Mainline (Oklahoma City Gay Bar/70's and 80's)

Mainline — Oklahoma City Gay Bar Tee

Long before queer nightlife was easy to find with an app, Mainline was part of the network of gay bars that gave LGBTQ+ people in Oklahoma City somewhere to find one another.

Operating during the 1970s and ’80s, Mainline belonged to a surprisingly active Oklahoma City gay nightlife scene of bars, discos, private clubs, and gathering places. In a conservative state where being openly gay could still mean risking your job, family, or safety, these places offered something considerably more important than a drink.

Mainline catered largely to gay men, with the familiar mix of drinking, dancing, cruising, and socializing that made neighborhood gay bars such important institutions. You might arrive looking for a beer and leave with a date, a new group of friends, or at least considerably more information about what was happening that weekend.

That was how queer community often worked before the internet. The bar was the social network. Flyers announced parties and benefits, bartenders knew everybody, newcomers learned where else to go, and people who might have felt completely isolated elsewhere suddenly discovered an entire world waiting for them after dark.

And doing that in Oklahoma City mattered. Gay history wasn't only being made in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. Places like Mainline allowed queer communities to grow in cities across the country where simply creating a visible gay space could be its own quiet act of defiance.