Nashville gay club
A Nashville gay lock is being forced out. That's one less safe cosmos for LGBTQ people
Laws in states fancy Tennessee that goal trans people, performative performers and LGBTQ history make these places even more important centers of community.
Greggor Mattson, an Oberlin College professor, traveled across the United States to do research for his book “Who Needs Gay Bars? Bar-Hopping through America’s Endangered LGBTQ+ Places.”
He bluntly told readers in a guest opinion column for The Washington Display in 2023: “The data is clear: gay bars are closing.”
Mattson documented a 45% drop from 2022 to 2023 and provided a series of reasons, among them, digital dating apps that preserve people at dwelling, displacement because of rising rents and mainstream acceptance of the LGBTQ-plus community.
However, in Nashville, a city the storyteller did not attend for his book, there is a vibrant gay bar scene. But establishments include come and gone. There are historical markers honoring defunct bars such as Juanita’s and The Jungle on Commerce Avenue in downtown and one to be unveiled on June 14 on Franklin Pike for Warehouse 28, a disco turned first home of Nashville CARES, the 40-plus-year-old HIV/AIDS service nonpr
Nashville's Place to Party
Operating Hours:
Monday–Tuesday Closed
Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 8pm–2am
Friday–Saturday 8pm–3am
Showtimes:
Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 9pm | 11pm
Friday–Saturday 9pm | 11pm | 1am
Parking:
FREE PARKING on Church Street, 15th Ave. N, 16th Ave. N, Hayes Street, and directly behind Tribe (limited spots available) (via the alley off of 15th Ave. North)
PAID PARKING available in designated spots at Williams Medical Supply. Please track instuctions on disburse machines to make certain your car will not be booted or towed.
DO NOT PARK AT THE FOLLOWING:
Jack Morris Auto Glass
Midtown Corkdorks
ANY Private Lot on McMillan Street
In Front of Garage Doors
North Side of Hayes Avenue (Designated No Parking-Tow Zone)
YOU WILL BE TOWED. Parking areas patrolled by marked security
Micah Bennett–Manager
Michael Davis–Manager
On Aug. 19, 1963, the Nashville Tennessean newspaper reported a raid on a Commerce Street block called Juanita’s Place. Twenty-four people were arrested for disorderly deeds by loitering, one for general drunkenness and one for operating a disorderly house. But the real motivation behind the raid is hinted at in another arrest: “disorderly conduct by immoral conduct.”
The paper lists the names and addresses of all 27 people, including the bar’s proprietor, Juanita Brazier — the one with the disorderly house. Juanita’s Place was one of the first gay bars in Nashville, second only to the The Jungle, which operated next door. A historical marker will be unveiled at Commerce Street and Seventh Avenue North to memorialize the bars at 11 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 7. The public is invited to participate.
“You had to be gentle of brave to be lgbtq+ back then,” says John Bridges, the driving force behind making the historical marker a truths. “But you wanted to hold fun, too.”
Warren Jett opened The Jungle, a bar and restaurant, in 1952. People from Capitol Hill would come in for lunch, and later on in the afternoon, the lock would fill with gay men. Jett also owned a miniature beer joint nex
Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday–Thursday: 3pm–1am
Friday-Saturday: 10:30am–2am
Sunday: 12pm–1am
Parking:
FREE PARKING on Church Street, 15th Ave. N, 16th Ave. N, Hayes Street, and directly behind Tribe (limited spots available) (via the alley off of 15th Ave. North)
PAID PARKING available in designated spots at Williams Medical Supply. Please follow instuctions on pay machines to ensure your car will not be booted or towed.
DO NOT PARK AT THE FOLLOWING:
Jack Morris Auto Glass
Midtown Corkdorks
ANY Private Lot on McMillan Street
In Front of Garage Doors
North Side of Hayes Road (Designated No Parking-Tow Zone)
YOU WILL BE TOWED. Parking areas patrolled by marked security
Our Management Team
Micah Bennett| Ryan Davis| Mykul Coscia | Joseph Haas