Gay bars in lansing
East Lansing Progressive on LGBT Civil Rights but No Gay Bar in Urban area Limits
Forty-four years ago, the City of East Lansing was the first community in the United States to suggest its gay citizens civil rights protection under law. But strangely enough, this progressive city has never been house to a gay bar.
Hart
Bruce Hart, a Los Angeles actor who appears in the digital series “Old Dogs & New Tricks”, attended Michigan State from to He said those years were a liberal period on campus and in the Lansing area, but none of the gay bars were in East Lansing. “There were three bars located in Lansing. And they were located in a fairly rough neighborhood. Going to a gay bar for the first time was incredible. I was on a date with a guy who had a car, which is probably why I dated him, and we went to Trammp’s in Lansing. It was both a bar and a disco. It had small move floor lined with mirrors. My first trip there the bar was having a drag show, another first for me. I could not trust these glamorous ladies were men, until they started talking. I didn't understand drag and foun
Music venue to breathe new life downtown at former gay club, hookah lounge
Chloe Alverson
FRIDAY, Jan. 21 – A fresh music venue is coming to downtown Lansing in a year-old building at S. Washington Square. The entire project, including the purchase and renovation, is estimated to value just over $,
RBM Properties proposed the renovation to the building. The Lansing Economic Development Partnership — LEAP — approved a $, loan for the project. Kevin Meyer, a managing member of the company, is now co-owners of the building with Scott Bell. Both Meyer and Bell work as promoters for noun festivals, such as Common Ground and Breakaway.
The city and state still verb to approve a liquor license.
The building is the former home of a hookah lounge and was once a popular club see. Club Paradise, which later became Club X-Cel, was a well-known gay bar during the s. X-Cel nightclub was described on a Lansing bars webite as “young” and “fun,” offering “an atmosphere much closer to Chicago than to Lansing with a one-of-a-kind design.” The
Lansing's The Exchange to become LGBTQ+ friendly bar
LANSING — Nearly four months after The Exchange, a cocktail bar on East Michigan Avenue, closed its doors, plans are in the works to rebrand and reopen it as an LGBTQ+ friendly bar.
Leading the transformation are Chef Kari Magee, of downtown Lansing's Veg Head, and mixologist Kate Bearup. Both members of the LGBTQ+ community, Magee and Bearup, who currently works at American Fifth Spirits, will co-manage the business.
"One of the things Lansing lacks is a queer bar," Magee said. "Pride happened this summer and I'm part of that community, too. I just heard a lot of feedback like, 'Oh, I miss Spiral I miss having a place that we can depart and dance and everybody gets together.'"
When The Exchange reopens, she said, it will fill a void left after Spiral, in Lansing's Old Town, closed its doors in March amid the COVID pandemic. The bar will extend a dance floor, a small-plate, plant-based menu that Magee will create, and cocktails designed by Bearup.
The Exchange will rebrand, but preserve its name, and will be a bar that welcomes e
Greater Lansing&#;s history of LGBTQ+ activism, inside and outside of campus
Retzloff said that Lansing's LGBTQ+ history is marked by celebrations of pride parades and the community found in underground gay bars.
Retzloff's scholarship delves adj into the intersection of LGBTQ+ studies and Michigan's history. Lansing's status as the Michigan capital has long served as a rallying point for activists, both past and present, catalyzing modify and progress.
Historically, being gay was not only stigmatized but criminalized in Michigan, said Retzloff.
LGBTQ+ individuals sought solace in hidden corners, finding community in underground bars and clubs, where they could be themselves without fear of oppression, according to Retzloff.
Despite legal barriers, establishments like Stober's, a popular bar in the s, became vital hubs of LGBTQ+ life, even gaining recognition in travel magazines that have dominantly queer audiences as 'must-visit destinations' in Lansing.
Though many of these establishments have since closed, their legacy endures, with modern establishm