get in so Walker and Justin stayed out with her (I later found out this was planned). After a few minutes, I left this bar with a full Hurricane and was ready to party!

We walked down to the corner of Bourbon & St. Ann and Anni told Brent and I that we needed to finish our drinks and that we’d catch up with the rest of the group. So there we stood looking around and I quickly made an observation, “Anni, there seems to be a lot of gay people around here.” She said that I was crazy, but I continued to look around and there were definitely a lot of gay people around. Anni eventually told me that we were in the gay area of New Orleans, but I asked why we were going to a dance bar in the gay part of New Orleans. “Walker is gay,” was her response.

Saying that I was shocked is an understatement. Walker was a tall, masculine guy – not the nelly, fem guys that I thought represented the gay population. Plus, we had been talking about girls not two hours before.

After a while, Walker and Justin (who was not ‘out’ at this point, although we all knew it was a matter of time – even then), came up to us and told us that Oz was charging $20 for cover and suggested we go to Bourbon Street Pub where it was free. Plus, they had strippers. Brent and I both shook our heads “no”. Anni told us that she was going in and if we didn’t want to, we could stand there on the street… together… alone. We finally relented and followed Anni, Walker and the gang into the bar.

Brent and I stood in the back while the rest of the group disappeared into the crowd of people ogling the nearly-naked men dancing on the bar. I don’t remember much, except for the guy who wandered by wearing a penis mask. After what felt like an eternity, Anni had her fill of the strippers (or Brent and I looked pathetic over in the corner), and she came and escorted us out of the bar.

That was my first time in a gay bar. It took me about 6 months to make it back to Arkansas, meet my first boyfriend, break-up with said boyfriend, and move back to Louisiana for my sophomore year of college before I’d go back again for the first time as a out gay man.