Gay bars in galveston

As long as there has been a Galveston, there has been a queer community. Galveston was the largest city in Texas until almost It was a port city, with a steady influx of various cultures. It had connections to the port cities of New Orleans and New York, and the kind of services available to gays in those cities eventually became available in Galveston.

Kon Tiki. Inthe Kon Tiki bar opened, and over the next 40 years it was located at six different sites. After two of its locations burned to the ground, the club inadvertently became a symbol of gay survival. From tothe Kon Tiki operated at 21st Street. The location is now a parking lot.

From toits address was 19th Street. That structure burned to the ground, and today a warehouse sits on the land. Moving to 23rd Street inthe club eventually expanded to include baths. Inthe bar complex was lost galveston a fire caused by a gas leak in the wake of Hurricane Alicia. The bar opened again in at 23rd Street, a location now occupied by a Stuttgarden.

The club then moved in to Market, directly behind the Galveston Opera House. That structure was also demolished and is presently gay parking lot.

Robert’s Lafitte

Inthe bar made its final move to 23rd Street, and remained open until when the owner died. Inthe hospital began to see patients with gender-identity issues. Ina year-old underwent male-to-female sexual reassignment surgery SRS. It was low-key and without media fanfare. Ina second SRS was completed. Houston transgender pioneers Toni Mayes and Phyllis Frye were both clinic clients in the early s.

Mayes underwent SRS in Inthe Janus Information Facility was opened in a building off-campus, providing gender-identity information worldwide. Although UTMB initially funded the facility and its mailing costs, they chose to close the clinic in That clinic building was later demolished, but the hospital where the pioneering surgeries were performed still stands and is now known as the John Sealy Hospital Annex.

Located near 6th and Strand streets, it was likely built as a Works Progress Administration project. The reverse-cruciform hospital was once one of the largest and tallest buildings in Galveston, but the structure has since been conjoined with new hospital additions and is now barely recognizable from the street. Rosenberg Clinic.