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Charlotte Pride


voyager12

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I read in the latest Q Notes that Salisbury City Council recently passed sexual orientation and identitiy characteristic protections for city employees. Salisbury. As the largest city in the Carolinas, Charlotte really needs to catch up. I am going to start thinking up ideas to present to our new council. Perhaps I should start a petition or something in that vein, any suggestions would be helpful.

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No I did not. This news is even more surprising since Salisbury-Rowan School Board voted to ban all extra curic clubs last year to prevent GSA's from forming. I assumed the opposition also had a strong presence on City Council. I will start with contacting all Charlotte City Council members and list all the cities and towns in NC that have these protections. There are several besides the liberal enclaves.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The building currently housing the community center is already under the knife. They are still open. The last I heard the board was considering a few different locations, anyone heard more details?

Nothing substantial. I did read somewhere that they were looking at another place somewhere still in the Plaza Midwood area, though. I wish I could remember where I read it. But basically they did have a specific place in mind, but weren't too sure yet that they would be able to get it. At the time of the article, they were planning on having a meeting within a day or two to discuss it and make some kind of decision. I haven't heard more since then. And sorry for my crappy memory, but that really was the gist of the article. It was probably something I read in the Observer, so maybe do a search on their website. :blush:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I heard recently that the new property owners are working with the community center board to make a deal so they can stay in the current building. I hope it's true. It's lucky that the owners have been so cooperative and openminded and there has also been strong sentiment from the neighborhood at large to keep the center in place. I was also wondering if anyone here had the history on the gay bookstore that used to operate in Dilworth years ago? Was it called "Friend of Dorothy" and located across from PaperSkscraper on East? Did it pre-date PS and why did it close?

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I don't believe it was called "Friend of Dorothy". I don't remember the name. This is really testing my memory. Early 90's. I believe Paper Skyscraper was still behind 300 East at that time. I think a women named Sue Henry ran the place. The store had a lot of books, magazines and out of town gay papers, some incense and rainbow stuff. No porn. I'm thinking that White Rabbit opened beside Liaison's and they may have put it out of business.

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I don't believe it was called "Friend of Dorothy". I don't remember the name. This is really testing my memory. Early 90's. I believe Paper Skyscraper was still behind 300 East at that time. I think a women named Sue Henry ran the place. The store had a lot of books, magazines and out of town gay papers, some incense and rainbow stuff. No porn. I'm thinking that White Rabbit opened beside Liaison's and they may have put it out of business.

Yes there was a Friends of of Dorothy. The bookstore was called Friends of Dorothy and preceded Sue Henry's store by at least a decade. I knew Sue from another organization and she did good things, but the Friend's of Dorothy bookstore broke new ground in Charlotte in the 1970s long before Sue would have been old enough (I believe) to own a place. It was the only place in Charlotte to purchase Gay (non-erotic) literature at the time. The next closest place was in Greensboro at White Rabbit. (they later opened a place in CLT)

The FoD was located in Dilworth at the time but keep in mind that when it was located there, Dilworth did not resemble the place that it is today. Most of the homes there were boarded up and it was considered a high crime area. This was typical of Gay establishments at the time as they tended to locate in a place where they could be left alone. Oleens, a long time Charlotte drag bar and the Club South bath house was also located in Dilworth. (if you can believe that. lol) The strip mall where Paper Skyscraper was located was not there and 300 East was an empty house. 300 East was once known as The White Horse and was located where the East Blvd Bar and Grill is located today. Interestingly enough, the first restaurant in Charlotte that was located in an old house was called Josh's and was the house two down from 300 East closer to S. Blvd. It was also semi-Gay. (required in CLT in the late 1970s.) I think it closed around 1984-85 or so.

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Where was TAGS? I remember the name and hearing about it, but never really knew what/where it was. Wasn't there a gay bar also somewhere off Eastway near where Electric Company was? Is that where TAGS was?

I worked nearby later in years at Glory Days, an under 21 club in the strip center in that area but the other clubs were gone by the time this one opened.

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^Tags opened in 1980 and was located on the Plaza right at the intersection of The Plaza and Matheson. This is directly across the street from Food Lion which at the time was a Winn Dixie. In a former life the building was a gas station. Tags was a great place and unfortunately closed around 1988 or so when the owner passed away. It was briefly re-opened as another Gay bar for a while but I don't think it lasted more than a year or so. Later it became a Black bar and I am not sure what it is today as I don't get into that part of town that often these days.

Oddly enough, I ended up with a stack of photos from Tags. I once dated a guy that did the local reporting for a national Gay magazine at the time and I discovered a box in the attic a couple of years ago of about 300 photos taken of events in Tags circa 1986 or so. I didn't even know that it was there. It was an interesting trip back in time.

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Oddly enough, I ended up with a stack of photos from Tags. I once dated a guy that did the local reporting for a national Gay magazine at the time and I discovered a box in the attic a couple of years ago of about 300 photos taken of events in Tags circa 1986 or so. I didn't even know that it was there. It was an interesting trip back in time.

Perhaps scan a few and post them?? :)

Edited by Charlotte_native
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^I am not sure that I would want to post photos of people inside a Gay bar on the Internet. A number of people in those photos are well known in town now and probably would not want me to take that permission from them. That would include anyone in those photos.

The other bar you are referring to was located in the former strip mall that was located at The Plaza and Eastway. When it opened in 1981 it was called the Odyssey and was the follow on to the Odyssey that used to be located in downtown Charlotte. Typical of some Gay bar owners of the time, they sold a bunch of memberships, then closed, and later re-opened as Charades. And, as you might expect, you had to purchase another membership to get into the place. I dated a bartender (yes I got around a bit in those days :P ) of Charades, which I don't recommend, who confirmed the whole scam. Charades was a very very large bar and it would not be uncommon for several thousand people to be in there on a Saturday night. It was very easy to lose track of the people you might be with and never find them again.

