Blast from the Past: Protest against gay bars in Denver circa 1981

(Click photo to embiggen and read)

La Gente Unida has provided MileHighGayGuy.com with the historical photo and text of the 1981 protests against racist and sexist policies of three gay bars in Denver. The frigid temperatures did not stop the lively night-time protests outside the bars. Jim Denison (shown in the photo) was involved at the time with the Denver-based group called Men Against Sexism, which provided child-care and other support activities to feminists and educated men about feminist issues. Deb Taylor, of the Denver-based radical feminist newspaper Big Mama Rag in those years, and Jim were the parents of a son born back then.

Around the time of the 1981 protests, longtime activist D. Martinez (shown in the photo) and his friend Miguel Jaramillo (not in the photo, but involved in the protests) were co-founders of the Chicano gay men’s support group called Ambiente Latino. Back then, the Chicana lesbian support group was called Las Mujeres Alegres. Both of those early 1980s support groups were forerunners of the nonprofit La Gente Unida, and co-founders from both support groups were instrumental in founding La Gente Unida.

News stories about the protests were in the Westword newspaper and Denver’s lesbian publication, but Denver’s gay publication did not publicize the protests because the three bars were the publication’s biggest advertisers.