We're Here!
Preserving Columbia's LGBTQ+ Stories
"Hear us, South Carolina! We are going to be invisible no more.
We are your sons and daughters, your friends and neighbors, your sisters and brothers, your aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews, your friends and your co-workers, and, in some cases, your mothers and fathers.
And, yes, we are gay and lesbian...
And, yes, WE ARE PROUD OF IT!
We ARE here. We are not going to go away. And we demand that you accord us the same rights and privileges as every other citizen of this great state and nation.
Our demands, which are listed in your program, are plainly not "special rights." And we claim them as our own.
Hear us, South Carolina! We will come to you again and again and again and again and again and again and again until we get what is rightfully ours.
And you will give us equal rights. And this state and this nation will prosper from the visible presence of your proud homosexual citizens."
-Jim Blanton, Opening Remarks, South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride March Rally, June 23, 1990
Welcome
When members of the South Carolina Pride March committee spoke on one of our state's most historic days for gay rights, their remarks were informed by more than their individual pasts. Like the generations that came before and the ones that would follow, the LGBTQ+ community who coalesced to fight for equal treatment under the law were harnessing the power of their collective history. They still lived in a time when stigma, discrimination, and criminalization were prevalent, when secrecy might mean survival or acceptance but also loneliness and internalized shame. Yet still they stepped forward to say, "We're Here!"-- hoping, like those brave individuals before them, that sharing their true selves might change their fellow citizens' minds.
Now, nearly seven years after Condon v. Haley ruled South Carolina Amendment 1 unconstitutional and brought gay marriage to South Carolina, we invite you to explore our city's LGBTQ+ history.
LGBTQ+ Columbia through the Decades
1900s-1920s
In 1908, the Lyric Theatre opens with a slew of female impersonation acts, including national sensations McGarvey and Julian Eltinge. Locally, the press fervently covers the career of Sumter native Charles Hilliard Hurst, who makes his name impersonating a woman in Black face as part of the " Honey Boy Minstrels " troupe. While society permits this form of entertainment, all other aspects of gay life remain hidden until 1922, when Columbia becomes enthralled with the saga of Rachael Watson, arrested in downtown for "masquerading as a female." Watson, who might be considered a trans woman of color today, proves an enigma to local authorities throughout the 1920s for her desire to live as a woman despite repeated arrests.
1940s
With the end of World War II, many gay men return from war to live as their authentic selves, albeit in private. Among them are Billy Sandifer (1920-2012), who opens The Blossom Shop with Jack Roof (1923-1993) in 1947. Sandifer and other successful businessmen and artists serve as mentors to future generations. Although publications like The Hobby Directory provide means for gay men to connect, it is unclear to what extent Columbians utilize them. Meanwhile, The State chooses to only report arrests for "immoral purposes" or "acts of homosexuality" when committed by Black women and men seeking to solicit white men.
1950s
Mass firings at the State Department during the Lavender Scare dominate local headlines, setting the tone for a decade of fear and persecution in Columbia. Despite the fear of their mail being opened, at least some local gays and lesbians subscribed to ONE Magazine; others likely subscribed to The Daughters of Bilitis . Many legal and social injustices remain hard to find due to a lack of historical records; the mass expulsion of gay students at the University of South Carolina in the mid-1950s lives on only in the minds of the students who were there. Oral histories also supply the only evidence of early gay bars Jimmy's Place and the opening of The Lounge on Lady by Dot Huff.
1960s
Although Damron's Guide , a national directory of gay spaces, only includes beer bar The Lounge on Lady during its first five years of publication, there are several others in operation. When LGBTQ Columbians are not socializing at the Star Lite Lounge or Frenchies on South Main, they're hosting parties in private homes, like that of Robert Barnes and Jerry Kelly. Their discretion is the product of police harassment and lack of workplace protections. In 1964, The State published a series on "sex criminals" that included homosexuals. It noted that while the legal standard for buggery, or homosexual behavior, was hard to prove, police often charged gay men and trans women with disorderly conduct.
1970s
The sexual revolution and Stonewall uprising spark new attitudes in young LGBTQ Columbians. The UofSC Gay Liberation Front, The Alliance, the SC Coalition of Gay and Lesbian Rights, and Lambda Alliance all originate with current or former UofSC students, and The Gamecock student newspaper regularly covers LGBTQ issues. These range from a series of interviews with a transitioning student to a years-long debate about homosexuality between gay and straight students. All across the city many secretive "beer bars" give way to disco clubs, including Club Manhattan and The End Zone, but Our Place (OP's), a stone's throw from the South Carolina State House, remains the most notorious nightlife spot. As in decades past, cruising along Senate Street is common, but violence against gay men and trans women who rely on bar and street "pickups" is becoming rampant.
