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In fact, it became one of the city’s most popular drag bars, and remained so for several years. The Woodshed continues to operate today,īut back to Oleens: it was a popular destination for gay men, lesbians and transgender individuals. It also had the distinctive history of being a former residence turned barbecue restaurant (previously owned and operated by Charlotte’s late drag legend Boom Boom Latour). That allowed him to capture patronage from the city as a whole and the surrounding metro area simply by virtue of its location: less than a few hundred feet from Interstate Highway 85. Later came The Woodshed in 2001, when the city forced the bar out to redevelop the property.
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Not one to overlook the growing gay population in the Plaza-Midwood area, he opened Central Station in 1998 after closing Oleens.
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Oleens was reportedly a former service station and auto repair shop.īrafford became part-owner of the iconic Oleens in 1984 and went on to open a second Brass Rail in 1985 in West Charlotte after the original downtown bar closed. The first concrete evidence of social night clubs for gays and lesbians dates back to the 1960s with the opening of Oleens and the Scorpio Lounge on South Blvd., reportedly within months of each other.
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There has also been talk of a lesbian bar dating back to that same period, reportedly located on Wilkinson Blvd., though confirmation and details have yet to be uncovered. While there was mention of a Charlotte “homosexual hotspot” found in the pages of a True Crime magazine dating back to the 1950s, very little is known about the community’s nightlife culture of that time. qnotes welcomes additional information and shared stories in the comments section online. It is by no means complete, but through research and conversation, we’ve been able to reconstruct some of that past. Here’s a look back at what qnotes was able to uncover about Charlotte’s LGBTQ bar history. Tens of thousands of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals around the country who came out at a young age in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties have their own unique experiences - each defined by their own personal life journey, location and time period. Such is the case for much of Charlotte’s LGBTQ history prior to the 1980s. It often goes undocumented for fear of unintentionally providing oppressors with information that could lead to unwanted trouble for those suffering under irrational scrutiny and harassment. The history of oppressed people is always fragmentary. Lights flashed, clouds from dry ice created faux smoke that filled the room and the happiness of perceived freedom was palpable. When we’re out there dancin’ on that floor, darlin’ Travel from north, south, east, west, central, uptown, midtown, downtown, county, city - driving directions from your address to the location of the new North Carolina gay watering hole.ĭepending on your device, get turn by turn driving directions from Google, Apple, Waze.I watched as mostly young gay men and a handful of lesbian couples, mixed in with a smattering of drag queens, danced without care to a popular song by openly gay and cross-dressing disco artist Sylvester.
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