Won't You Be My Gaybor? - RVA Mag

Contents:

• GAY NIGHTLIFE RICHMOND: BT BARS, CLUBS, & MORE
• WON’T YOU BE MY GAYBOR?
• GAY RICHMOND TRAVEL GUI
• GAY CISG CY OF RICHMOND
• GAY DATG RICHMOND
• RICHMOND GAY RTRANT
• GAY HOOKUP RICHMOND VA - 5 LN GREEN SPACE, OPENS AT SCIENCE MM OF VIRGIA

GAY NIGHTLIFE RICHMOND: BT BARS, CLUBS, & MORE

Gay Nightlife Richmond: Bt Bars, Clubs, & More. This lively cy on the Jam River has a handful of popular gay bars and clubs, pl a few mastream spots wh strong followgs the muny. One of the most gay-iendly neighborhoods is the Fan District near Virgia Commonwealth Universy.

Also, check out the Mm District—cludg the funky Wt End Carytown shoppg area wh s ma drag, Wt Cary Street—and don't miss the cy's gay theater and Pri events. While gay-iendly bars and eateri Richmond may be limed, the reliable on offer excg variety, om game nights and drag shows to we bars wh Mederranean fare. Bar: A cheerful gay lounge and rtrant and one of the cy's olst gay-owned bs, Bar draws plenty of revelers.

WON’T YOU BE MY GAYBOR?

Those lookg for some gay-iendly clubbg and live mic Richmond n explore the few top spots, which feature everythg om ladi' nights wh DJs to belly-dancg class and Lat lounge mic. The popular downtown tablishment Godey's (open to ag 18 and up) is both a gay dance club and rtrant, and 's one of the top venu the state among clubbers, llege stunts, and others. The crowd is a tch-all of the gay muny, very mixed racially and welg toward men and women of all ag.

Utilize the var handy rourc, such as, Diversy Richmond, and Richmond Regn Tourism's gay visor se. If you're planng to vis historic llege town of Charlottville (about 70 mut by r om Richmond), check out the Charlottville Gay Bars and Dg Gui. Here’s one of our articl om that magaze, which Wyatt Gordon exam Richmond’s lack of a gayborhood, and what that means for our cy.

All of which leads to an obv qutn for those of who live Virgia’s pal cy: do Richmond have a “gayborhood”? Many might argue that the pal of the Commonwealth is too small to sta a gayborhood.

GAY RICHMOND TRAVEL GUI

And ’s not jt the gays who have their own neighborhood. Portlandia’s femist bookstore is far more than a fan-favore sketch, ’s a edic terpretatn of Hawthorne, a neighborhood the cy’s southeast, which may be Ameri’s most ncentrated lbian gayborhood. So if size isn’t holdg Richmond’s theoretil gayborhood back, uld be our Southern-ns?

GAY CISG CY OF RICHMOND

Dpe the South’s prejudiced polici towards LGBTQ Amerins, several of the regn’s most inic ci have tablished gayborhoods extribly woven to their morn taptry.

Over a dozen gay bars wh nam like the 700 Club, Rawhi, and the Corner Pocket ngregate around St. ” Ls than a dozen blocks om the Tennsee State Capal and the Ryman Audorium (the origal home of the Grand Ole Opry) li Church Street: Mic Cy’s gay mec.

Nashville’s gayborhood has bee so famoly pro “bears” — slang for large, hairy men that project an image of gged masculy — that a lol news outlet released a “Grizzli Gui to Nashville, ” chroniclg the neighborhood’s top gay bars. Atlanta, the unofficial pal of the “New South, ” may be the gayt of all.

GAY DATG RICHMOND

In the cy’s last mayoral race 2017, Atlanta’s first openly gay cy uncil member, Cathy Woolard, me third. Richmond has never had an openly gay Cy Council member, and our last gay ndidate for mayor was Dirtwoman (who led a mpaign wily rid as a stunt). Could the South’s culture of nflict-avoidance and bad track rerd protectg the rights of mori mean that Richmond’s gayborhood is out there, but hidg below the surface?

RICHMOND GAY RTRANT

Lol civil rights activist and thor of Lbian and Gay Richmond Beth Marschak don’t disagree wh this ia. “It was more of an open-secret style of beg out: people were never gay, they were ‘eccentric.

“Even if you were to walk around Richmond’s gayt neighborhoods, are you gog to see a lot of rabow flags? In the state that chose the term “Massive Ristance” to scribe s stance on school tegratn, should e as no surprise that gay liberatn was only won thanks to a generatn willg to storm the streets, riskg their liv, livelihoods, and — gasp — reputatns.

Ask any gay elr about “the Block” and you’ll quickly give up any notns that prev generatns were prised of ps. In Rabow Richmond, her extensive history of LGBTQ Richmond published on, Cdy Bray tells that “…the gay male cisg scene that veloped or beme more visible the 1940s and 1950s… Mark Kerkorian (a psdonym) relled the ary personnel were ‘ready for anythg’ if they hadn’t picked up a girl by 11 or 12 at night and that there were lots of plac to take them like the basement of the hotel across Broad Street om the USO, or the men’s room the hotel or an alley behd the Colonial Theater. The nickname “the Block” was fally ed the 1950s when the area bound by Ma, First, Frankl, and Fohee Streets earned a sndalo notoriety as a mag for htlers, prostut, and homosexual acts — the latter of which was the police’s top prry.

GAY HOOKUP RICHMOND VA - 5 LN GREEN SPACE, OPENS AT SCIENCE MM OF VIRGIA

Until 1993, Sectn 4-37 of Virgia’s ABC s warned bs owners that “a bar’s license may be spend or revoked if the bar has bee a meetg place and renzvo for ers of nartics, dnks, homosexuals, prostut, pimps, panrers, gamblers or habual law vlators. Renee’s and Rathkellers’ — two gay hotspots — were both shut down 1969 after eyewns ttimony om an unrver ABC agent scribed “men wearg makp, embracg and kissg the fé.

Dpe beg straight himself, Leo Koury realized gays would pay a premium to socialize a bar beyond the reach of the long arm of the highly-prejudiced law.

In orr to tablish a monopoly over Richmond’s gay bars, the “godfather of the gay muny” bribed police, orred a drive-by of a rival club, and stigated the murr of one of s bouncers, which later me to be known as the Dial Tone Murr after his most proment club. Koury’s crim led to his disgraceful downfall, revealg that the tense, state-led persecutn had created a dangero black market for gay spac the cy. The Sexual Revolutn unleashed by the Baby Boomers brought new eedoms, triggered a more laissez-faire approach to homosexuals, and led to a permeatn of queer spac across the cy.