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The Palms was owned and operated by “Joyce the Bartender,” and was open seven days a week as a “jukebox joint.” Compared to the other gay bars in Greensboro, the Palms had a moderately older crowd, and was considered the most “laid-back,” or at minimum, the least “intense” of the bars. The Palms also had a sizeable lesbian demographic, especially compared to other LGBTQ+ establishments in Greensboro. The Palms is described as having a “neighborhood-clientele.” Originally a jukebox joint, it was open seven days a week. The Palms, originally located at 209 West Bellemeade Street in Greensboro, relocated in the early 1980s to 413 N Eugene Street, part of the current site of First National Bank Field, located downtown. it was a dive kind of place, but my favorite thing about it was that it had a sunken-in dance floor, it was like, I don’t know - I don’t know what it was before Davey’s, and what could have made that, but their dance floor, it was very small, you walked down into it, so therefore there was a railing. It was a shock, the very first walking in.” Rainey continues, “. You know, got up in there and it was all leather daddies. He was my first flaming queen that I’d ever seen in my life. Jeff Rainey, an interviewee in the Pride! Of the Community project, had his first experience with LGBT nightlife at Davey’s in 1977 as an 18-year-old and describes his first encounter as follows: “Walking in, the guy at the door scared me to death. Map by David Gwynn, Sources: Bob Damron Guides,, Q-Notes, Polk City Directories.ĭavey’s was a smaller club and bar and could be found on 723 Kenilworth Street on the UNCG campus (site of the current UNCG Human Resources office). Most of these bars are described as being ‘one-size fits all’, due to the fact that few co-exist simultaneously in Greensboro – the number of bars necessary for more specialization or demographic specification was never present. With the preceding context now entrenched, the purpose of this article is to document and briefly describe the gay bars and clubs of Greensboro (N.C.) and others within reasonable to the extent of those that have sufficient documentation or recorded and transcribed information from the Pride! Of the Community oral history project. Police stings in Greensboro at a rest area (1983), a mall in Raleigh (1985), and a park in Charlotte as late as 1987. Even with the progression of the 1970s and 1980s, Greensboro (N.C.) and other major North Carolinian cities had a need for social sanctuary as much as any demographic. The need for such refuge and social connection is important in any climate, as seen in the above examples of Washington, D.C., and Denver (CO), but it is undeniable that such essentiality is considerably amplified in the more historically conservative areas of the United States – namely the in the southeast, or the “Bible belt”. He pondered further, “How many secrets of the Government are spilled,” because, according to him, “perverts and bottle clubs are tolerated in the District of Columbia?” After the riots at Stonewall in 1969, the 1970s and 1980s saw a steep climb in both social normality and popularity of gay nightlife as the cornerstone and number one place of social occupancy in the LGBT subculture. “It is a well-known fact that several restaurants, clubs, and other establishments get most of their support from these sexual perverts,” Congressman Arthur L. One should put an emphasis on ‘near constant’, because while progression was exponentially sky-rocketed by the era of The New Deal during the 1930s and 1940s in more metropolitan and urban areas, there was a dark fluctuation during the height of Cold War during the Lavender Scare, even these scenes were under surveillance and oppression.
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Since World War II until the eve of social media, a night out with friends (or alone) was all but the only near constant place of refuge for those that identified as gay or queer. These establishments provided an environment that allowed this community to both discover, explore and flourish their own sexual-orientations as well as meet similar other people and create connections to like-minded social circles. Over the last half century or so, gay bars and clubs have played a pivotal role for the social hemisphere of the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ Nightlife of Greensboro, North Carolina in the 1980s and 1990s