{"id":326828,"date":"2026-11-13T12:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/326828\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T12:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:44:25","slug":"fundraiser-drag-queen-show-to-help-bring-back-lgbtq-club-in-allentown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/326828\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundraiser, drag queen show to help bring back LGBTQ+ club in Allentown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lehigh Valley\u2019s last LGBTQ club closed over the summer, but efforts now are underway to bring it back.<\/p>\n

A patron of the former Vogue Lounge, paramedic Chris Sholley, has started a movement<\/a> to raise money to buy and reopen the club.<\/p>\n

The club at 28 N. 10th St, also known as Stonewall, announced its closure<\/a> in late August.<\/p>\n

Sholley said it was a safe space that allowed for self-discovery, and meant that people didn\u2019t have to drive outside the Lehigh Valley to find something similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just makes you feel like you can go there, just be yourself, let your hair down,\u201d he said. \u201cFinding yourself like that, you can\u2019t do that in a straight area sometimes. \u2026 I\u2019ve been with a group of friends that were gay in \u2026 a straight club actually, and you bumped into somebody wrong and they reacted differently, sometimes violently \u2026 just because they thought you were hitting on them or something. It just doesn\u2019t give you that comfortability of just having everybody that\u2019s gay around you just accept you for who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sholley said he hopes to raise enough money to secure a Small Business Administration loan to buy the property, secure the liquor license and cover initial operating costs. He also wants to make repairs to the roof; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; plumbing; and walls; and would like to update the bathrooms and add an elevator to be fully accessible.<\/p>\n

To help raise funds,\u00a0a \u201creunion night\u201d event<\/a> will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Event Center at Shepherd Hills Golf Club at 1160 S. Krocks Road in Lower Macungie Township. It will feature drag queens such as Eileen O\u2019Brennan and Estella Sweet as well as DJ David Petrilla. The fundraising effort also includes a GoFundMe<\/a> page and apparel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Allentown property that housed the Vogue Lounge was built in 1916<\/a>; the club opened in 1972. Richard and John Smith owned the property from 2005 until the club, then known as Stonewall, closed in 2021 and the building was sold<\/a> to 28-30 N 10th Street Landholdings LLC, which Lehigh County property records still list as the owner.<\/p>\n

The club reopened in 2022 as the Vogue Lounge, said Jack Monteiro, who became a customer in 1985 and then started working at the club in 1993, going from cleaning glassware and supplying the bartender to becoming bartender himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, especially in the \u201980s, most of us, if you were gay, you were in the closet,\u201d Monteiro said. \u201cSo you basically were in the closet with your family. You were in the closet at work or school, your college. You were in the closet, so \u2026 that was the one place where you could be yourself. So yeah, it was like going home. Once you got there, you just felt like you belong there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The LGBTQ+ club Vogue Lounge, also known as Stonewall, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in Allentown. A former patron has launched an effort to buy and reopen the club, which closed in late August after over 50 years of operation. (April Gamiz\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The LGBTQ+ club Vogue Lounge, also known as Stonewall, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in Allentown. A former patron has launched an effort to buy and reopen the club, which closed in late August after over 50 years of operation. (April Gamiz\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The LGBTQ+ club Vogue Lounge, also known as Stonewall, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in Allentown. A former patron has launched an effort to buy and reopen the club, which closed in late August after over 50 years of operation. (April Gamiz\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

The LGBTQ+ club Vogue Lounge, also known as Stonewall, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in Allentown. A former patron has launched an effort to buy and reopen the club, which closed in late August after over 50 years of operation. (April Gamiz\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Monteiro noted that the club\u2019s business dropped in the six months before it closed, and that he was told the club would close the day before with no reason provided.<\/p>\n

As much as he enjoyed his work, Monteiro said the closure disappointed him more for being the last LGBTQ+ club in the Lehigh Valley. Candida\u2019s Bar closed in 2017 in Allentown and Diamonz Nightclub closed in 2016 in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

He figured that some in the LGBTQ+ community, especially the younger generation, may feel more accepted and not see clubs like Vogue as important, but he argued they still feel different than other kinds of venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, the experience is not the same,\u201d Monteiro said. \u201cI still feel like I have to be on guard. Like if I was on a date, I would never just hold my date\u2019s hand or even kiss that person on the cheek at a straight place, you know what I mean? I would just feel too nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

If reopening and taking over Vogue doesn\u2019t work out, the fundraising money would go toward someone else wanting to open a similar business or to the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, and the GoFundMe money would be returned, Sholley said.<\/p>\n

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