What can we learn from mapping Damron's Address Books?
Previewing the Guides Past 2005: The New Jalisco & Queer Latinx Resilience
Damron’s guides lasted beyond 2005, the cutoff for our Mapping the Gay Guides project. However, later guides and their included sites hold important stories. CSUF GRA Austin Robes explores LA’s New Jalisco Bar. How did this space become a symbol of …
Beyond the “Rice Bar:” A History of Mugi's
Graduate researcher Camille Wise explores a unique safe space for gay Asian men amidst racial and sexual tensions in Los Angeles.
The Superbars
What makes a bar 'super?' Our co-director Eric Gonzaba dives into spaces marked as “superbars,” a new type of venue for gay Americans listed in the Damron guides beginning in the 1970s.
Finding “(Latins)” Spaces with a Search Bar
Beginning in 1973, Damron gave us hints of the gay Latino world, but these spaces were not given their own amenity feature. How can we look for some Latino LGBT spaces using Mapping the Gay Guides?
(PT) is for Pool Table
Bob Damon began denoting spots that included pool tables in his 1977 guide, but why?
A Hotel in Bohemia
Our team examines Bohemia, NY's only listing from the available data. What queer history can we learn from the Central Hotel?
Policing Balboa Park
CSUF graduate researcher Christian Castillo explores the “fuzz” surveillance of a popular San Diego park.
The History of Club Ripples
CSUF graduate researcher Giulia Oprea uses the Damron guidebook data to track the shifting ownership of a landmark Long Beach gay bar.
Looking Closer at Lesbian Spaces in the Bay Area
Despite our data reflecting mostly a gay male perspective, what sort of lesbian histories exist within these travel guides? CSUF graduate researcher Laura Fauvor explores sites of queer women in San Francisco.
Paramount Steak House: A Forever Listing
It’s rare to come across a commercial queer space that is still in operation, it’s even rarer to come across a gay-friendly business that exists in ALL years of our available data.
A Listing Tragically Disappears: The Upstairs Lounge Fire in New Orleans
Despite stereotypes of the South as some inherently ignorant and homophobic place, New Orleans has a vibrant queer culture, and there’s nothing modern about that.
Southern Black Queer Spaces
What do the Damron guides tell us about black gay spaces in the South? Are there limitations in exploring race in our data?
Does Alabama have an LGBTQ history?
For this vignette, we have isolated just the Alabama listings in the Damron Address books from 1965-1980, a sort of preview before the official launch of an additional eleven southern states in February 2020.