One of my fonder memories from grad school was Trash Disco Night on Wednesday nights at Anderson's Fifth Estate in Scottsdale. My friends would don 70s clothing and we'd go drink and dance at the bar in Old Town Scottsdale. The bar was only open three nights a week. We only went there on Trash Disco Night, though. There are legends about my authentic disco dances and sliding across the floor on my knees like John Travolta.
Sadly, the bar ejected a transgender woman after women complained about the transgender women using the women's toilets. This was followed by an attack on two gay men outside a Scottsdale restaurant and a female mayor who refused to honor GLBT Pride month in June. Scottsdale was looking pretty straight and narrow and got a deserved black eye in the press.
But good came of it as the straight bar owners met with LGBT leaders and became comfortable with the community. When they heard that the gay communtiy was underserved in Scottsdale, they saw an opportunity to forge a new business path to match their new respect for the LGBT community. They reopened their bar as a gay bar, Forbidden, as reported in Towleroad.
The change has been well received by the gay community and even lauded over the weekend by the conservative Arizona Republic newspaper. I don't recall the paper covering gay issues at all when I lived there in the 90s. The Times, they are a-changin'.
The club is now the hot bar in town for the gay community and is open five nights a week instead of three.
As for the transgender woman whose ejection started the controversy, the bar owners now consider her a good friend.
This exemplifies some of what I liked best about Arizona. People were conservative, but not as narrow=minded as those in the Bible Belt. More often than not, Arizonans were able to listen and learn and rise above base instinct.
The next time I'm in Arizona, I may have to visit Forbidden to recall old memories and make new ones. That and I'm wondering what is in the Swedish Lick and Naked Poolside martinis.
