Gay Friendly

It’s midnight and the techno-funk beat is pulsing furiously.

Two clean-cut young men dance together near a mirrored wall, their arms a blur of motion.

They melt into the crowd. Just inches separate everyone. The pair is surrounded by men and women in groups, in couples and even some brave people dancing by themselves, such as a man dressed as a woman in a green dress suit. Many of the dancers at one of Spokane’s most popular dance clubs are 20-somethings.

But Dempsey’s Brass Rail is distinctly different from other popular Spokane bars: It’s a gay bar.

Some gays who frequent the club say the throngs of heterosexuals are taking away from Dempsey’s role as a sanctuary for gays and lesbians.

They see the mainstream success that Dempsey’s is achieving as a threat to the very intent of the club as a meeting place for the gay community.

“They take over and they sort of push us out of the way,” said Mark Southwick, 42, editor of the Spokane gay monthly Stonewall News Northwest.

On weekend nights, people of all sexual tastes cram the dance floor. They say they feel accepted. But some see the influx of heterosexuals in recent years as an invasion.

For Southwick, the Dempsey’s crowd is now too young, too loud and too straight.

“The last time I was there, which was early last year, I was up there and looking around and saw this guy I liked, and I saw him looking somewhere and he was looking at a woman,” he said.

“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that’s not fair.”’

Dempsey’s, at 909 W. First, is more to the gay community than a dance club. It’s also a bar intended to give homosexuals in conservative Spokane a clean, tastefully decorated club they can go to without feeling inhibited.

Plus, the club is one of only a handful of gay bars in the Inland Northwest.

“Since Spokane has such a closeted gay community, this is one of the few places gays can go to flirt,” said Jeffery T. Miller, 26, who recently moved from Seattle. “There’s a lot of homophobia here.”

Owner David Lewis said he knows some gays have fled the club because of its popularity among straights, but said Dempsey’s always will be a “gay club.”

“I’m proud to own an establishment that the straight sector can come to and be accepted with open arms,” he said. “As long as they’re gay-friendly and don’t cause problems, it’s OK.”

Readers of The Inlander, a Spokane alternative weekly, named Dempsey’s the best dance club in town last April.

“All of a sudden … it’s become fashionable to come to a gay club,” Lewis said.

“Dempsey’s, known initially as one of Spokane’s preeminent gay nightclubs, has risen steadily in popularity over the past five years,” the Inlander reported. “And as long as the club continues to play the hottest dance music around, people will remain loyal.”

A 24-year-old bisexual man who works in sales and asked not to be identified, fearing the reactions of his boss and clients, agreed Dempsey’s is a great dance club. He sat by himself in the second-level lounge area off the dance floor.

“If you’re looking for a straight club, this is a great straight club,” he said. “I can definitely tell this place has lost its appeal to a gay crowd. Just take a look around. It’s all straight couples.”

The frustration among gays about the influx of heterosexuals doesn’t surprise Laura Brown, a Seattle psychologist who works with gays and lesbians.

“There might be a sense of, ‘You have all these other places. Leave our place alone,”’ Brown said. “You want a place to socialize where you won’t encounter bias.”

A club such as Dempsey’s is even more important in a community like Spokane because fewer social opportunities exist for gays here, she said.

Homosexuals who aren’t openly gay in a conservative community may be more fearful of being found out at a mixed club, she said.

“There’s real social costs to people who come out,” Brown said.

Southwick said he prefers the gay tavern Hour Place because it has a quieter crowd.

Some gays go to Pumps II, a dance club smaller than Dempsey’s.

Lewis said he and his partner, Tom Nixon, opened Dempsey’s six years ago because they wanted a place to go with friends and family where they could be comfortable as a gay couple.

The bar will remain dedicated to giving gays their own club, Lewis said. “We’re reassuring the gay community that we are a gay club and always will be a gay club.”

A bar, recreation room with pool tables and a dining area are on the first floor of Dempsey’s.

Wallpaper of splotchy pastels covers the recreation room walls, which also sport posters of movie stars Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo. In the bar, tables are topped with marble.

Climb the stairs trimmed with brass railing to find another bar and the club’s rectangular dance floor. Signs with the slogan “The place to be gay” decorate the club.

Straights who like the club think it’s more than just a place to be gay.

Jamie Keller, 22, who grew up in Spokane but now lives in Seattle, said she prefers Dempsey’s over many Seattle bars.

“I come back here just to come to this place,” said Keller, a heterosexual. “I think it’s the best-kept secret in Spokane.” She likes going to the club because she can enjoy dancing without getting hit on.

Steven Carpenter, 24, an accountant, is heterosexual and goes to Dempsey’s often. He has never had anyone make him feel uncomfortable.

“Since it’s a gay bar people don’t come here to judge people,” said Carpenter. He lives in Portland but travels to Spokane to see family and his girlfriend. “I’ve come here for two years and nobody’s ever, ever bothered me.”

On weekend nights, there’s no missing the straight couples, who jam the dance floor.

But the club is a place to be accepted for many others who are not in traditional heterosexual couples. They dance in groups, by themselves or with friends of the same sex.

Frank Kane, a cross-dresser who goes by the name Jennifer, said Dempsey’s is one of the few places he goes without fear of harassment.

“I get a lot of the ‘Let’s leave this person alone’ kind of looks,” he said.

But at Dempsey’s he feels there’s nothing to be afraid of, on the dance floor or in the bar.

Kane, dressed in a green skirt suit and wearing earrings, foundation and lipstick, danced by himself before going downstairs to the bar. “I like the people I meet and feel accepted.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo