Hallonquist and Chung met as organizers with Dyke Bar Takeover, and together decided that the project needed its own beer, one labeled with the word “dyke” to speak explicitly to their community. There are only 15 to 20 lesbian bars left in the U.S., and three are in New York City. “It’s about going into the straight bars and being like, ‘Hey, we deserve more,’” says Hallonquist. Drag kings or queer musicians who traditionally had a hard time being booked in “straight” spaces performed, and proceeds went to grassroots queer organizations and initiatives. Rather, it grew out of a more overtly activist project, the Dyke Bar Takeover in New York City, in which organizers host pop-ups in non-queer bars, essentially turning them into lesbian bars for a night. (Big Gay Ice Cream has used the same tactic.)ĭyke Beer, a beer brand co-founded by Sarah Hallonquist and Loretta Chung, doesn’t rely on wordplay or double meanings to soften its marketing for a non-queer and often bigoted public. Moore and Pazmino note that “gay” also means “happy,” a connotation it hasn’t really held in decades, but still gets used as a cheeky way to elide the haters. “But then we were talking about it and I was like, ‘You know, what a great way to take this word back and make it a positive thing.’” “I really don’t want people to take that word and weaponize it in this context,” Pazmino says.
Growing up, they’d both heard “gay” used as an insult or to describe something pejoratively, so calling their beer Gay Beer was also a reclamation. They began calling it Gay Beer while developing the product and it just stuck. Consumption of Gay Beer, they decided, would be inherently tied to supporting the queer community.įor the name, Moore and Pazmino said they never wanted something cutesy or punny. For Moore and Pazmino, this meant that the queer community would be centered in their work, with a percentage of proceeds going to organizations like the Center, Housing Works, and Project Renewal. They wanted a beer that could compete with the Bug Lights and Amstels of the world. Instead, what he and Pazmino wanted to create was, for lack of a better term, a consistent and good beer - not kitschy or campy, and not tied specifically to Pride. They were “these sort of Pride seasonal things, but they were always really comical,” says Moore. Is this possible? What does that look like? What does that mean? How is it impactful?”Īny “queer beers” that existed on the market at the time were mostly one-off brews from small craft brewers or outright novelties. “We went home and we just started talking about it. Together, they were trying to figure out why there wasn’t already a beer positioned more for queer people, which led Moore and Pazmino to realize that gay beer was a project they could take on themselves themselves. “We were just having some beers, and you know, we’re beer drinkers and most of our friends are,” says Pazmino. The pair were inspired while drinking at Julius’, a historic gay bar in New York City that was the site of early “sip-in” protests, where gay men would drink at bars that refused to serve homosexuals. Gay Beer was created by Jon Moore and Jason Pazmino, business partners and boyfriends, in 2017.
Instead, buyers will state clearly that they want a Gay Beer. This is not “Equality” beer or “Love Is Love” beer. The names are, as you can read, explicit and euphemism free. Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewing are among the emerging group of beer producers that are centering queer identity and queer community, whether by highlighting queer brewers, donating some profits to queer charities, or creating queer third spaces - communal spaces distinct from home and work - at a time when they’re disappearing. Only now, some brewers are trying to change that. There’s nothing inherently queer about buying a drink. Yes, there may be cocktails with euphemistic names, but a shot is a shot and a vodka soda is a vodka soda. What you’ll rarely hear, though, is that a gay bar is a gay bar because of the drinks. Some might say it’s the atmosphere, prevalence of rainbow flags or queer performances. For some, it’s the people who make up the customers and staff, for others the history.
Ask what makes a gay bar gay and the answers will vary.