But being gay itself was still very underground, kind of deliciously naughty. Le Café had a nice big neon sign, the Red Barn had a neon sign that's been saved now down at the Neon Museum at the Fremont Street Experience. You just grew up, as I did, knowing Maxine's was gay, and Le Café was here, and that's where you went.ĭC: Were these back-alley places people snuck into? But there really was no community in the sense of a bunch of gay people getting together to do any kind of self-realization or build organizations or anything like that. There was 1610 down on Charleston and The Confederacy, opened in 1976. There was Maxine's, way out on Nellis and Charleston, which opened in the early 1950s. McBride: There were a few gay bars in the very early 1970s.

What existed at the time you realized you were gay?

DC: The earliest recollections would be yours, Dennis.