A place to be free Outpouring of support a sign of Club 200's importance to the LGBTTQ+ community, local drag scene By: Eva Wasney Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Jun. 24, 2021 Last Modified: 9:08 AM CDT Friday, Jun. 25, 2021 Updates

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This article was published 23/06/2021 (1280 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On a quiet evening during the first wave of the pandemic, Allen Morrison turned on the music and lit up the dance floor at Club 200 as he had nearly every night for the last 30 years. Only on that night — and many that followed — there would be no karaoke, no drag performances, no dancing the night away. There would be no people.

“I just kind of walked around and reminisced,” says the owner of Winnipeg’s longest running LGBTTQ+ nightclub. “It was very emotional for me to not know what was going to happen to my business.”

The Garry Street venue has been closed for much of the last 16 months and, for a time, Morrison wasn’t sure he’d be able to reopen. This week, however, he’s feeling optimistic about the future, thanks to an outpouring of support from the community that calls Club 200 home.

For Morrison, the club really is home. He had just moved to Winnipeg from Northwestern Ontario and was still coming to terms with his sexuality when he landed a job as a busboy in 1992 at the age of 18. The gay bar was a place he could “feel free to feel free.”

“I realize it’s a bar, and so there’s drinking and partying,” he says over the phone from his home reserve of Big Grassy River First Nation, where he’s working amid the pandemic. “But it also surrounded me with other people who were not only like-minded, but supportive and it allowed me to be who I was.”

He rose through the ranks and bought into the club in 2001. The establishment has evolved from a piano lounge, when it opened in 1988, to a nightclub with a full-service restaurant and a strong connection to Winnipeg’s drag scene. Above all, it’s been a safe place for the LGBTTQ+ community to gather.

Morrison has a hard time describing exactly what makes Club 200 a safe space. There’s security at the door, sure; but it’s more than that. The staff is diverse and welcoming, the atmosphere is intentionally non-judgmental and the queer-owned business has a long history of supporting LGBTTQ+ causes and issues.

“I guess by just existing,” he says after taking a moment to think. “A lot of people ask why gay bars are still even needed… we’re the only social support for a lot of people in the community, folks who might not feel comfortable fully and freely expressing themselves.”

The club regularly hosts holiday get-togethers where patrons can celebrate with their chosen family and Morrison has counselled many people through hard times from what he calls the “chair of woe” in his office.

“By closing, it felt like we were taking something away from them,” he says, his voice cracking.

The number of gay bars in Winnipeg has shrunk exponentially over the last few decades. Today, Club 200 is one of two remaining venues in the city — although Fame Nightclub is currently looking for a new location.

Last Friday, a group of well-known local drag queens launched a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $40,000 for the establishment.

Organizer Anita Stallion says the venue’s impact is felt well beyond downtown Winnipeg.

“We have a lot of people who come here from Northern Manitoba and outlying communities,” she says. “I can’t imagine how they would feel to not have it here.”

Stallion is a server and regular performer who was instrumental in bringing back the bar’s annual drag pageant in the ‘90s after a lengthy hiatus. A new Miss Club 200 is crowned each year and the event has created a tight-knit community within Winnipeg’s drag scene. For many drag queens and kings, the small stage has been a place to find their identity.

“This audience has experienced drag for years,” Stallion says. “It helps to build you up and it also helps to teach you what style works for you.”

More than performing, Stallion misses connecting with patrons — many of whom she’s lost touch with because of the pandemic. The fundraiser has revived that sense of community and prompted many people to share their favourite stories and memories of the club online.

“Knowing the reasons people donated is really touching,” Stallion says.

Paula Rutledge and Rita Leonard have the latitude and longitude of Club 200 inscribed on a pair of matching bracelets. The couple met at the bar 24 years ago after being set up by mutual friends.

“She came over and asked me to dance,” Rutledge says over the phone from their home in Thunder Bay. “It was almost the end of the dance and she said, ‘I sure hope I can call you sometime.’ And I said, ‘You sure can.’”

They’ve been married for 16 years and while their donation comes from a personal place, they know how important the bar is to the wider community.

“There were a lot of times when people never came out and they spent their entire lives living in a straight world, but Club 200 was the place they could go to on a Friday and Saturday night and hang out with their friends,” says Leonard, who came out in her 30s. “And there are still people in the city right now that have those experiences.”

For Graeme Houssin, the permanent closure of Club 200 is not an option.

“It cannot go down; it would be devastating,” says the host of Drag in the Peg, a podcast about Winnipeg’s drag scene. “Club 200 is the heart of the drag community, no doubt about it — there’s not a drag performer in the city that doesn’t have some connection to the bar.”

Houssin has frequented the bar as a performer and photographer for the last four years. Being isolated from the friends and family at the club has been difficult, especially during Pride Month.

“During Pride Week, Club 200 would have events going on every single day,” Houssin says. “It definitely feels more necessary than ever for our community to take action.”

The fundraiser collected more than $30,000 in just a few days and was well on its way to meeting the campaign target at press time.

Morrison has been overwhelmed by the response and says the money will help him pay down some of the debt he’s accrued over the last year. With Wednesday’s easing of restrictions for bars and restaurants, reopening is even more of a guarantee.

“I can’t wait to get this over and get back to normal, so I can start creating those new memories,” he says.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney