Queers revolt against straight nightlife

By MELISSA JELTSEN

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The Bell in Hand Tavern near Faneuil Hall advertises itself as the oldest tavern in America. But for five hours last Friday night, it was also the gayest. Gemma Firmo arrived early to hand out Che Guevara-style Cher pins as a crowd—enticed by an email from Boston's Guerrilla Queer Bar—flooded in. "Everything was fine, and then boom: The storm arrived," Firmo said. "Between glitter and feather boas, chains and buzz cuts, the straight people didn't know what hit them."

The concept of Guerrilla Queer Bar is akin to that of flash mobs; the first Friday of every month, members receive an email designating a bar to ambush that night. It began in San Francisco in 2000 and has been spreading to other cities ever since.

Daniel Heller and Josh Gerber founded the Boston chapter in September. "It's a really rare experience where gay and straight can get together and meet new people to date," Heller told the Dig.

At the Bell in Hand, the ratio of straight to gay rapidly inverted (the Boston GQB Facebook group has 785 members). Though some straight people left, many stuck around. One intoxicated man yelled, "It's a crazy crowd—they're gay!" Another man, who called himself "a 100 percent heterosexual motherfucker," danced upstairs next to a group of swaying lesbians.

Laura Vivenzio, of Somerville, was psyched to be at Bell in Hand, a place she said gay people usually avoid. "We feel we're more a part of the city now," she said. "Usually, we are kind of isolated."

The DJ caught on around midnight and spun "Like a Prayer." Downstairs, the live cover band plowed through "Sweet Home Alabama" to an appreciative crowd, proving bad taste transcends boundaries of gender and sexual orientation.