![]() ![]() ![]() Hap was a lawyer by trade, but friends say he was also a developer, a conservationist and an activist. “The one drink turned into a lifelong quest for me,” Joan said.Īnnalisa Peace came to know Hap while working at The Greenhouse, one of the many businesses he developed. ![]() When she turned 18, she took him up on the offer and they quickly became lifelong friends. Joan remembers Hap walking over to her and inviting her to visit San Antonio Country to enjoy a drink on him. “I originally met Hap disco dancing with other high schoolers down on the River Walk,” Joan Duckworth said. But he also had a hand in developing some of the most well-known places in town. There would be no Bonham Exchange or San Antonio Country without Hap Veltman. ‘The fairy godmother of San Antonio’: Who was Hap Veltman? It was demolished soon after, but it didn’t take long for him to open a new club. Hap sold the San Antonio Country nightclub in 1981. “That’s still what a large part of our community still embraces at the clubs that we have today.” “It really was about happiness and bringing the community together,” Salcido said. Salcido is too young to have ever gone to San Antonio Country. “That’s where they organized, that’s where they planned our marches and that’s where they planned our demonstrations that were really leading into the civil rights movement for the LGBTQ+ community.” “These establishments acted as community centers,” said Robert Salcido, Executive Dir. They were places where people could be themselves. Those we talked to say it’s because bars and nightclubs were about more than drinking and dancing. So, why bars and nightclubs? Oftentimes when we talk about the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights, we talk about these establishments. (KSAT Explains Military hearing folder San Antonio Country Nightclub) While it was raided periodically by police, it was thought to be a safe place where gay men and women didn’t have to hide. Paul’s Grove opened in the 1920s and by the 1960s and 1970s it was a microcosm of queer life in San Antonio, Gohlke said. And one of the most well-known was a spot near Helotes named Paul’s Grove, also known as The Country. Gohlke’s research also shows that while there were some smaller clubs and bars in town that would allow openly gay and lesbian customers, most of the gay-friendly venues were on the outskirts of town. “Scholarly research has shown that many of the armed forces personnel during the second World War were gay men and women who had this opportunity to come out of their rural hometowns and go to big cities,” Gohlke said. Melissa Gohlke, Assistant Archivist at the University of Texas at San Antonio and a local LGBTQ+ historian, attributes a lot of growth in San Antonio’s gay and lesbian nightlife scene to our position as a military city during World War II. But it is far from the first gay bar in San Antonio. “It’s a lot of pressure to always be thinking about how you look on the outside, every single day.” The California governor’s daughter considers herself lucky that her upbringing was different.‘Insulated from discrimination’: The bars before the Bonham ‘‘She’s in an industry where that’s all anyone focuses on,” says Schwarzenegger, whose favorite splurge is cereal. “It’s really important to know what is and isn’t real.” A recent example of someone taking things to the extreme is Disney star Demi Lovato, who entered rehab for body image issues. “It’s unrealistic to compare yourself to models, who are most of the time airbrushed,” says the 20-year-old USC student. Rock’s main message is directed to young girls who don’t necessarily fit the size-2 mold seen in magazines and on screen. The daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarze- negger talks all about her strug- gles with weight in Rock What You’ve Got (Hyperion, $22.99), which she’ll discuss at 4 p.m. You won’t catch Katherine Schwarzenegger on the latest fad diet. ![]()
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