How the small Strip District gay bar Lucky's has survived

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The basement of the buildg on the rner of Liberty Avenue and Strawberry Way was once the Pegas Lounge, one of the most popular gay clubs the cy of Ptsburgh. Opened June of 1980, the Pegas Lounge was a fixture of gay life the downtown neighborhood until s move to the North Si neighborhood 2009. Owned and operated by David Morrow until 2005 and then Stt Noxon afterward, the Pegas Lounge hosted leadg drag queen performers like Chi Chi LaRue, Tiffany Jon, and Dive as well as Hollywood notabl like Kathleen Turner. The Pegas Lounge is most notable, however, for s many servic to the gay muny over the years, particularly s activism fightg AIDS and providg a safe space for young gay men. Pegas Lounge closed for good 2012 and s former home on Liberty Avenue is currently vant.

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HOW THE STRIP DISTRICT GAY BAR LUCKY’S HAS SURVIVED NSTCTN AND CULTURAL SHIFTS

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In 2019, the Ptsburgh Planng Commissn approved a new velopment loted next door to the grty Strip District gay bar at 1519 Penn Ave. The club has survived a seri of potential tastroph leadg up to the revelopment, cludg the Covid panmic and seismic shifts gay club life. Johns had bee a Ptsburgh gay culture in by that time.

He built a nightclub empire that clud some of the cy’s pneerg gay bars: the Transportatn Club, Hoe of Tiln and Traveler’s Social Club.

E., “ nveniently referenc both the past and future lookg story you were told, and Lucky, beg very well-known to most of gay Ptsburgh, was intified wh the bar and the bar wh him. Many of Ptsburgh’s gay bars succumbed to panmic rtrictns, chang gay club culture and velopment, cludg Cz, which was loted nearby on Smallman Street. In the 1990s, Lucky’s was sort of a bookend a strg of popular gay bars stretchg om Downtown to the Strip.

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A "for sale" sign on the Eagle is g alarm about the potential future of the bar, a rnerstone of SF's gay leather scene. * the eagle gay bar pittsburgh *

As members of the LGBTQ muny put “For Sale” signs on their closets and began socializg more open environments, revelopment projects and the Ptsburgh Cultural Tst’s mpaign to eradite one of the cy’s olst red-light districts took their toll on gay nightlife. Pribich didn’t want to talk about why so many other Ptsburgh gay bars have closed recent years. Her explanatn unrsr how important Lucky’s is not only to Ptsburgh gay culture, but to the cy at large.

Unlike other bars that offer food spreads durg happy hours, Pribich began offerg food to young gay men whose fai turned them away durg the holidays.

“We always did that for gay people who had nowhere to go, ” Pribich says. Type: Gay Bar.

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