Creating a Gayborhood:
A Chapter in Phoenix Pride's History
In Midtown Phoenix, nestled between Camelback and Indian School Roads, lies the Melrose District, or as it has come to be affectionately known amongst locals as the gayborhood.
Arizona, as with many other states, has a long-complicated legislative history regarding the LGBTQ+ community’s progress in securing human rights and creating an environment where the mere existence of LGBTQ+ people was a viable option.
“Often times LGBTQ+ youth can feel sort of alone or sort of powerless,” said Kat Alexander, a volunteer for GLSEN Arizona. GLSEN is a national organization that specializes in creating inclusive and safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students, according to Alexander.
The Melrose District, or the Curve, is a testimony to Arizona LGBTQ+ history and a key to its future.
The Curve is not the first gay-friendly neighborhood in Phoenix; that title belongs to Roosevelt Row which was home to Hubbard’s 307 Club in the 1950s.
The 307 Club gave birth to Phoenix’s drag show scene in the 1970s and the 1980s, according to Phoenix Magazine.
The LGBTQ+ community’s move away from Downtown Phoenix to Midtown started with the Pride Parade.
In the United States, Pride Parades and Festivals are held to commemorate the Stonewall Riots that took place in New York City in the summer of 1969.
However, in Arizona, a separate tragedy initiated the state’s first Pride event which was held in Tucson in 1977 after the murder of Richard “Dickie” Heakin, a 21-year-old openly gay man visiting from Nebraska.
Heakin was leaving Stonewall Tavern in Tucson with friends when a group of high school-aged boys (16-17 years old) attacked Heakin and his friends. Heakin received blows to the neck that caused extensive hemorrhaging and within the hour Heakin was dead, according to a Mother Jones article published in early 1977.
Four of the attackers were put on trial, admitted to attacking Heakin and were charged as minors.
“There is no danger to the public of repeated law violations by these men,” said Judge Birdsall, upon indicting the four perpetrators of manslaughter with sentences of probation until they turned 21.
The murder trial left the Tucson LGBTQ+ community outraged and dismayed at Judge Birdsall's decision because they believed the attack and subsequent murder of Heakin was an “obvious hate crime”, according to the Pima County Democratic Party.
To memorialize Heakin and show pride in the LGBTQ+ community, the Tucson Gay Coalition held the first Pride Festival on June 26, 1977, according to Tucson Pride.
“Pride events [were] started by the community as grassroots effort[s],” said Jeremy Helfgot, Phoenix Pride’s communications consultant. “That’s what led to that first [Phoenix Pride] march back in 1981. It wasn’t contrived or manufactured. It was an authentic display… [Pride is] about those moments of absolute authenticity that have driven the desire to build these enormous safe spaces where everybody can come and be who they are.”
Three years after the first Phoenix Pride Parade, a staple to the Melrose District’s nightlife, Charlie’s was opened. Charlie’s boasts that it is “Arizona’s largest LGBTQ+ bar” and sits on Camelback Road at the very end of the mile-long stretch that completes the Melrose District.
The opening of Charlie’s marked the beginning of a new safe-haven for the LGBTQ+ community in the Valley that spread to more bars and clubs opening in the Melrose District such as Stacy’s @ Melrose opening in 2013, Thunderbird Lounge opening in 2019 and Arizona’s only lesbian bar, Boycott Bar opening in 2004.
“Melrose kind of chose me to be honest,” said Audrey Corley, the owner of Boycott Bar since 2017. “When I first came out, which was [about] 27 years-ago, [Melrose] was the place you went to. It wasn’t as easy to be queer back then. It’s more outspoken now. Before we just had to go to these little bars and that was kinda the only space you had to meet someone with a similar lifestyle as you.”
Boycott Bar’s pink illuminated sign reads “All Are Welcome Here” and sits above one of two rainbow crosswalks located in Phoenix that celebrate the queer community.
The sign’s proclamation in tandem with the rainbow crosswalk rings true to the very core of the Melrose District.
There is a space and a place for everyone.
Outside of the gay-friendly nightlife, Seventh Avenue is home to several vintage stores that promote the Valley’s long-standing fixation with the ever-trending mid-century modern aesthetic.
This reusable aesthetic can be seen within the businesses along the Curve, such as Copper Star Coffee and the recently refurbished Thunderbird Lounge.
Copper Star Coffee, which opened in 2006, was once an operating gas station in the 20th century that has continued on to become the Valley’s only coffee car hop.
Thunderbird Lounge occupies another historic building of Melrose District which was the Wagon Wheel Bar, its neon illuminated sign standing tall over the quintessential 1970s lounge.
Though the Melrose District is not the only gay-friendly area in the Valley it is central to the LGBTQ+ story in Phoenix as well as contributes to the spirit and events that create the Phoenix Pride Parade and Festival.
Audrey Corley Interview
Welcome back to the latest Multimedia Journalism Class Podcast! This week I interviewed Audrey Corley, the owner of the Southwest's only lesbian bar, Boycott Bar. Boycott Bar was established in Phoenix, Arizona's only gayborhood, the Melrose District, about six years ago when Corley came into ownership of it. In this episode, Corley details how she came into ownership of Boycott Bar, her experience in the bar industry, owning two bars at once, her episode of The Lesbian Bar Project (now streaming on Roku), her contribution as a mentor and curating a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community in Phoenix.
