NYC: Married Couple Opens 'Lambda Lounge,' Send Gay Bar In Harlem Created For Black LGBTQ Patrons

Contents:

• CLUB LAMBDA BROOKLYN IS NYC�S NEWT GAY BAR
• NYC: MARRIED COUPLE OPENS 'LAMBDA LOUNGE,' SEND GAY BAR IN HARLEM CREATED FOR BLACK LGBTQ PATRONS
• HARLEM’S BLACK, GAY BARS ARE THRIVG THE MIDDLE OF A PANMIC
• GAY MUNICH

CLUB LAMBDA BROOKLYN IS NYC�S NEWT GAY BAR

Charl: So people ll the “gay cheers” (lghs). Now we’re, we’re broang our market segment to not jt target mal, but pretty much all the letters wh the LGBTQ+ Some straight women feel safer attendg gay bars.

(Imag via Instagram) In an era where gay bars appear to be a relic of the past, and Black owned gay bars are all but extct most major ci, the Black LGBTQ muny New York Cy will now have two nightlife optns created specifilly wh our muny md. Alibi, a Black gay bar loted Harlem, was saved om closure last month by crowdfundg.

NYC: MARRIED COUPLE OPENS 'LAMBDA LOUNGE,' SEND GAY BAR IN HARLEM CREATED FOR BLACK LGBTQ PATRONS

Unfortunately, we never had the opportuny to ga any 've been bearg the st of gettg the place, then gettg the place renovated and drsg up the way we wanted to drs up — and you know we're gay, so we tend to be a ltle extravagant. So we created three sectns outsi of the lotns wh lounge uch, all the tabl are LED and we provi gam like Jenga to keep an entertament are now the send existg Black-owned gay nightlife space New York Cy; had you all worked wh Alexi Mko of Alibi? In se you thought every penntly-owned gay bar had shut s doors due to Covid, meet the persistent and visnary married uple behd Lambda Lounge — Harlem’s only Ain Amerin owned LGBTQ lounge.

Charl Hugh and Richard Solomon are swched on and self-created Black entreprenrs who are more than well aware of the importance of LGBTQ-owned nightlife spac, LGBTQ spac that wele people of lor, and Black-owned LGBTQ all, they me to each other's orb at Chi Chi's — a Wt Village gay bar on historic Christoper Street that was welg of Black men a way which wasn't and still isn't mon the Village and many of our "gay goln . @lemonbrandsGay spac are important for both Hugh and Solomon.

Hugh and Solomon wanted to reach back further and they disvered the history of the Lambda symbol durg the immediate post-Stonewall era to signify gay liberatn. It's a gay Cheers. But both agreed that a nightclub held a certa attractn for gay men as a "home away om home.

HARLEM’S BLACK, GAY BARS ARE THRIVG THE MIDDLE OF A PANMIC

The bar had prevly been 95% gay male but they've seen an crease lbians, trans folks, and even some straight women.

“What I love about Black people, there’s a rilience , and if you’re Black and gay, ’s even stronger, ” he explaed. At plac like Alibi, they n feel at down the street om Alibi — a quick, five-mute walk so close that hoppg a r would feel like a waste of gas — is Lambda Lounge, the neighborhood’s only other Black-owned gay bar.

GAY MUNICH

“I really wanted the Black muny to have good optns, to not only have to go to Chelsea for a gay bar. We have a lol gay bar!

”Though the gradual shift om summer’s warmth to wter’s chill has put an end to that specific sense of outdoor mararie, Alibi and Lambda still offer a wele change of pace om the gay bars of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Not only are Mko, Hugh, and Solomon an spiratn for lnchg succsful bs as out and proud Black gay men, but what they’ve created — a safe space for queer people a neighborhood not typilly known for embracg s LGBTQ+ populatn — has life-changg agre.

I jt knew that if Alibi had closed down, was gog to be the same script, the same story: Oh, another gay, Black bs nnot survive. "While we’ll never know whether Lambda would have opened if Alibi had shut down, we do know that havg two gay, Black-owned bs is always better than one. “I feel honored to be a part of our queer history, ” Hugh said when asked about this new gayborhood.