by Christopher Beckwith
Community protests continue over the raid at Midtown Atlanta gay leather bar The Eagle. The club is a long-standing Midtown fixture with a 23 year history in Atlanta.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the raid was a result of a tip sent to Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office alleging ‘illicit sex’ at The Eagle. Ironically, Mayor Franklin’s election and re-election campaigns were headquartered in space adjoining The Eagle. This is a total contradiction to earlier claims of ‘several complaints’, which itself is suspect since there were no arrests for sex or selling of drugs which were the initial reasons for the raid. No drugs were found during the raid.
Police records indicate that undercover vice offers witnessed men participating openly in sexual acts in the establishment while other patrons watched. It was also documented that there were drugs being sold on the club’s premises.
Many of the club’s patrons on the night of the raid have come forth to tell of their ordeal at the hands of Atlanta police officers. One bar patron states, “We were forced to lay down on the club’s dirty floor for over an hour while everyone was searched. They [Atlanta police officers] forced us to empty our pockets and then ran checks on out driver’s licenses. The officers were making anti-gay remarks and I even heard one of them say he hated gay people.”
One of the officers was even quoted as saying, “This is more fun than raiding ni**ers with crack!”
An unnamed Atlanta police officer stated in a September 11th report, “Due to the lighting of the room, I was unable to see any sex acts happening. While standing in the back room, a patron from the bar began to engage me in conversation. When he walked away, he grabbed me on the groin and said he would see me later.”
The report also made mention of an anonymous complaint that lead to the several week investigation involving indecency and that the club was providing adult entertainment without the proper permits. This still leads one to wonder why the civil rights of all of the patrons in attendance that evening were violated.
Chief Richard Pennington states that he takes allegations of police misconduct seriously and that he regrets that Danni Lynn Harris, the APD’s liaison with the gay and lesbian community, was not aware of the raid. That seems a little suspect in and of itself.
An employee of the club who was not working on the evening of the raid was also an unlikely victim. The employee, who lives in an apartment above the club, said that he was surprised when someone started pounding on his door. He said he was asked by two Atlanta police if anyone was having sex inside. He said he was also asked why there was a bed in the room and he explained it was because he lived there. He was ultimately forced downstairs and arrested with the other employees.
What these officers probably didn’t expect was the outcry from the Midtown community as a whole, both gay and straight alike. Midtown resident Laura Gentle said to members of the Public Safety Committee of Atlanta City Council, “Everyone’s concerned that this will continue to go on. If this can happen at the Eagle, this can happen at any venue in Atlanta. This is not just a gay rights issue.”
Many of Atlanta’s residents have long complained about the increase in violent crime in the city and are asking the question was raiding a gay club with a 13 year presence in the community a resourceful use of valuable police manpower? The irony is these same offenses run rampant just a couple of blocks away from The Eagle. On any given night, there are drug dealers and prostitutes openly conducting business along Ponce De Leon Avenue, the street where The Eagle is located.
Onyx Southeast is a regional chapter of Men of Onyx, an African-American leather community network based in Atlanta, Chicago and New York. Onyx Southeast holds their monthly bar night at The Eagle on the first Friday of each month and also sponsors The Annual Blackout Conference.
During the 2007 conference, members registered for a four-day leather symposium called Blackout XII. Some paid an extra fee to enroll in Members could also participate in a community forum entitled “People of Color in Leather and Racism” and “Onyx University”, a workshop in BD/SM culture for and additional fee. The principal events of the conference were held at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel.
On October 7, 2007, an invitation-only event called “The Men’s VIP Party” was held at Spring 4th Center. The party was included in the conference’s enrollment fee. The only beverages available at the party were chilled bottles of water.
According to one witness, the raid began when an undercover officer came to the door and asked if there was a cover charge. He was told that it was a private party open to Onyx members only. Moments later, six uniformed APD (Atlanta Police Department) officers approached the door stating that they were told that Onyx was charging admission for the party.
The police then attempted to close the party citing the venue’s capacity had been exceeded. The handful of Onyx members confirmed that the attendance was nowhere near the venue’s capacity limit. The police finally left after the owner arrived and produced a business license.
Blackout XII organizers stated that the police were used several derogatory and anti-gay comments. One officer is quoted as saying, “Come see this freak show!” when calling other officers to the scene to witness the potential raid.
