My name is Gary Miller, welcome to the Round-Up.
I'm the owner of the Round-Up Saloon
with my partner Alan Pearce.
When the Round-Up was first opened, it was very much a gay bar
that allowed only men in.
We allow everyone in now.
In 1980, there was no same-sex dancing,
they would be afraid to park their cars around here
because people would take their license plate number and turn them into
their employers and that would be an automatic termination in the early days.
If the police happened to walk in everybody was just sort of stopped dancing
and hang out until they left.
Then they would start dancing again.
They don't come in and do that anymore, no.
There's a huge queer community in Denton where I'm at
and I was with a guy and we ended up having this a little kiss
and people saw and they literally dragged us out of the bar and attacked us
and we had to like get out of there as fast as we could.
That bar has been shut down so, good for you people telling us what's what.
The Round-Up is where almost everything exciting in my life has happened.
I won Miss Gay USA newcomer here at Round-Up.
This entire place has been like the dream come true spot for me.
It's a gay country bar but it's a little more than that because we have drag shows,
we have beer nights, we have two-stepping competitions
where gay couples, straight couples, everybody in between come and perform …
So there is definitely place for everybody here.
Sure people come in and make out in gay bars all the time,
and nobody really says anything,
we let them live their lives because that's the kind of philosophy we have.
But if I went down to the local bar down the street,
it's a 50/50 chance I'm gonna get my ass whupped.
I grew up in a small trailer park, very secluded kind of a life,
I was the only a homosexual in my family.
When I finally did come out in high school, my parents moved me to Oregon to get me away from
that gay kid at school but the joke was on them because that's where I became a drag queen.
Outside of the real world, this is where we live our truth,
this is where we are the most comfortable with each other, we will tell each other anything.
We have seen each other in every state and it's because of places like this.
In some towns, I still don't see country western music being played
and two men and dancing together, so that's a big tourist attraction.
Cowboys can be gay too.
Being in the south, it's the Bible Belt.
Everybody isn't as accepting of us as a community,
as other places.
My name is Drew Luckett, we're in Jackson, Mississippi,
at Wonderlust, the only LGBTQ bar in Jackson.
I'm from a small town called Lexington, Mississippi, so in the closet you can't be yourself there, you know?
If you try to stand out, the backlash can be a little rough, you know?
So that's why I drive about 45 minutes to come here.
Are they gonna cover their child's eyes when they see you kiss your husband or your boyfriend?
Or your wife?
This is the place that everybody can come and be whoever they want to be.
It took me 27 years for me to come out the closet but I'm out and I'm good.
I'm happy.
I'm very limited to where I can go and feel well.
You have a lot of conservative people here who hold those values that are sort of archaic, you know,
that just don't fit in anymore.
It takes a while for them to move on.
It takes about an hour for me to come here but it's worth the freedom you feel here,
it's just so inspiring and uplifting.
Once you go through these doors, you just don't think about it, you know.
Stonewall was well before my time.
I look back at it and I look at all those people.
These are the people that fought for us to get to where we are today.
so it makes me respect the older generation for all the work they put in to make my life easier.
Hopefully one day people look back at my generation and can say the same thing.
We're the only bar within, I think, a 50 mile radius …
So the next gay bar is going to be … - Indianapolis.
Indianapolis.
And so we get folks from all the little red dots,
you know, we're in super little blue oasis in a sea of red.
I'm Nicci B.
I'm Smoove.
And we own the Back Door.
We are in Bloomington, Indiana.
This event was organised by sex workers, this is an event for sex workers
and this is what it means to say nothing about us without us is for us.
The election was a huge blow and I think everyone is still reeling,
we've just gotten used to living in like …
A bizarro world! What's happening right now?
A great panic just all the time.
Please give it up for Project Pink Bloc who made all of this possible.
It is only consent, if it is a sober and enthusiastic yes.
[Applause]
Bars aren't safe places and I've seen a lot of people start to use this word
and I don't know if we've ever said it out loud
but if we did it was a mistake,
because bars can be safer but when you have any sort of intoxicate in the mix,
it's not safe inherently.
We can't be everywhere all at once but through public shaming,
through bystander intervention training with our staff, through a lot of different principles,
going on Facebook and calling people out, we've made a reputation for ourselves
that keeps the riffraff out for the most part.
My first incident of harassment came the day after Trump was elected.
I was alone on the streets and was harassed pretty severely by a truck of people
and I am positive that a year before this, this wouldn't have happened.
I don't mean to be so doom and gloom and has gotten better,
it is easier, I think particularly if you are a cisgender, lesbian, gay man or a bisexual person
but I think particular when we're speaking of our trans and non-binary gender, non-conforming siblings,
life is not any better and in fact life is a lot worse.
It's fairly, I think, depending on where you are, unsafe to be out, to be proud
and to find community and so the Back Door, I think is the only space,
the only oasis, it's the only port in the storm, I think.
Particularly in a state like this one.
In the remembrance of Stonewall keep a brick in your pocket,
don't get complacent but also live joyously because that's a radical act.
Yeah.