The Block (Richmond, Virginia)
The Block is an area in Richmond, Virginia, United States that from the 1940s to the late 1970s hosted an underground gay culture and community, with several bars and venues.
It was the focus of ongoing harassment from the ABC Department because homosexual activity, including serving alcohol to gay people, was illegal and would result in arrest.
The gay community had to build its own society in order to catch up on news, socialize, and hook up.
The establishments in this area had to deal with constant harassment from the ABC Department because serving and participating in any sort of gay activity would result in arrest.
[2] In the late 1960s a couple of well-known bars, Renee's and Rathskeller, were shut down by the ABC department for serving any homosexuals.
The regulations used to persecute the gays are as follows: - Section 4-37 states in part "… a bar's license may be suspended or revoked if the bar has become a meeting place and rendezvous for users of narcotics, drunks, homosexuals, prostitutes, pimps, panderers, gamblers or habitual law violators…" - Section 4 – 98 "…forbids a licensee from employing any person who has the general reputation as a prostitute, homosexual, panderer, gambler, habitual law violator, person of ill repute, user of or peddler of narcotics, or person who drinks to excess or a "B-girl.
[4] These regulations were maintained until 1993 when the anti-gay provisions were removed when the Virginia General Assembly revised the state ABC code.
Bob Swisher, a notable gay writer in Richmond, wrote an article for Our Community Press talking to a serviceman under a pseudonym.
His article explains the type of things that went on at these stations from a first-hand experience: "Mark Kerkorian (a pseudonym) recalled the military personnel were "ready for anything" if they hadn't picked up a girl by 11 or 12 at night and that there were lots of places to take them like the basement of the hotel across Broad Street from the USO, or the men's room in the hotel or an alley behind the Colonial Theater.
After ABC agents reported seeing "men wearing makeup, embracing and kissing in the café" Baldwin had his liquor license taken away and was forced to close for serving gays in March 1969.
Robert Gene Baldwin also owned this establishment, which was located at 3526 West Cary Street, and it faced a similar demise at the hands of the ABC board.
[3] However, Koury's monopoly ended in October 1978 when a grand jury charged him with murder, racketeering, and other offenses that occurred at several gay bars.
The Male Box made headlines when in 1977 a co-conspirator of Koury fired a shotgun into a crowd killing Albert Thomas and injuring two others.
Beth Marschak, Guy Kinman, and Bob Jones, who are major LGBT activists in Richmond, were interviewed by a local gay news source[which?]