There is no record of the raid and Officer Darlene Harris, the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liaison at the time, was on vacation on the night of the raid.
But one might wonder if there’s a hidden agenda behind the upheaval that some intown Atlanta bars have experienced. Many of Atlanta’s gay clubs are unofficial targets of local real estate developers due to their coveted locations in Atlanta’s upscale Midtown. Most of these establishments were in existence long before the redevelopment boom began. Now that these properties are worth exponentially more than when first occupied by gay establishments, there is now a huge push to obtain them.
Local protesters have addressed the fact that closed gay establishments are almost always replaced by upscale high-rise developments. There’s no denying the value of the coveted properties these gay establishments occupy which raises questions about the validity of these anonymous complaints.
The first line of a 2007 Southern Voice article entitled ‘Demolished gay bars make way for Midtown’s future’ states, “The future of Midtown Atlanta is currently being built on top of the rubble of the neighborhood’s gay past”. Midtown Atlanta has historically been a Mecca for gay culture and nightlife. As the lure of Midtown becomes progressively more mainstream, builders continue to utilize aggressive tactics to cater to the neighborhood’s evolving demographic.
Backstreet Atlanta, a mainstay of Atlanta’s gay nightlife for over 30 years, was padlocked in July of 2004. Several rounds in a legal battle to keep the 24-hour landmark open failed after the passing of a city ordinance targeting after-hours nightspots.
Records in the Fulton County Tax Assessor’s office indicate that Backstreet owner, Vicki Vara, sold the land that the club once called home to the Novare Group in 2005 for $1.7 million. The building was demolished and immediately replaced with ViewPoint, a 36-story mixed-use the condominium development that towers over Peachtree Street. Vara’s battles with the City of Atlanta date back to 2001.
ViewPoint is part of a 14-block development project along Peachtree Street nicknamed the ‘Midtown Mile’. The plan spanning Peachtree Street from North Avenue to 15th Street is comprised of luxury office towers, condos and retail shops patterned after Madison Avenue in New York City and Chicago’s ‘Magnificent Mile’.
Akin to Backstreet was the neighboring Metro Video Bar. Located at 1080 Peachtree Street, the club sat at the top end of the proposed ‘Midtown Mile’. Metro was a popular gay haunt with male exotic dancers and had a reputation for drug activity. Like Backstreet, Metro was also targeted for closure by city officials and neighborhood activists.
After a long legal battle, the club was closed and sold to the Daniel Corporation and Selig Enterprises. The property that was once home to Metro now boasts the 35-story mixed-use tower ‘1010 Midtown’.
It’s also been rumored as of late that Bulldogs, the only remaining gay nightspot located on this portion of Peachtree Street, is also slated for the wrecking ball. Sandwiched between ViewPoint and Metropolis, a 20-story mixed-use condo development with $1 million plus units, Bulldogs has an unsure future and doesn’t seem likely to fit into the master plan of the ‘Midtown Mile’.
The Phoenix, another Midtown gay bar, was also the subject of litigation with the city of Atlanta. After neighborhood groups and city officials moved to shut the bar down, attempts to keep the 18-year old gay bar open fizzled when owner, Arlene Riley, died of cancer in 2006. The vacant building that once housed The Phoenix on Ponce De Leon Avenue now awaits its turn on the auction block.
What hasn’t been addressed is the double standard as local heterosexual establishments relate to their gay counterparts. On a few occasions, I’ve visited Club Esso, one of Atlanta’s more popular Black straight nightclubs. Each time that I’ve visited the club, I’ve noticed patrons openly smoking marijuana while Atlanta police officers turned a blind eye.
During one of my visits to Club Esso, Atlanta radio personality Frank Ski, who also DJ’s at the club, announced over the mic, "All my ni**as smoking that good green, put your blunts in the air!" His plea was followed by patrons throughout the club raising their lit blunts while the police officers, of which I counted at least five, laughed along.
Playing Devil’s advocate, I’m sure that a random BJ in the bathroom between a couple of drunken patrons doesn’t justify subjecting every other patron to brutal and unconstitutional treatment. I attended the monthly Onyx party at The Eagle the Friday before the raid so I have a personal stake in this story. I don’t know what I would have done if I were forced to lie face down on the club’s grubby floor while being taunted with gay slurs from Atlanta’s finest.
Christopher Beckwith is the author of the ground-breaking debut novel What’s In It For Me?
