I ended up going out last night to Charlottesville's only gay club, Club216, which is owned and operated by the PIEDMONT TRIANGLE SOCIETY, a non-profit organization established to promote the interests of the Gay community in Virginia, and which works to create a supportive social environment for its' members and guests. The club is a private club - you can pay a one night admission or join on an annual basis - which means it stays open until 5:00 AM and when I left at 2:30 AM, a long line was at the door waiting to get in. The dance music was great (if one likes club dance music) and the crowd was very diverse: straights, gays, blacks, whites, Asians, Indians (as in from India), and Hispanics. The club has, in addition to a large dance floor that takes up roughly 1/3 of the club, two rooms with pool tables, two bars, a stage for shows and an area with tables for those who want to sit and talk over the music. *
Having first come to Charlottesville for college at the beginnings of the 1970's when there were basically only one or two bars in the entire town, little would I have dreamed that Charlottesville would ever be like it is now or that it would have a gay club like Club216. How the world has changed! In addition to some beautiful lipstick lesbians who stood out in the crowd, there were several young gay couples dancing together - very intimately, I might add - that looked like Abercrombie model quality fraternity boys who would easily have blended in with my former Southern aristocracy fraternity brothers at Zeta Psi so many years ago. These boys were HOT. As the area's only after hours club, there were many straights too, all of whom seemed just fine about dancing side by side with the gay couples.
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In any event, if you are in town on a Friday or Saturday night (the only nights that it is open other than for special events), it's worth checking out Club216 - just be advised that things don't really get going full steam until after 1:00AM.
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