Gay bars in west virginia
The Shamrock
In , Helen Compton opened the Shamrock, considered the first establishment to cater to the LGBT community in West Virginia. The previous year, Compton saw four men denied access to a club and was told that they were not grant in because they were “queer.” Realizing that the gay community had no place to gather, Compton decided to open the Shamrock. During the sunlight, it operated as a diner that catered to the local community of workers and businessmen, largely the straight community. Around at night, she would begin encouraging the dinner patrons to finish up and the establishment would then switch over to a gay club. The fact that the nighttime club catered to the gay community was largely a secret from the regular patrons.
Unlike places appreciate New York and California where the gay community was visible earlier, homosexuality was largely not accepted in West Virginia communities (particularly rural ones). In an interview, Compton remembered that as a kid she saw two men kissing and told her father; soon after that crosses were burned in the yards of those two men. Helen
Site of the Grand Palace
Originally at this location was Summers Market, built in the early s and owned by Abraham and Takla Summers. In the s Abraham Summers retired and the business passed to one of his daughters. In , she decided to stop managing the store and sold it to her brother, Lee Summers. Lee Summers opened The Greek Downtown Lounge, one of the first two gay bars in Charleston. The other was the Longbranch on Morris Street, owned by Hershel Layne. Both opened around the same hour.
In the late s Summers built an addition on the building, added a proper stage and dancefloor, and rebranded the bar to the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was Charleston’s biggest gay bar, on busy nights there might be people there.
In Summers approached Hershel Layne about purchasing the Grand Palace since Hershel owned other gay bars in the capital, and Hershel purchased the building for $, Unfortunately, in the s and s a new type of crowd attended the bar as the stigma of attending a gay bar lessened, and the establishment was plagued by drug raids and other issues. Hershel closed the Gran
For more than 30 years, the space at Tall Street in Morgantown, West Virginia has been a gay bar, serving the state&#;s LGBTQ+ community and providing them a space to meet each other, perform, and express themselves.
The establishment is currently known as Vice Versa, but in the beginning of its history as an LGBTQ+ space, when it was first called The Class Act, patrons had to navigate a world that was cold and violent to them before entering the safe haven of the bar.
“[The entrance] was in an alleyway, and there was no lighting in the alleyway. You snuck into the gay bar and you snuck out of the gay bar,” Vice Versa co-owner Montaz Morgan recalled from his time at The Class Act. “You didn’t wear ‘gay clothes.’ You brought gay clothes, and you changed into them, and then you’d put your clothes on when you left.”
The identical rule applied to the entertainers, because the police were not on their side, even if they were attacked on their way home.
“The drag queens didn’t come here already ready, they all came here to get ready, and didn’t leave until they changed out o
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