Activist Kansas City Defender Blog Exposes 'Racist' Local LGBT History

As always . . . We attempt to keep reading on this blog eclectic and so we share this missive on old school local night life and local legend on the old school gay bar scene .  . . Enjoy . . . 

"The Dixie Belle Bar is lauded, perhaps, as one of the most nostalgic places for Kansas City’s LGBT nightlife from 1983 to 2006––but it was also once one of Kansas City’s most racist queer establishments. On July 27, 1993, Yul Stell, a Black organizer with Men Of All Colors Together–Kansas City, penned an open letter to the Dixie Belle. In the letter, he condemned the bar for displaying a confederate flag and called out racial practices the bar upheld––requiring that Black folk show four to five pieces of identification for entry into the establishment and placing a quota on Black folk who could be in the bar at one-time . . . The Dixie Belle Bar is but one example of an unspoken issue in Kansas City: that Black queer Kansas Citians have faced, not only erasure, but immense anguish for the sake of white LGBT progress––demonstrating a deeply seeded anti-Blackness that needs to be upended in order for true LGBT freedoms to exist."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

The Erasure and Subjugation of Black Queer Kansas Citians

A brief historical look at a long-reigning power-imbalance within Kansas City's queer community--leading to the subjugation of Black queer Kansas Citians.