王大仁等名人讲述自己的第一次同志酒吧经历

For generations of gays and lesbians, especially those for whom walking into the sometime secret and darkened doorway of one was often the first step in the coming-out process, gay bars have long held a significant place in their personal histories.

对于好几代的同性恋来说，同性恋酒吧一直在他们的个人生活经历中占据重要地位——对有些人来说，走进有时隐蔽阴暗的酒吧出入口是出柜过程的第一步。

That was never more apparent than in the days following the mass shootings at Pulse, the gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in which 49 patrons lost their lives, and which prompted many to recall the nights they had spent in similar settings, and the sense of community they found there.

在佛罗里达州奥兰多同性恋夜店Pulse发生大规模枪击案之后，这显得尤为明显。49名客人在那起枪击案中丧生。很多人开始回忆他们在类似的同志场所度过的夜晚，以及他们在那里找到的归属感。

“I can’t tell you how many bars and clubs I’ve been to over the years,” the CNN newsman Anderson Cooper told The New York Times last week. “Every gay man in America remembers the first time they went to a gay bar and how they felt.”

“我数不清这些年共去过多少酒吧和夜店，”CNN的新闻主持安德森·库珀(Anderson Cooper)上周对《纽约时报》说，“美国的每一位同性恋都记得自己第一次去同性恋酒吧的情形和当时的感受。”

“I don’t want to sound like I’m speaking for the gay community,” said Mr. Cooper, who publicly acknowledged his sexual orientation in 2012. “But it certainly resonates very deeply for me.”

“我不想让自己听起来像是在代表同性恋群体说话，”库珀说。2012年，他公开承认自己的性取向。“但它无疑引起了我的深刻共鸣。”

Below, some other prominent gays and lesbians recall what gay bars meant to them as they began to embrace their sexuality, some eagerly and some nervously.

在下文中，其他一些著名的同性恋人士回忆起在他们开始接受自己的性取向时，同性恋酒吧对他们的意义——有些是充满渴望，有些是感到紧张。

Jane Lynch

简·林奇(Jane Lynch)

Actress

女演员

The first gay bar I ever went to was the Cubbyhole when it was on Hudson Street in the West Village. It would have been around 1984, which made me 23-ish and I was fresh out of graduate school. I looked very straight and very Midwestern cornfed. I walked around the block before I got the nerve to go in because the lady bouncers looked so fearsome and eyed me suspiciously.

我去的第一个同性恋酒吧是Cubbyhole，当时它在西村的哈得孙街上。好像是在1984年，我大概23岁左右，研究生刚毕业。当时我看起来一点儿都不像同性恋，带着美国中西部的朴实感。我在那个街区转悠了一会儿，才鼓起勇气走了进去，因为那里的女保安看起来很吓人，用怀疑的眼光打量我。

When I finally tried to walk in, the door lady stopped me and asked: “Do you know where you are? This is a lesbian bar.”

最后我想走进去时，看门的女士拦住我问道：“你知道这是什么地方吗？这儿是女同性恋酒吧。”

“Yeah, I know,” I said nonchalantly, as if I’d been walking into dyke bars since the beginning of time.

“是的，我知道，”我故作镇静地说，就好像我经常去女同酒吧似的。

Rosie O’Donnell

罗茜·奥唐奈(Rosie O’Donnell)

Actress and comedian

女演员、喜剧演员

It was 1980, maybe 1981. I was — 19, living at my dad’s home in Commak, Long Island. My neighbor was housing a relative from England for the summer. We were both gay newbies. There was only one gay club that we knew of. I think it was called Thunders. In French the word for lightning is éclair. How I remembered that from ninth grade French? No idea. I asked my dad if I could use the car to go out. “Where to?” he asked (at 10 p.m. on a Friday night). “The bakery,” I said, “to get éclairs.” Silence, and then, he said “O.K.” Peter and I drove the dented white Volare to the strip mall in Commack. We danced the night away — drinking Bud Light. I felt happy and free. On the way home we made sure to stop at the Candlelight diner — around 2 a.m. — to pick up éclairs. Dad was clueless. From that day on, “bakery” was our code word for gay bar.

