The Dallas location of the Eagle originally opened in the mid-1990s. Before it closed in 2020, the Eagle was regarded as the leather bar in town, and the time-honored signals and codes and watchful staff members made it a uniquely safe space. It’s not uncommon to find military veterans in a leather bar, and leather groups welcome straight as well as queer members. Rather, it welcomes those who are into the feeling, look, and smell of leather. Leather falls within the broader kink community, but it’s not BDSM. But within any city’s gay scene, leather bars stand out. Gay bars have always been special places of refuge and activism. To its regulars, the Eagle was the only bar in Dallas where they could freely and properly express themselves. Patrons shot pool near a rectangular bar that served cheap beer and Jell-O shots. Glitter from performing drag queens snowed onto the vests and pants of the leather-clad crowd, and trophy cases were crowded with prizes from leather pageants and photos from cookouts and tournaments. The Eagle was a place of red lights, hairy bellies, leashes, and pup masks. But there is no place like the Dallas Eagle. There are clubs where you can groove to Latin tracks or square-dance. One of the few remaining lesbian bars in the country, Sue Ellen’s, is there, as well as an energetic shack known as the Tin Room. You can find plenty of gay bars in Dallas’s Oak Lawn neighborhood.
