PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – A gay bar in Maine’s largest city has put up new front windows after 28 years of covering its smashed glass with plywood in the wake of homophobic vandalism.
Blackstones, in Portland’s West End, opened in the 1980s, long before the city gained a widespread reputation as a gay-friendly city. Vandals repeatedly smashed the front windows with rocks and bricks, and the bar’s owners boarded the windows with plywood and plexiglass in 1991.
The Bangor Daily News reports bar manager Carl Currie pulled down the plywood on Sunday and behind it found old shards of glass that had been there for nearly three decades. Currie says the change came because “we’re at a point now where the bar is safe.” He adds the newfound light is nice.
