“I’m just waiting on friends,” a timid Cornett replied. An hour later, Cornett was still sitting there, so the guard asked him to come with him into the bar.
The young gay man accepted the request and found the atmosphere inside the bar reassuring and welcoming. Then and nowĪ lot has changed with LGBT issues in the 31 years since Cornett visited his first gay bar- even more has changed since Toledo’s first known gay bar, The Scenic, was opened in the 1920s. Today, Toledo boasts five - soon to be six - LGBT-friendly bars.Īt the time it closed in 1997, The Scenic Bar, at the corner of Erie and Monroe Streets, was the oldest gay bar in Ohio. Many gay and lesbian establishments have closed in previous years, including notables such as Rustler, Caesar’s Showbar, Ripcord, Hooterville Station, Scaramouche, Blue Jeans, Outskirts, Gilda’s and the Westgate Lounge. Toledo has fewer gay bars now than in the past, largely because most taverns could now be considered safe places for the LGBT community to frequent. “Most places are LGBT-friendly now,” said Lexi Hayman-Staples, who operated the West Toledo lesbian bar Outskirts with her mother Johanna from 2008-14.