那是在1980年，也可能是1981年。我19岁，住在长岛康马克(Commak)我爸爸家里。邻居家的一位英国亲戚夏天来这里小住。我们都是同性恋“菜鸟”。只知道附近有一个同性恋俱乐部，名叫雷声(Thunders)。“闪电”在法语中叫éclair。我怎么会从九年级法语课上记住这个单词呢？我也不知道。我问爸爸我是否可以开车出去。爸爸问：“去哪儿？”（当时是周五晚上10点）。“去面包房，”我说，“买点巧克力泡芙（éclairs在英语中是巧克力泡芙的意思——译注）。”爸爸沉默了一会儿，说道，“好吧。”我和彼得(Peter)开着有凹痕的白色沃拉尔汽车(Volare)来到康马克的单排商业街。我们一晚上都在跳舞——喝百威淡啤(Bud Light)。我觉得开心得不得了。在回家的路上，我们在Candlelight Diner买了巧克力泡芙，当时大概是凌晨2点。我爸爸毫不知情。从那天起，“面包房”就成了我们去同性恋酒吧的暗号。

Alexander Wang

王大仁(Alexander Wang)

Fashion designer

时尚设计师

The first gay club I went to was probably when I was 16. It was called City Nights in San Francisco. I remember I would have to get a fake ID as it was an 18-and-over club. But all my friends were older at that point because I lived by myself in S.F. and made friends from just going out. Night life was my escape from the day to day. I would go every Thursday: hip-hop night. I was very lucky to have the community I grew up in be so supportive.

我第一次去同性恋俱乐部很可能是在16岁时。那个俱乐部叫城市夜晚(City Nights)，在旧金山。我记得我必须弄个假身份，因为那个俱乐部只接待18岁以上的成年人。不过当时我所有的朋友年纪都比我大，因为我一个人住在旧金山，朋友都是在外面玩的时候认识的。夜生活是我逃避乏味日常生活的一种方法。我每周四都去，那是嘻哈音乐之夜。我很庆幸自己在成长过程中能有这样一个社区给予我支持。

Don Lemon

唐·莱蒙(Don Lemon)

CNN anchor

CNN主播

I was deeply closeted in college. Everybody was. It was the 1980s, it was the South, and people didn’t come out then as quickly as they do now. With my friends, mostly straight frat guys, I would frequent a popular college bar at L.S.U. called the Bengal on Highland Road in Baton Rouge, La. But inevitably I would sneak off, very carefully, to the bars down the road, just past the straight bar. One was named Xanthus, an “alternative” bar where the bouncer was a girl named Big Hair. (By the way, Hair and I are still friends to this day).

大学的时候，我是深柜。大家都是这样。那是在20世纪80年代的美国南部，大家都不像现在这么快出柜。我和朋友们（大多是兄弟会的直男）常去路易斯安那州立大学(L.S.U.)的一个很受欢迎的酒吧，名叫Bengal，它在路易斯安那州巴吞鲁日市的高地路(Highland Road)上。不过，我总会非常小心地偷偷溜到街上的其他酒吧里，就在那个异性恋酒吧附近。其中一个酒吧名叫Xanthus，它很“另类”，保镖是一个名叫“爆炸头”(Big Hair)的女孩（顺便说一句，我和“爆炸头”直到现在仍是好友）。

The dance floor there was filled with punk rockers, bow heads (sorority girls), gay boys, lesbians and every kind of person under the sun, and I loved it. But the flat-out gay bar was a bit harder to navigate because it was across the street and one could easily be spotted entering and leaving. After I finally built up the liquid courage to do it, I never turned back. The eclectic music, the light show, the cute guys milling about, the club kids dancing on speakers: It was gay heaven! I didn’t have to pretend anymore. I was finally at home.

那里的舞池充满朋克摇滚乐手、戴蝴蝶结的联谊会女孩、同性恋男孩、女同性恋，以及各种各样的人，我很喜欢那里。不过，那个最张扬的同性恋酒吧很难溜进去，因为它就在街对面，进进出出很容易被发现。我最终借着酒胆走了进去，然后再也没有回头。那里不拘一格的音乐、灯光秀、四处走动的帅哥、在扬声器上跳舞的夜店男女：这里是同性恋的天堂！我再也不用掩饰了。我终于找到了家的感觉。