Charlotte gay clubs

your friendly neighborhood bar

EVENTS

OFFICIAL home of
tHE TRADESMEN
 

LEARN MORE

introducing
bluf charlotte!
 

Back to InFocus: Charlotte Index…

As a youthful gay man in Charlotte of the 1980s, I managed to snag a fake ID that was realistic enough to convince block owners I was five years older than I actually was. The reality that I was over six feet tall came in handy, too. There’s something about height that implies age.

Beginning at the age of 16, I was able to gain entree into a number of Charlotte’s gay bars.

My first experience came at a center city nightspot acknowledged as The Odyssey, At the hour it was located at the corner of Morehead and Tryon Sts. in what had previously been a restaurant and its regional corporate headquarters.

It wasn’t all that enormous, really, but sizable enough to provide three separate bars and a boogie floor. Downstairs was another gay lock known as the Brass Rail.

Standing outside and waiting in a line to the stairs that took you to where The Odyssey was, I heard other young queer men referring to the Brass Rail as “The Wrinkle Room,” indicating it was a place where mostly older gays congregated. Even then I reflection their assessment seemed crass and flippant, but I was initially so nervous I just stood in the line quietly.

I can still recall making my wa