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The other bar you are referring to was located in the former strip mall that was located at The Plaza and Eastway. When it opened in 1981 it was called the Odyssey and was the follow on to the Odyssey that used to be located in downtown Charlotte. Typical of some Gay bar owners of the time, they sold a bunch of memberships, then closed, and later re-opened as Charades. And, as you might expect, you had to purchase another membership to get into the place. I dated a bartender (yes I got around a bit in those days :P ) of Charades, which I don't recommend, who confirmed the whole scam. Charades was a very very large bar and it would not be uncommon for several thousand people to be in there on a Saturday night. It was very easy to lose track of the people you might be with and never find them again.

I think that is the same space where Glory Days was (the teen place I worked). When I was there it would have been around 1986. I was told it used to be The Odyssey...huge space, i think it had been a grocery store originally. It was right in the middle of the strip center.

Edited by Charlotte_native
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Charades/Odyssey was located at the very end of that strip mall (further form Eastway) in a former Colonial, now defunct, grocery store. The bar in the center of the mall was called The Dixie Electric Company which was a college frat boy bar. I don't remember what was originally there.

It was amusing because during the time the Odyssey was there, there was also an adult bookstore/peep show called Jax. (the name gives away what went on in there) and a porno movie theater called the Climax I & II. It was amusing from the stand point of there being a Zayre (like Kmart) department store located at the other end of the strip mall open 24 hours/day so there would be a very odd mix of people at this place. The Climax was later renamed the Cinema Blue to tone down the name. lol

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Unfortunately the name of her place escapes me but I do remember it. I believe that it was in business from around 1989 or so to the very early 1990s.

I think it was Rising Moon Books and Beyond. I don't know how I dug that one out of the annals since it was gone by the time I returned to Charlotte from Seattle in 2000.

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So I went and searched and came across this article from nearly 10 years ago in The Advocate. It's interesting how things have changed and remained the same in our humble little burg.

Souther [sic] discomfort: gays in Charlotte, N.C., strive for community cohesion as they struggle to get back on track after a virulent 1997. (includes related article on activist Sue Henry)

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-20425537.html

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Yep, that was it, Rising Moon.

It's an interesting article. I remember reading it when it came out. Amazingly one of the "gang of 5" is still in office on the county council. That would be Bill James.

Even more interesting Andrew Reyes mentioned in that article was later involved in a big scandal that involved stealing significant amounts of money, something like $4 million, from his clients. This was one of those cases where he "disappeared" and went on the run when the police found out about it. He gave some of this stolen money to candidates in the local democratic party and I do believe the Clintons. Even Jim Hunt appointed him to some council he was running at the time. (none were happy when they found out his true colors)

The police finally caught him trying to cross the border into Mexico near San Diego about a year or so after his disappearance.

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Rather mindblowing to imagine a bath house in Dilworth. The neighborhood was a completely different world back then. People on my street who have lived here for ages have told me wildly funky Dilworth used to be :ph34r: Now it's wildy yuppie :shades: So who is going to the HRC Carolinas Dinner this year? Not me. Seems like the last one just wrapped up. Kathy Najimy is keynote speaker. Maybe Mayor Coble of Columbia will welcome everyone to Charlotte again or HRC can sponsor a march past McCrory's house.

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The turnout for Takeover at Liasons last night was epic. So much so that we got shut down by the fire marshal. The officers kind of stood in the corner and had the new owners walk around and prod people out the door. I had flashbacks to busted keg parties at The College of Charleston :alc: A few of the firemen were pretty uncomfortable... I guess they were afraid of catching "gay" :lol: I have never seen the place so crowded and truth be told I was a little nervous standing on that balcony. It was sardine packed and it's already a little rickety... The place has been renovated a bit with one pool table gone and replaced by a Wii :w00t:

Edited by voyager12
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Rather mindblowing to imagine a bath house in Dilworth. The neighborhood was a completely different world back then. People on my street who have lived here for ages have told me wildly funky Dilworth used to be :ph34r: Now it's wildy yuppie :shades: So who is going to the HRC Carolinas Dinner this year? Not me. Seems like the last one just wrapped up. Kathy Najimy is keynote speaker. Maybe Mayor Coble of Columbia will welcome everyone to Charlotte again or HRC can sponsor a march past McCrory's house.

It was actually a Club Bath for a short while. Later as it neared its end, it was little more than a flophouse where you could go for gay sex. It was next to where that oyster bar is now, on South Blvd. just north of East/West Blvd.

I will go try to go to the HRC dinner. It's more difficult to demonize us when we have a public face.

Edited by 1979Heel
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Salt Lake City Utah is preparing to pass a domestic partner registry. They already offer insurance. Mayor Rocky Anderson's replacement is also liberal and has the backing of the majority of City Council but I think it's still worthy of notice considering how ultra conservative Utah is. Attempts by individuals like myself and others to bring up this issue is always met by lip service and or silence here in Charlotte. McCrory is only going to increase his anti-gay rhetoric during his run for Governor and local allied Democrats will continue to go to the HRC Dinner and election fundraisers to get awards and patted on the head and then do nothing. It should be inexcusable that no efforts have even been made towards improving local gay rights in the years since Meck CC passed the employee non-discrimination act. I think Meckpac tends to hero worship local leaders that are relatively supportive since they are so few and far between. Consequently their feet are never held to the fire in regards to what they said during election season.

Edited by voyager12
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