Cleveland gay clubs

A Place to Thrive

Trivia Night! Every Wednesday – Cleveland, Ohio

Muze Gastropub

Put your mind to the test with our ultimate trivia challenges! Studio West is partnering with Sporcle to take you trivia EVERY Wednesday! Free to play. Prize giveaway! Trivia reservations at trivia.sw117.com. 1st place team gets their tab covered on us — up to $50!* Check out our happy hour and daily specials at SW117.com/menu. […]

Community Meal (Free)

Muze Gastropub

Visit the Lakewood Fieldhouse, in the private dining room of Muze Gastropub, for a FREE Community Meal. No charge or reservation required. Everyone is welcome. Come and dine-in at 4pm or take something to go! ***While Quantities Last*** This is a program of The Diverse Community Health & Wellness Foundation, an agency of the Greater […]

The Nine of Clubs, a gay-friendly alternative dance club, opened at 1273 West 9th Street in 1986. Nine of Clubs was a pioneering force in Cleveland’s early alternative and underground nightclub scenes. Nine of Clubs co-owners Donna Gallo, Bruce Madorsky, and Jon Cole purchased the former Traxx building to open a singular club “catering to people who adoration to drink, move, and party.” The small club was decorated in a gray and purple color scheme, with gray brick walls and dark floors located throughout. Past the front doors and down a short flight of stairs, the subterranean Nine of Clubs sported a lock, as DJ booth, and a relatively small 22′ by 36′ dancefloor. The dance floor, surrounded by two “large mirrored walls,” featured disco balls, neon lights, and a series of multicolor pre-programmed light shows. Aside from the multicolor overhead display lights overhead, the dancefloor area itself was generally dimly lit. For many clubgoers, the club’s darkness was an essential part of its appeal. Gallo noted that “if the lights were too bright, the club wouldn’t perform. People would perceive uncomfortable. But by the rooms entity dimly

History of Gay Bars

With this being National LGBTQ History Month, I also ponder it is vital to celebrate the present. Our town, Cleveland, has had a few victories this year that definitely need celebrating. While we still have a battle ahead of us, acknowledging where we have made advances gives us vigor to fight on. Share with me in this and know that each of you are a part of this.

Say what you want, but lgbtq+ bars have been the cornerstones of LGBTQ culture for a very extended time. They own been sanctuary, front lines of rebellion, keystones to neighborhoods, and starts of our “out lives”. As we transfer forward through our history, we are seeing a decline in those establishments.

In the 1960s, as New York’s queer community started coming into its control , we needed a place where we could come together without fear of reprisals. Until that point, there were laws in place, in most of the country that gay men could not be served in public. All it took was for a bartender to assume you were gay for them to not serve you and even have you arrested. Sit to close to another guy, busted. Handle a man that looked intimate, cops showed up and probably smashed your head

The Cadillac Lounge opened at 2016 East 9th Street in 1946. Owned by Cleveland bar and restaurant entrepreneur Gloria Lenihan, the Cadillac Lounge was one of the first openly gay-friendly bars to operate in Cleveland. The Cadillac Lounge provided a relatively tolerant social space for queer men in Cleveland to socialize and congregate for nearly 27 years. Nestled within the Schofield Building (2016 E. 9th St.) in downtown Cleveland, the Cadillac Lounge contained a full 2-story bar and lounge that regularly hosted live musical entertainment. The bar, a “long, narrow room” lined with large mirrors, featured lavish wood paneling, velvet and leather booths, and a variety of large tropical murals painted by artist William C. Grauer. Unlike the few other gay-friendly bars in Cleveland throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the upscale and relatively lavish Cadillac Lounge was regularly praised by patrons as being “comparatively clean, well-lit, and well furnished.” Like its contemporaries, however, the Cadillac Lounge was a frequent target of Cleveland’s Board of Liquor Command and received numerous liquor-related citations throughout the 1950s.

During the daytime, the Cadillac Lounge c