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In 2012, when Jan Koren, the last of the gang passed away, a friend told the Sentinel, “The thing he did is, he created a family in the gay community.” And thus ended the “Hodge era.” But Orlando and its nightlife continued to thrive. If this could happen to Bill, it could happen to anyone.’’įive years later, Hodge, who was HIV-positive, died of liver failure at 42. He had a single lover who died nine months ago in a traffic accident. And then, since it was 1987 and people still viewed AIDS as a scourge, Hodge said of Miller, “He was not promiscuous. “Bill worked hard for this place so gays would have somewhere they could go and be themselves,” Hodge told the Sentinel. Friends wanted to keep the cause of Miller’s death a secret, but Hodge felt it was an opportunity to educate the community. “AIDS Kills the Co-owner of Homosexual Club,” the Orlando Sentinel reported. In 1987, Miller himself died of AIDS at the age of 53. Miller, Hodge and the rest of the gang raised funds for AIDS awareness, cared for young people who were rejected by their families, and continued to create spaces where the community could flourish. The parties continued but so did the loss. In fact, the LGBT community there - like those many other places - was also touched by tragedy, including several murders and suspicious fires at gay-friendly establishments.Īnd then in the 80s, the AIDS epidemic ravaged the community. Parliament House is still active today, and held vigils for those murdered at Pulse. “Bill thought publicity just reminded the mainstream public that The Parliament House was there, and that put the patrons in danger.” “Publicity, even positive publicity was not desirable,” said Wanzie. In 1978, he pitched a show to Bill Miller, to play at The Parliament House, and was excited that the local paper had agreed to cover it, but Miller was wary. Michael Wanzie, a playwright and activist, also remembered the good times, but says it wasn’t all fun and games.
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“I mean, people in silky shirts, and pocketless pants, big bell-bottoms, lots of polyester. “It was the seventies,” said Doug Ba’asar, recalling those years in the documentary, 40 Years of Parliament House. The club has featured drag shows, celebrity female impersonators, and played host to the Miss Florida Female Impersonator Pageant throughout. The Parliament House, a well-known Orlando institution today calls itself “the down-and-dirty-diva” of the gay nightclub scene. In 1973, Miller opened El Goya, and in 1975, the pair turned a bankrupt motel into the Parliament House, a gay resort and entertainment destination with 120 rooms, a pool, several bars, and a disco room. In 1972, Miller and Hodge opened what some considered Orlando’s first “real” gay bar (because The Palace Club was a bottle club), the Diamond Head. Miller and Hodge, together with three more bar owners, named Jan Koren, Wally Wood and Sue Hanna, became known as The Gay and Lesbian Gang, for their work not only as proprietors, but as community leaders. Disney World’s 1971 opening spurred a decade of growth in the formerly sleepy city, and the gay community grew right along with it. The Palace Club, located just a few miles from where Pulse is now, was owned by Bill Miller and Mike Hodge who were integral to bringing together a gay community in Central Florida.Ī flyer advertising early central florida gay clubs Parliament House, El Goya, and Palace Club. That was also the year the first gay bar opened in Orlando.
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In 1969, a police raid at the Stonewall Inn rallied the gay community of New York and marked the birth of the gay rights movement. On New Year’s Eve 1967, undercover police at the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles beat several patrons and arrested them for “lewd” kissing. Many states had laws prohibiting touching and kissing, and police often raided gay bars on various pretexts. But they were targets as well, at times officially. Gay bars have historically been sanctuaries, places where gay people didn’t have to hide, where they could meet and love. The symbolism of an attack at a gay bar is potent, considering the central role such spaces have played in the history of the LGBT community. One of the members of the drag ensemble, Magic Mushroom & Company, which would appear regularly at The Place Club in 1969, from the LGBT Museum of Central FloridaĪs the cable-news noise around the Orlando shooting tumbles through discussions of ISIS, LGBT rights, and gun control, the gay community in Orlando is left with a once safe space made terrifying.