T-Club

Libuše Jarcovjáková

T-Club by Libuše Jarcovjáková shows photographs taken between 1983-85 in the legendary LGBTQ bar in Prague.

Upcoming book will provide a unique insight into the underground life of the club T-Club during the totalitarianism of the 1980s Czechoslovakia. It’s the first comprehensive photographic publication mapping life in the famous LGBTQ club.

During the early 1980s the slightly more relaxed atmosphere of the communist dictatorship meant places could be opened where people that majority society was not keen on seeing could meet. This involved gays, lesbians and transsexuals. Sex between two adults of the same sex was legalised in 1961. Nevertheless, in practice the situation of the LGBT community remained pretty unchanged. Anyone committing acts of gross indecency could still find themselves banged up. It was no easy matter coming out to family and friends and the ubiquitous State Security Service (StB) availed itself of these fears. But life goes on, albeit tinged by fear. Libuše was a regular visitor to the T-Club, situated in Prague city centre only a few metres from the dreaded Bartolomějská Street, where the StB had its HQ.

T-Club was a place where you could meet beautiful young men and beautiful young women. Effeminate "B´s“ and respectable-looking gentlemen, who rebounded from their families. Female footballers, waiters, taxi drivers and most probably the secret police too. Drugstore assistants, postmen or train conductors. Photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková was regular guest there. She was part of the family of people who were seeking for freedom without fear and borders, which were that time really easy to cross.