Gay clubs in chapel hill nc

Visit the new south

Whether you’re ambling along our scenic downtown streets or rambling through the wooded hills, you’ll find yourself in a unique Southern community. “It epitomizes ‘The New South’,” says Jen Jones, who is a former director of communications for EqualityNC. “It’s a place of the future that welcomes diversity, embraces inclusivity, and is a gateway for native Tar Heels, wayward travelers and new transplants alike. Chapel Hill-Carrboro remains one of the most LGBTQ-friendly areas in North Carolina and across the South.”

Petrow agrees. “I travel all over the country and gays and lesbians are ‘tolerated’ more and more just about everywhere, which is great. But here we’re accepted,” he says. “I’ve looked for a place like this to notify home my entire life and now I don’t plan to leave until my toes point up at the stars.”

Though Blueberry Hill closed by the writing of this article, the ending paragraph shows the legacy of the dual space: the question of whether the Carolina Gay Association should use a bar space “for special events and meetings when the disco is closed” (5). This is presented as a potential new endeavor that has not been done at previous bars, perhaps showing the utility of viewing bars not just as drinking-and-dancing but as gay recreational spaces that transcend nightlife, as Blueberry Hill did and as newer bars like Christopher’s might also have done. Of course there were important issues to examine in using a bar for a university-affiliated organization’s activities, but the mere fact that this was raised as an option shows how the bar as a safe space evolved tremendously in the span of a not many short years, from an uncertain mixed environment to “the center of gay life” (5).