Interactive Roanoke Virgia Gay Bars Lbian Clubs GayBarMaps VA

Contents:

• THE BEST ROANOKE GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS ROANOKE
•  VIRGIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• MAN WHO OPENED FIRE ON ROANOKE GAY BAR TWO S AGO DI
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• GAYS ROANOKE ED TO HI WHO THEY WERE — UNTIL A ADLY BAR SHOOTG
• MAN NVICTED 2000 VIRGIA GAY BAR SHOOTG DI PRISON
• GAY DATG ROANOKE
• GAY FRIENDLY AREAS VIRGIA
• ROANOKE GAY BAR REMEMBERS SHOOTG 16 YEARS LATER

THE BEST ROANOKE GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS ROANOKE

Ronald Gay(None)Published: Jan. (WDBJ) - The man nvicted of openg fire at a Roanoke gay bar has Virgia Department of Correctns said Ronald Gay died of natural last Saturday at a was servg back-to-back life sentenc for the shootg at Backstreet Cafe Sept. Lol NewsRonald Gay killed one person and hurt six others on Sept.

22, 2000Ronald Gay durg urt proceedgs eher 2000 or 2001 (WSLS 10)ROANOKE, Va.

– The man who killed one person and shot six others at a Roanoke gay bar more than 20 years ago has died, acrdg to the Virgia Department of Gay, 75, died on Saturday, Jan.

 VIRGIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

(WSLS 10)On July 23, 2001, Gay was sentenced to four nsecutive life sentenc for his crim and prr to beg hospalized was at Deerfield Correctnal Center Southampton County.

MAN WHO OPENED FIRE ON ROANOKE GAY BAR TWO S AGO DI

She would later tell a crowd urtroom that she would never be the mut, police picked up the shooter, Ronald Edward Gay, then 53, who ma no effort to pe. When they terviewed him, he railed agast gay people, sayg that they were “abomatns, ” that his last name was related to a bunch of “sickos, ” and that a higher power had told him: “It’s eher you or them” — meang he eher had to kill himself or kill homosexuals. So he took his pistol to Backstreet, and when he heard gay men “talkg their sissified talk, ” he jt uldn’t take .

(Gay died January 2022 while imprisoned for multiple life sentenc. ”Jt two years earlier, lol police had raid a park popular for gay cisg and arrted men for solicg unrver officers. “It’s a lot of the historic gay bars and nightclubs, but also talkg about sex work, like the old red-light district, ” explaed G.

”In 2018, openly gay clergyman Joe Cobb, then 56, ran for cy uncil.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

Still, he wasn’t sure whether Roanoke was ready to elect a gay man. Not only did Cobb bee Roanoke’s first openly gay elected official, but he garnered more vot than any other uncil member, which, to his surprise, ma him the cy’s new vice his role, he hears om many LGBTQ people, and the recent attack at Colorado’s Club Q, has left some rattled, pecially trans people. But efforts sce to be more visible and build relatnships have also helped foster a level of acceptance Roanoke that was unimagable Cobb ran for reelectn this November, he was joed by three new gay ndidat.

Praisg Cobb and the two new gay uncil members, he said, “In this time, when nservativ have embraced anti-LGBTQ rhetoric as a motivator for their base, they persevered. ”A gay first lady? A gay first lady?

The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag. (Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple.

GAYS ROANOKE ED TO HI WHO THEY WERE — UNTIL A ADLY BAR SHOOTG

They married 2020, five years after they opened the Front Porch, which quickly beme a statn The Front Porch has been flyg a Pri flag on s pat sce 2016, not long after a gunman killed 49 people a gay bar Orlando.

Waybourn was print of the Dallas Gay Alliance when sued Parkland Memorial Hospal for failg to provi readily available medic to AIDS patients.

MAN NVICTED 2000 VIRGIA GAY BAR SHOOTG DI PRISON

In 1991, he lnched the Gay and Lbian Victory Fund (now the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund) to elect openly gay policians to office. He served as managg director of the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn, or GLAAD, which he helped turn to a natnal group.

He owned gay newspapers Hoton, Atlanta, New York and Washgton. “I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic.

GAY DATG ROANOKE

To the activist, feels like a step backward after a lifetime of fightg for gay pack the seats at the Board of Zong Appeals hearg hosted at Grace Epispal Church. “I have que a few gay iends, clients and a fay member, and I have patronized a gay-owned rtrant for years, ” he whether the Washers are tryg to remake The Plas to their image of Ameri — Whe, nservative, Christian — Melissa said, “I n see where you’re g om. "It was his way of payg tribute to his Verizon -worker Danny Overstreet, who was killed 15 years ago at a gatherg spot for gay people a closeted cy.

Backstreet was a gay bar at a time when the sexual orientatn of s ctomers remaed hidn — a haven for an unrground culture. 22, 2000, when Ronald Edward Gay, a former Mare who had been tnted for his name and hated , walked , orred a beer, spotted two men embracg — and opened fire.

”Tucker nied that he was gay an terview wh the Roanoke Tim, sistg that he was at the bar wh a girliend and didn’t know any of the other people there that then, few uld have predicted the seismic chang that were g to the untry, to Virgia and to Roanoke — on same-sex marriage, on gays servg the ary, on the emergence of openly gay athlet, chief executiv and celebri. The bar still ters to outsirs this cy of nearly 100, 000 southwt Virgia, but they are mostly punk rockers and metalheads, rather than gay men and so, Marc wanted to mark the 15th anniversary of the shootg, jt as Backstreet had done on the 10th anniversary 2010. It forced him to be who he was — a gay man a straight world.

GAY FRIENDLY AREAS VIRGIA

”His district human rourc manager weled him back to the office, tellg him: “I have a lot of iends who are gay. ”It was the begng of a shift public attu that has altered what means to be gay Roanoke — and much of the Uned Stat. It felt ls like a watershed than a warng, even after Gay plead guilty to the rampage and was sentenced to four life sentenc at the state’s Marn Correctnal Center.

”Much of Virgia remaed a tough place to be openly gay the years afterward. The proliferatn of datg s and phone apps such as Tr and Grdr transformed hook-up culture and greatly lsened the need for Backstreet and other gay meetg plac. The wispread availabily of LGBT books onle and at large chas put Roanoke’s only gay bookstore out of bs.

And there were signs of greater tolerance: the lnch of a transgenr medil specialty at Cariln Clic, wtern Virgia’s biggt health-re provir, and the Roanoke Athletic Club’s cisn to offer a fay membership to a gay uple and their son after was sued for the time of the shootg, some of Roanoke’s gay rints were so private about their sexualy that they wore masks to public vigils to protect their inty. “People started to realize, wa a mute, their doctor is gay, their attorney is gay.

ROANOKE GAY BAR REMEMBERS SHOOTG 16 YEARS LATER

There’s jt one difference: Backstreet is no longer a gay old Backstreet didn’t go down whout a fight. “They’re a fickle crowd, ” Marc said of Backstreet’s longtime gay clientele.

“Gus what: The gay muny left Backstreet a long time ago. It kept a gay landmark open.