1980s
The discovery of AIDS in 1981 and its impact on Columbia's LGBTQ community alter the trajectory of gay rights organizing. Energy refocuses on supporting afflicted friends and family through the creation of support groups and fundraisers for Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services. Disco fades and with it many popular gay clubs; in their place are more selective safe spaces, including lesbian bar Traxx, nightclubs Menage and Rumours, and gay bar The Capital Club. More than ever before, individuals begin publicly coming out, although Pride events remain largely closed to the straight population. One key exception: UofSC's Gay Student Association, fresh off its successful lawsuit , holds the city's first Gay Pride Week in the Russell House Student Union.
1990s
The 1990s arrive with a bang: the inaugural South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride March. Participants translate their joy and determination into a host of key institutions: the incorporation of the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement and creation of Columbia's gay community center, the founding of the South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Business Guild, and the publication of local newsletters Triangle Times and In Unison . Activists push to add nondiscrimination clauses to city and university policies and file suit against the State to ensure medical benefits for AIDS patients. The community attends funeral after funeral, ultimately losing some of the movement's most energetic and talented members. After years of "bar wars," Metropolis and The Candy Shop emerge victorious, introducing a whole new generation to gay culture.
Creating LGBTQ+ Columbia
Bill Dalton, Matt Tischler, and Michael Grant at Sesquicentennial Park, 1991.
This brief history does not fully illuminate the complex and rich stories behind the many people, organizations, and events that shape the LGBTQ community to this day. To ensure that this history is comprehensively documented and made accessible to all, Historic Columbia and UofSC Libraries launched the LGBTQ+ Columbia History Initiative. Since January 2021, we have:
- Created an oral history website , with interviews completed and transcribed by Historic Columbia (2020) and Santi Thompson (2007).
- Researched more than 250 events, organizations, and businesses and published a thematic map using ArcGIS software, presented here as part of "We're Here!" [1]
- Developed a short walking tour for Pride 2021.
- Written two longform stories, Alone | Together: The Impact of AIDS , and " Each Individual's Right to Be": A Gay History of the University of South Carolina .
Please continue scrolling to view the thematic map and take the walking tour, or use the headings to navigate.
Map Instructions
The We're Here! Map has 8 thematic layers represented by different colors. Each dot represents a site associated with LGBTQ life, and many dots are overlaid. Continue scrolling to learn more.
Click on a dot to open a pop-up window describing the event, organization, or place - in this case the bar "The Playground." If the pop-up window is not fully visible, use your fingers to move the map.
Each pop-up window includes a description at the bottom. Use the hidden scroll bar on the right-hand side to view this information.
Many sites evolved over time or have served more than one purpose. Click the arrow on the bottom right-hand corner to learn more.
Explore the Sites!
Continue scrolling to view the map, or, select Pride Tour! in the heading to read more about seven places within walking distance of Main Street.
LGBTQ+ Columbia Sites, 1950s-2020s
Use the buttons below to filter the map by category. Double-tap the map to zoom on mobile devices, but please note, use a computer or tablet for an optimized experience.
Pride Tour!
Learn about six places that matter from the people who made history.
01 / 07
1
From State House March to Main Street Festival
1200 Gervais Street
"I was super excited about it. Excited, nervous, wondering whether or not there were going to be a lot of protesters there. Wondering how the police were going to respond. I was hyper focused on making certain that my grandmother was safe, because she marched with us. She wore clown makeup because she didn’t really want everyone to recognize her in Columbia. I don’t know, just super excited. I wanted very much to be out. I don’t think I realized at the time that coming out was going to be something that you are going to have to do almost every day of your life." - Michelle Schohn
"...but you also have to realize that something happened in 2014, '13, '14. And that was that the gay community would no longer pay for Pride. It was all paid for by sponsors and grants, and my community no longer had to pay for it." - Jeff March
Standing on Main Street looking towards the State House today, it is hard to fathom what June 23, 1990, was like for participants. As many of LGBTQ+ Columbia interviewees have shared, fear and excitement, followed by a sense of pride, were common. So were fond memories of taking over the front steps of the building and chanting phrases like, "We're Here, We're Queer, and We're Not Going Shopping!"
But in the more than 30 years since that day, Pride has completely transformed, as have attitudes about LGBTQ+ individuals. Gone are the days of protest rallys and small picnics or afterparties attended by just LGBTQ+ folk and their friends and families. Today's Pride is attended by a diverse crowd, young and old, gay and straight, and that change happened when Pride took over Main Street in 2012. Other recent SC Pride inventions, Outfest, the "Get Lit Night Parade" and "Brave the Rainbow" window cling campaign, ensure that gay rights are on people's minds all year long.
