Bar Raid Trends

As anti-gay attitudes arose nationally quoting concerns of public safety and perversion, at the local level gay minorities were increasingly targeted by law enforcement. Establishments frequented by the gay community were victimized with numerous and largely unfounded arrests and fines.  This meant that along with gay bars being targeted for raids, so were gay bathhouses, movie theaters, bookstores, and restaurants.   

As bar raids became normalized amongst the gay community, the frequency increased and became more predictable at certain times of the year. Every year, the week before the Houston Pride Parade in the Montrose neighborhood became a popular time for police to conduct raids in bars, maliciously charging individuals with miscellaneous charges.  In general, most raids were on Friday and Saturday nights at peak business hours, with dozens of people being subject to arrest on any given night. One raid in particular saw arrests in such high numbers that over 500 people found themselves behind bars after "The Old Plantation" was raided on January 7th, 1978. [20]

In a typical bar raid, a group of uniformed police officers ranging from just a few to several dozen would close in on the targeted establishment.  Upon police entering the establishment, patrons would be told to provide identification and exit, where police officers would hand out citations and arrests for charges at the officer’s discretion.  Alternatively, sometimes the officers would stake out in bars out of uniform and hand out citations and arrests. One example of this tactic was the Janurary 18th, 1978 raid on the popular leather bar "The Locker" where police decsended on the establishment both in squad cars and with undercover officers posing as bar patrons which resulted in 8 arrests for failure to provide identification and public intoxication.[21]

The arrests covered a wide range of offenses, most which being petty crimes and misdemeanors, although felonies were not unheard of.  Gay men and women would commonly be cited and arrested for public intoxication, failure to provide proper identification, and homosexual conduct [22].Gay women and drag queens were targeted with cross dressing charges due to clothing articles such as dresses on queens and fly front slacks on women.  In particular raids, oral sodomy and felony sodomy charges were also handed out. 

During this period of increased raid activity a typical night out could very well end in a night spent in a holding cell for a petty crime wrongfully doled out onto unwilling patrons in an otherwise quiet bar.