Is This A Gay Bar?

Gay bars have always tried to signal their orientation to potential patrons—gay and straight—through their choice of name. This slide show explores some of the most common naming conventions.

Names that refer to long tunnel-like things.
Mineshaft, Pipeline

Related Series: The Gay Bar

CREDIT: Ryan McVay/Thinkstock.
Names that refer to hard, pointy things.
The Spike, The Stud

CREDIT: Thinkstock.
Names that refer to male birds.
The Cock, Cockpit, The Cockring, Kok Bar

CREDIT: Tatiana Buzuleac/Thinkstock.
Names that refer to men named Richard
Dick’s Bar, Moby Dick, Swinging Richard’s, DIK Bar

CREDIT: Michel Lizarzaburu/Thinkstock.
Names that refer to things you’d find in a butcher’s shop.
The Meat Rack

CREDIT: Ryan McVay/Thinkstock.
Names that refer to hard, pounding things.
Jackhammer

CREDIT: Konstantin Androsov/Thinkstock.
Names that refer to things that get pounded.
The Anvil

CREDIT: Valeriy Lebedev/Thinkstock.
Names that refer to secrets.
On the Q.T., Don’t Tell Mama, Sneakers, Entre Nous

CREDIT: Courtesy Library of Congress.
Names that might possibly be double entendres.
White Swallow, Three-Legged Cowboy, Backdoor

CREDIT: Thinkstock.
Women’s names.
If it’s an old-fashioned name, like Peg’s Place, Maud’s, Wild Rose, or Amelia’s, it’s probably a lesbian bar.

CREDIT: Chicago Daily News, Inc. from the Library of Congress.
Other women’s names.
If it’s called Mary’s, Nellie’s, or Sissy, it’s almost certainly a gay men’s bar.

Thinkstock.
The Eagle.
If it’s called The Eagle, it’s probably a leather bar. Damron President Gina Gatta says there used to be 26 Eagles in the United States (many leather bars took the name in homage to the original New York Eagle, though it is not a chain). There are fewer than 10 left today.

Related Series: The Gay Bar

CREDIT: Tom Brakefield/Thinkstock.