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The Daily Wildcat

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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

    LGBT nightlife hits the high notes in Tucson

    Bartenders Chris Montoya, left, and Blake Valenzuela wait for more customers late Thursday night at IBTs bar on Fourth Avenue.
    Bartenders Chris Montoya, left, and Blake Valenzuela wait for more customers late Thursday night at IBT’s bar on Fourth Avenue.

    Ladies, I found the perfect men – and they’re not interested in us. One of them lounged across the table from me: impeccable style, handsome and keeping his gaze eye level. And he had more to remark on than that girl’s ass over there or how many points what’s-his-name scored Sunday night. I was in heaven – and I was in a gay bar.

    So I didn’t find the love of my life, but I found the chill, the rave and the sketchy LGBT establishments hidden around T-town. My first stop was Woody’s, and let me say it was hard for the other establishments to prove they had what I was looking for afterward. Tucked on the east side of Oracle, it took three U-turns to find the place, but once I was in, there wasn’t much chance of leaving.

    Lights gleamed along the bar roof and hung from canopies spaced along the patio; cushioned chairs circled underneath. A wooden bar stood in the middle of the covered patio, and cast-iron table sets hovered along the perimeter. Like any bar, there was a pool table and unused dance room.

    “”If you want to go dance, go downtown,”” said Jonathan Groth, a recent UA grad. “”It is gay friendly and you can do what you want, but it’s not the hype and it’s not the stereotypical go-to-a-gay-bar with the rave setting.””

    Groth vouched that the bartenders are as bright as the bulbs overhead.

    “”The service is incredible,”” he said. “”I’ve never had to wait for a drink.””

    On Fourth Avenue, you’ve got IBT’s. The entrance is hard to miss, but the waiters, clad in their tighty-whities, aren’t.

    “”I think it’s a really good place to immerse yourself in a different lifestyle,”” said Kim Collins, an ecology, evolutionary biology and classics senior.

    If you’re considering taking a stroll over to Yard Dog on Stone Avenue, stop while you’re still considering – unless you’re partial to the 50+ crowd and enjoy drinking in your closet.

    But Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness on Broadway is worth more than a shot.

    “”It’s very LGBT friendly,”” said Scott Rising, a retail and consumer sciences sophomore. “”I can come here and just dance once a week and have a good time.””

    Your skin vibrates from the bass; strobe lights refract against the chain-link fence, barring the 21-year-olds from the not-there-yet, and bodies stick together in clumps on the dance floor as couples mount tables for a go-go-esque experience. It’s a sweaty, sexy dance machine mess. The bathroom was the only real spoiler.

    “”I’m a little scared every time I go in,”” Rising said.

    When I snuck into the single unisex bathroom, two women waltzed through the lockless door while I washed my hands and got down to business as I finished drying.

    “”Pee together, stay together forever, you know,”” pre-nursing junior Paul Galvan said.

    Yeah, I guess.

    Galvan’s word to describe the joint? “”Homo-excited.””

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