On weekend nights, people of all sexual tastes cram the dance floor.
“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. 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.
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. Many of the dancers at one of Spokane’s most popular dance clubs are 20-somethings.īut Dempsey’s Brass Rail is distinctly different from other popular Spokane bars: It’s a gay bar. 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. Two clean-cut young men dance together near a mirrored wall, their arms a blur of motion. It’s midnight and the techno-funk beat is pulsing furiously.