[caption] Inaugural South Carolina Pride March, June 23, 1990.
2
The Capital Club
1002 Gervais Street
"I met Les in 1965. We got together shortly after that. We were together for an awfully long time, 40 years. We opened the Capital Club together. Oh, what a job that was. We fought the State of South Carolina for a year to get the Capital Club opened." - Eddie Early
"There’s never been a big sign that said Capital Club. Those windows in the front… Actually, the windows were always there, but when we got the club, we boarded up the outside in the front, and also on the inside, and built the bar, and all these things. We didn’t want anyone to know it was there. It was a… When that club formed there were 100 charter members, and I was one of them. My membership number is 27. Les’s of course was one and Eddie’s was two. He wanted a place… He used to say, 'I want a place where I can go have a drink.'" - Bill Skipper
In the late 1970s, Eddie Early, Les Miller (1932-2007), and Bill Edens (1951-1993) began planning The Capital Club, a private gay bar, in downtown Columbia. Both Miller and Early were veterans of the gay bar scene, having worked at O'Grays and later owning Our Place (OP's). The trio’s quest did not go unnoticed, however. Local officials constantly harassed them over building codes during its construction, and Rose Rudnick Rubin (1917-2003), wife of former South Carolina senator Hyman S. Rubin (1913-2005), protested its liquor license. After a delay of more than a year, The Capital Club opened in 1980. During its first two years of operation, the exclusive club required a detailed application for those who sought membership. Unlike other gay bars, the atmosphere was subdued, with many men stopping by after work to have a drink and relax. In the early 1980s, Edens sold his partnership and opened gay disco bar Games. In 2014, Early sold The Capital Club to Garry Dollahite, with Bill Skipper remaining on as president. Although still a private club, it now welcomes everyone.
[caption 1] Eddie Early tends bar, 1980s.
[caption 2] Capital Club Board, 1985. Front: Les Miller, Eddie Early, Bill Skipper; Back: Jeff Blackwelder, Sally Aaron, Tracy Reynolds.
[caption 3] Inaugural Ms. Capital Club Pageant, early 1990s.
3
Bluestocking Books
829 Gervais Street
"One of the first people that I reached out to was Naiad Press, which was a press that published two books a month by lesbian writers. It was out of Florida and had published Curious Wine. And so I had reached out to them, and it was just a little two-woman operation down there. But Barbara Grier was the woman who founded it. She and her partner, whose name is escaping me. But someday, somebody has got to do a full-scale book on Barbara Grier because I mean, her contribution to gay history and just literature in general is just phenomenal.
But I called her, said, 'I’m opening up this book store and I’d like to have some books by Naiad Press.' And she just took me and just, I don’t know if she just realized that I was in over my head, or whether she did it for everybody. My guess is she did it for everybody. But she was just like, 'You need to do this, you need to do this.'" - Teresa Williams
In 1992, Teresa Williams opened feminist bookstore Bluestocking Books, which quickly became one of the main places LGBTQ community members could pick up copies of newsletters, including In Unison , as well as gay and lesbian fiction and non-fiction. Williams regularly hosted writers and screened movies, ensuring that it became the defacto gathering space for LGBTQ individuals before the opening of the SC Gay and Lesbian Community Center. Bluestocking Books closed in 1993.
[caption]: Teresa Williams in her store, 1992.
4
Senate Street
Intersection of Senate and Sumter Streets
"Everybody knew about it. Everybody knew. Senate Street has been gay since Sherman marched through so, yeah, I knew about it. It was a common joke." - Jerry Kelly & Robert Barnes
There was perhaps no place more synonymous with gay culture than Senate Street. Also know as the Primrose Path and the Fruit Loop, the stretch of road between Sumter and Pickens streets was a pickup spot since time immemorial, although it wasn't listed in Damron's Guide until 1972. While social mores before the 1970s meant that arrests for public sex or "immoral acts" were rarely detailed in newspapers, they happened frequently. According to The State , by 1980 one of the two men meeting during a cruising encounter was more and more likely to be an undercover cop; over the course of seven months they arrested more than 70 "male prostitutes."
Gay men who cruised Senate Street were vulnerable to more than arrest, with some being assaulted, robbed, or even murdered. In the 1980s, AIDS would become the street's silent killer.
5
Trinity Cathedral
1100 Sumter Street
"So it was only two months after my being hired at DHEC that we called the meeting that was the founding of PALSS, with twelve people from around the state, at Trinity Cathedral in August of '85." - Tony Price
Beginning in 1985, Trinity Episcopal served as a key meeting space for AIDS support groups. In addition to hosting the gathering of individuals who would soon form Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services (PALSS), it also hosted that group's very first "Buddy" training. A PALSS buddy supported a patient living with AIDS through acts of care: visiting the hospital, buying food, cleaning, and providing transportation and emotional support. Many of these buddy pairings ended with the death of the patient.
From 1988-1991, Trinity was also home to weekly meetings of The Healing Energy Circle (T.H.E. Circle), a support group for those living with HIV/AIDS and their loved ones. T.H.E. Circle explored alternative healing methods as an additional tool to fight terminal illness. Their motto was "Live! Until You Die," and in addition to mourning the loss of members, they also celebrated birthdays. Its founders and early leaders were Jim Blanton, Jimmy Sullivan (1958-1990), Marge Cooley, Eric Schell (1964-2007), and Bob Waites, who secured the meeting space.
[caption 1] PALSS Executive Director Bill Edens, Harriet Hancock, and Dr. Francisco Sy lead marchers from UofSC's Horseshoe to Trinity Cathedral on World Aids Day 1988.
[caption 2] T.H.E. Circle flyer, 1989.
6
Russell House
1400 Greene Street
"But we officially had a PO box, we had the right to meet anytime there was available meeting space and we quickly called a meeting and held the first official University of South Carolina GSA meeting then, in March. March of '83. So, that’s it. And we wrote a little brochure up, and I mentioned there is a brochure called 'Close the Closet.' We stole Don Weatherbee’s editorial title, and we chronicled the history." - Tony Price
"There were public restrooms in there, and that’s how students and local people met, was in that restroom. One time a guy was in there, Jimmy… I shouldn’t say that, I don’t know his last name. Yeah, I do too but I ain’t telling. His name was Jimmy, and he was in one of the booths. And this guy walked in there and he said, “That’s my booth. Get out of my booth.” And Jimmy told him, “No.” And so this guy went out into the lobby of the Russell House and got some newspaper, and wadded it up and set it on fire. (Laughter) And threw those at the top of the… Needless to say Jimmy came out, and the guy stomped the paper out and went in. (Laughs) Columbia was so wild, oh my God." - Eddie Early
After failed attempts to organize the USC Gay Liberation Front in 1972 and 1973, homosexuality remained a hot-button topic among students for the next decade in the Gamecock newspaper. Chief among straight students' concerns was the ongoing propositions by cruising men at Thomas Cooper Library and the Russell House.
The arguing reached its peak in 1982, when Tony Price attempted to form the Gay Student Association (GSA) and later sued the university for the right to charter the organization. Although the GSA won the legal battle, it came at the cost of Price being outed to his family on WIS.
In 1983, GSA hosted Columbia's very first Gay Pride Week at Russell House, which culminated in a formal dance. Two years later, they hosted the wildly successful L.I.P.S. (Lip-syncing In Professional Style), UofSC's first public drag show.
[caption 1] L.I.P.S. Drag Show, 1985.
[caption 2] "Close the Closet" brochure, 1983.
7
Metropolis
1800 Blanding Street
"That was the beginning of that whole thing, was finding Metropolis, finding this club. That nightlife, club scene was my first safe space. That was where I really found myself. That’s where I learned who I really was and learned how to navigate all the nuances of what being gay meant. This is before internet, before we were chatting and all that, so that was where you had to go to meet people. I feel very fortunate that that was my first landing place." - Terrance Henderson
Metropolis was not the first gay nightclub at this location, nor was it necessarily the most famous. Previous bars included Rumours (1982-1986), The Playground (1989-1990), Club New York (1990-1991), Badlands (1992-1993), and Panama's (1993-1994).
Opened in 1995 by Chuck Bowen (1956-2015) and Susie Newman (died 2014) with backing from Wil Sligh, Metropolis managed to outlast numerous "challenges" by other gay bars, something its predecessors never did. Under the guidance of veteran nightclub manager Tony Snell, it hosted several famous performers, including Dawn DuPree and Samantha Hunter, as well as DJs playing popular music. As former "club kid" Henderson recalls, "Literally, hundreds of folks were packed outside of Preston College on that front porch waiting for people to pull up and carpools to get in the cars and go to Metropolis. It was the times when there’s a line out the door, and they’re going to turn away 100 people. It was like that."
Metropolis closed in 2002, and today this former "gay church" is now a literal church - Midtown Fellowship.
[caption] Metropolis advertisement, November 1996.
