In the early 2000s, West Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District was the center of the gay scene, says drag queen Chloe Cassidy, born and raised in Raleigh.
“You had CC’s [nightclub], you had Flex down the street, you had Legends, you had the White Rabbit, Our Place,” she says. “It was a sacred space. It was our street. It was just our little gayborhood.”
Cassidy, like many who grew up in the area, vividly remembers the first time she stepped into Legends, the iconic LGBTQ nightclub, around 2010. At age 18, it wasn’t just her first time in a bar but also one of the first times she felt deeply seen and accepted.
“I saw my first drag show there, and I just fell in love with the art form. I just was enamored with the costumes, the makeup, the lip-syncing,” Cassidy says. “It was electrifying. It was pretty much our version of Broadway, just for ourselves. I really miss those good old days.”
But as Legends moves out of its sprawling longtime home this summer, the last remnants of the “gayborhood” may be fading. Now, half the businesses Cassidy rattles off have vanished, leaving behind only a scattered collection of nostalgic stories, dead URLs, and “permanently closed” banners on Google Maps. White Rabbit Books and Things shut down in 2010. CC Nightclub, later known as 313, closed in 2013. And The Borough, which Cassidy describes as “an iconic restaurant,” closed in 2016.
As anti-trans sentiment ramps up in North Carolina and the Trump administration continues to attack queer people, preserving safe spaces is crucial for the LGBTQ community and its allies.
While Wake County’s population growth has made the area more liberal than ever—with generally increasing numbers of residents voting blue in the last five presidential elections—higher lease rates, lower post-pandemic foot traffic, and an uncertain economic climate have created new challenges for small businesses, including historically queer LGBTQ spaces. And this year, as in the early 2000s, there’s been a major shake-up.
Preserving LGBTQ spaces
In mid-March, longtime LGBTQ business The Green Monkey closed its doors after 12 years downtown, prompting an outpouring of fond remembrances on social media. Much of the support came too late, however, says Rusty Sutton, who owned the unique gift and bottle shop with his husband, Drew Temple.
“Don’t come to us when we’re going out. You got to keep us from that point,” Sutton says. “You need to support your queer-owned spaces, or they’re going to be gone. And most of the time, we don’t miss it until it’s gone.”
Sutton is proud of the business’s long run, and says he and Temple were ready to retire. But even as Raleigh becomes more accepting, he remains concerned about preserving queer spaces.
“When we closed the Monkey down, I had people come up to me and say, ‘You were my home. You made us feel safe. You helped me come out to my children. You helped me come out to my parents,’” Sutton says. “That’s what you lost. And that’s what you lose with a lot of your safe spaces.”
In early May, nightclub Ruby Deluxe also shut down after prolonged financial troubles. The club has faced criticism in recent years, with several performers and employees accusing the owner of mismanagement. Still, for a long time, Ruby Deluxe was a vibrant gathering place.
“It was like the Studio 54 of Raleigh in its heyday,” says Breniecia Reuben, aka DJ Luxe Posh. “Packed to the gills, all sorts of people.”
A longtime local DJ, Reuben says she’s noticed a decline in bar and club goers over the years, especially since the COVID pandemic. She thinks young people are drinking less, which, though part of a larger health-first movement, drives less traffic to bars and clubs. As a result, there’s been a significant decentralization of the queer community, as well as a decrease in LGBTQ+ nightlife. For drag queens like Cassidy, that means fewer places to perform.
“Back in the day, Raleigh used to be the place where you could go club-hopping and go to four or five different places to have those really cool, fun queer experiences,” Reuben says. “But it doesn’t exist anymore.”
On the other hand, “queer folks aren’t primarily just going to gay bars anymore,” Reuben adds. “They’re going all over the place if it has a market for them.”
When Legends first opened in the early 1990s, the warehouse district was an isolated haven for people who were ostracized by the broader community. Now, there are drag brunches in businesses across town, rainbow flags in coffee shop windows, and much more widespread acceptance and celebration of queer people.
“I like to see us represented in all the quarters of the city,” Sutton says. “We don’t have a gay district, and that’s fine, because we want to show everybody that we are just like them. We’re your neighbors, we’re your doctors, we’re your attorneys, we’re your entrepreneurs.”
Looking toward the future, Reuben says she thinks the LGBTQ community is “strong and connected” but in need of more “third places” to congregate during the day. Some of those places are already popping up, like Blackbird Books and Coffee, an LGBTQ-inclusive business that opened in 2023 in City Market. But new or old, the continued existence of these businesses depends on people showing up.
“If people want to still have these safe spaces, they need to come out and support them,” says Trevor Keller, manager and booking director of Legends. “We love to go to these fancy new places … but these are the minority bars that have always been there for [LGBTQ] people. It’s really just getting people out and still being in those spaces that are for them.”
Creating joyful spaces
Even as many brick-and-mortar businesses struggle, Raleigh’s annual Pride Month celebration is expected to be bigger and better than ever this year, says Kori Hennessey, executive director of the LGBT Center of Raleigh.
“We definitely have a bigger footprint than we did eight years ago, when I first got involved,” Hennessey says. “It’s an opportunity to come together and really feel part of the community, feel that belonging.”
Launched in 2011, Out! Raleigh Pride has since become a major event in the city. Attendance numbers have spiked notably since 2022, says Hennessey, when about 75,000 people gathered on Fayetteville Street to create a rainbow of color. In 2023, that number rose to about 90,000, and last year the festival hit a major milestone with 100,000 attendees.
Before and after the COVID pandemic, organizers have also managed to secure major headliners from the reality series RuPaul’s Drag Race, making Raleigh a destination for drag performers and fans. At this year’s Out! Raleigh Pride festival, the lineup of performers includes season 16 winner Nymphia Wind and season 15 winner Sasha Colby.
At Legends, season 16 contestant Xunami Muse and season 15 contestants Sugar and Spice will be performing alongside local talent, making the nightclub’s last Pride on Hargett Street one to remember, says Keller. As Cassidy gears up to take the stage, she’s looking forward to “a chance to escape this crazy, crazy world,” she says. And if she can help audience members escape the oppressive political climate and troubles of daily life too, all the better.
“[Drag] is definitely a creative outlet for me. It’s like being on another planet …. I just drown everything out and perform to the music,” Cassidy says. “If I can take stress away from you for an hour or two, I feel great about that.”
Several major Pride events are also being organized by GAG! Raleigh, the LGBTQ+ event series cofounded in 2022 by Reuben and Trey Roberts, a Raleigh Pride cofounder and driving force behind the annual event. More than 1,000 tickets have already been sold for GAG! Queen, a night of dancing and drag at The Ritz, says Reuben.
“To me, dance floors have always been important,” she adds. “I’ve DJed through so many periods of time where it just felt really bleak. Just finding joy on the dance floor is a form of resistance. It is building an environment for people to feel free.”
In that way, there are always opportunities to create safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ people, says Reuben.
“Spaces come and go, but you can put glitter on the walls anywhere,” she says. “And with the right team and the right people coming to your event, it can be magical.”
Comment on this story at [email protected].
You must be logged in to post a comment.