Music used in this episode:
Fun Day by Benjamin Tissot
bensound.com
License code: YNR1YCZJYGKCQUDK
Phoenix Pride 2023
Phoenix Pride held its 42nd annual parade and festival on Oct. 21-22. The festival, which is the largest Pride event in Arizona, took place at Steel Indian School Park with 150 entertainment performances across 7 stages set around the park. The theme for 2023 was "United Against Hate" a call for everyone in the LGTBQ+ community and allies to come together and support the queer community after 500 bills were introduced in legislatures across the country at the beginning of the year. Jeremy Helfgot along with 2023's Mister and Miss Phoenix Pride explain why Phoenix Pride and this year's theme are so important to not only the LGBTQ+ community but to everyone who wishes to have a safe and welcoming environment to call home.
Music: ‘Acoustic Breeze’ by Bensound.com License: VOIJUA5Z4DHC1VZX
A quick reel showcasing the October 22, 2023 Phoenix Pride Parade.
Arizona Anti-Drag Bills Empower Phoenix Drag Performers To Stand 'United Against Hate'
Over 20 legislative bills about the LGBTQ+ community were introduced in the 2023 Arizona legislative session, according to the Trevor Project. Of the 22 bills, 16 were anti-LGBTQ+.
The message from Arizona’s Fifty-sixth Legislature’s first regular session was echoed throughout the country as legislators introduced their own equivalent or more prominent anti-queer bills.
These anti-LGBTQ+ bills, whether passed or vetoed, left their mark on the youth members of the queer community with 71% stating that their mental health had been negatively affected due to state laws restricting their rights, according to a 2023 poll conducted by the Trevor Project.
The Trevor Project is an organization dedicated to preventing suicide and curating a safe space for minors within the LGBTQ+ community.
Minors were often stated as a main concern of Arizona Republican lawmakers who drafted bills such as SB1026 which, if not vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs on Jun. 16, would have banned the state, cities, towns, counties, school district and any public entity from receiving or using money from a “drag show targeting minors”, as stated in the proposed bill.
“SB1026, SB1028, SB1030, and SB1698 are attempts to criminalize free expression and ostracize the LGBTQIA+ community,” Gov. Hobbs wrote in her veto letter. “Intolerance has no place in Arizona, despite the legislatures' frequent attempts to pass legislation that says otherwise.”
The attempt to make the act of drag illegal by SB1026’s definition of drag would have potentially put even non-LGBTQ+ centric businesses such as any Arizonan theater’s rendition of “Hairspray” (the character of Edna Turnblad traditionally played by a cis-man in drag) or “Some Like It Hot” (the two main cis-male characters hide in an all-women band to evade the mafia) as a misdemeanor on opening night and a felony by the next night.
Despite these attempts to shut down drag shows and revoke the LGBTQ+ community’s rights, the drag scene has never been bigger in Phoenix, according to Phoenix Pride’s media consultant Jeremy Helfgot.
This year’s Phoenix Pride Festival theme was “United Against Hate.” a direct message to the anti-LGBTQ+, specifically the anti-drag, legislative onslaught, according to Helfgot.
“On any given night there’s a drag show in town,” Helfgot said. “I don't know how it happened, but Phoenix has become a hub for drag shows. There are 11 drag brunches, all at different locations. There’s a drag event calendar now just to keep track of all of them.”
Phoenix has a long history of drag shows, a popular destination in the 1970s and 1980s being the defunct Hubbard’s 307 Club on Roosevelt Row, a former “gay-hub” of Phoenix, according to a Phoenix Magazine article published in 2022.
The main difference from the Phoenix drag scene of the 1970s and the 1980s is that today’s drag scene is open and allowed to take up space to showcase their craft just as any other performer in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
This openness to the public from drag performers has allowed many skeptics to forgo their ignorance of past misconceptions while equally creating a stage for remaining ignorant skeptics to make their voices heard and create laws based around that continued ignorance.
“It’s important to pay homage to the people that came before us,” Audrey Corley, the owner of Arizona’s only lesbian bar, said. Every Sunday night, Boycott Bar hosts the Sunday Fun Games, a variety drag and game show. “I think that we [should] continue to live a life of pride. There’s power in what you do and where you spend your money. If we don’t move like a community and support each other, we can’t be mad when our spaces aren’t here anymore.”
LGBTQ+ STATISTICS
According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety annual reports for the past ten years show that crimes against the LGBTQ+ community reached their peak in 2017 with recent data showing a decline in hate crimes.
*Note that data collected for bias crimes against anti-transgender and anti-gender non-conforming began in 2018 and 2020.
**Annual reports for 2021, 2022, and 2023 are not yet available to the public.
Surveys collected in 2022 and 2015 by the Public Religion Research Institute (a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization) showed that in the past 7 years, minimal change in opinion for laws protecting LGBTQ+ rights have happened. However, regarding same-sex marriages more Arizonans are in support by nearly 20%.
