They don’t have that struggle with ‘who am I.’” “Straight people just go about their life. We share something that, as much as we want to say it’s not different, it is different - it’s something other people don’t have to deal with,” said Mindy Johnson, 49, a bartender for six years. With the closure of space named after Harrison’s former drag name, Pretty Belle, the next nearest LGBTQ bars from Cedar Rapids will be in Iowa City and Des Moines.Įven with the shift in equality and acceptance for LGBTQ people, employees and regulars at Belle’s say such a space still is needed.
Now he is ready to get out of the business he’s been in most of his working life.
You will begin to receive our weekly Chew on This newsletter. As he paid back the loan, neglected tax payments piled up. With a passion to keep the space alive, he borrowed $70,000 from a lender and ended up repaying about $140,000 back over five years. In February 2012, Harrison took over the club that has remained a staple of the local LGBTQ community for years. The liability insurance provides coverage to bars in the case of damages or injuries if the establishment sold alcohol to a visibly intoxicated individual. After multiple insurance cancellations in 2020 due to missed payments, Belle’s Basix remains under the threat of a shutdown should the bar miss one more payment. On top of sluggish sales, dram shop liquor liability insurance has taken a toll on the small bar - about $900 a month, Harrison said, even during state-mandated closures in the pandemic. “Before I wouldn’t close because I thought the gay community needed it. They don’t need us anymore, but when they do need us, they expect us to be there,” he said. “It’s a double-edged sword of acceptance. In 25 years, the LGBTQ community in Iowa and nationally has made significant gains in acceptance and legal protections.
After struggling to survive through the pandemic, he said diminished sales signal the end of an era. Now 44, he announced plans Sunday to close Feb. Harrison, then 20, was still sneaking in to the club. Travel from central, uptown, east, west, city, midtown, south, downtown, north, or country - driving directions from your address to the location of the new Des Moines, Iowa gay watering hole.ĭepending on your device, get turn by turn driving directions from Google, Apple, Waze.In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres has just come out of the closet, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” hadn’t yet been signed by President Bill Clinton and the city of Cedar Rapids had not yet passed its ordinance providing basic anti-discrimination protections to LGBT people.
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