The shooting may be on everyone’s mind, but it hasn’t deterred regulars from stopping in. But despite dark days, the bar has been busy with customers coming together. At one point, the staff switched off the TVs to shut out the horrifying news. The mood at Barrel 87 has been somber this week. “I just didn’t want to see this bar close down,” Allen, 24, explains. And Barrel 87 might not even exist if Thomas, Joe Allen and Hunter Vance hadn’t partnered to purchase it from the previous owner eight months ago. Now there are just Barrel 87 and the Purple Rhino Lodge, a nonprofit membership club. According to Thomas, Sarasota used to be home to six or seven LGBT bars. The gay dating app Grindr, which facilitates what Thomas calls “shopping online,” has also peeled away customers looking to hook up. It's the one place you can be yourself."Īs gays and lesbians have found greater acceptance in society, Thomas says, the need for gay clubs and bars has declined. "Gay clubs gave me love and acceptance and a chance to breathe. “We’re just asking to exist in our society,” Thomas says. But the Pulse shooting serves as a reminder that even a year after the Supreme Court affirmed the right of gays and lesbians around the country to marry, they still face hatred. That’s changed for the better Thomas says he feels mostly safe in today’s Sarasota. “Just walking down the street, you could get your ass beat,” he remembers. Now in his 50s, Thomas is old enough to remember the danger of gay life in the ’70s and ’80s. “Our innocence was taken away.” A Barrel 87 co-owner and bartender, Thomas has worked in the local LGBT nightlife scene for 15 years. “He took something from every gay person,” Curtis Thomas says of Mateen. At Barrel 87, if he feels like giving his partner a kiss, few would even notice. “I don’t want some asshole to ruin my night,” Enos says.
And Enos and his partner still don’t feel comfortable holding hands in public. In Sarasota County, outside of city limits, gays and lesbians can be fired or evicted because of their sexual orientation. “It’s the one place you can be yourself.” Sarasota has come a long way in accepting gays and lesbians, but things remain far from ideal. “Gay clubs gave me love and acceptance and a chance to breathe,” he says. It’s no coincidence that one of the watershed protests of the gay liberation movement took place at the Stonewall Inn, the LGBT hangout raided by New York City cops in 1969.Įnos, 28, came out when he moved to Sarasota eight years ago. Mateen didn’t just target gays and lesbians he targeted them in one of the few spaces where, for decades, gays and lesbians have felt comfortable and safe.
“It’s terrifying to everyone,” says Tim Enos in between drags on a cigarette.