Social club provides a safe space for the gay community

Laura Peters | The News Leader

CHARLOTTESVILLE - It's just about dusk on a Friday night in Charlottesville. Across the street from Bodo's Bagel and adjacent to the Cavalier Diner is a night club.

You can't tell from the outside, though. There are some Pride flags waving out front, but there's just a door by an Asian market and a Mexican grocery on Emmet Street.

You enter a hallway on the first floor. The walls are dark, there are various lights strobing about as you head up a staircase giving off hues of purple, pink and blue.

There's a faint sound of music playing — various artists from Britney Spears and Whitney Houston to Gloria Gaynor and Spice Girls.

This is Impulse Gay Social Club.

Kevin Morris-Lewis came out to his family with open arms.

"I have a very loving family," he said.

Morris-Lewis grew up in an old Southern family.

"I had several family members that were very much against it, but they came around," he said. "But it wasn't them I was afraid of. We'd go to the clubs and beer bottles would be slung at us, our cars would get vandalized. We got called all kinds of names."

There were some family members who didn't fully grasp the idea of him being gay, but overall his family was understanding.

But that doesn't always happen.

Morris-Lewis wanted a place for the the area's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community could gather safely and without judgement.

After the Silver Fox, a gay club in downtown Charlottesville, closed in the early 1980s there were several different organizations that took over, but it fizzled out in the mid-1990s.

By 2011, Morris-Lewis started looking for a place to open. In 2013, he found a space to run a nonprofit and social club.

He and his fiancé Angus Butcher are co-owners of the Impulse Gay Social Club in Charlottesville, which is run by the nonprofit called Salty Dog Society.

"I do this for my community," Morris-Lewis said.

Morris-Lewis and his fiancé first met at Impulse. Butcher knew no one when he walked into the social club.

"Everybody came up to me and introduced themselves to me," Butcher said. "They said whether I liked it or not, I was part of the family now. People were really, really cool to me."

He loves making connections with people, especially since he's originally from Louisiana.

"Even though this is a much smaller city, I'm surprised how cool everyone has been," he said. "It's a very welcoming environment, I love it so much."

Now, Morris-Lewis is set to open a second location in Waynesboro. City council recently approved the permits for the club to be located at 101 E. Main St. He hopes to open the new spot by the beginning of 2019.

A space for a collective family

Morris-Lewis grew up in Charlottesville. He helped establish 216, the bar and social club owned by nonprofit called Piedmont Triangle Society. The establishment 216 took over Silver Fox.

"It was a rough time for gays, we were like family," he said.

He came out in a decade when AIDS was becoming very prevalent.

"I came out during a time when I would go to the hospital and hold the person's hand while he died," he said. "I lost so many friends in one year and it hurts to think about it today to think where they could be with us."

When 216 closed, there wasn't a place for Morris-Lewis and his friends to hangout.

"I felt like there was a sense of something needed for the young community to learn from us, where we came from and a sense of family for those who got kicked out of their house," he said.

He wanted a place where people would feel accepted. That's when Salty Dog Society Inc. came about.

"The way I describe it to someone is, if I wanted to make a million dollars or I wanted to be rich, a nonprofit social club would not be the way to go," he said.

"I do this for my community. I do this to give back because I feel the young gays, lesbians, transgenders, questioning, whatever they may be and whatever walk of life they come from. I think they should have a place that they feel that they're not alone. That they're not weird, that they're not wrong and there's plenty of us out there," he added. "They need a place for safety, fun and like-minded people."

Impulse may be a social club, but Morris-Lewis said it's not centered around drinking and partying. It's a venue where he holds benefits, bingo, drag shows, free testing services and other meetings.

"It's more of giving an outlet for the community," he said.

Morris-Lewis has the Virginia Health Department come in once a month to do free testing services for his members.

Groups use the space to meet, because there aren't places for them to meet.

He holds benefits for the community — for those who may be sick, without homes or local organizations like the Emergency Food Network, Toys for Tots and St. Jude's.

"We really do try to do as much as we can," he said.

Every membership fee brought in goes directly back to the nonprofit Salty Dog Inc. The money made at the bar goes back into the bar — paying the bills and keeping the lights on.

"I think we still have a ways to go with our community," he said. "I think that people don't have the sense of family and rallying around as they did back in my day because there are more places that are tolerant of the gays. I say tolerant because acceptance is a big deal and that's what we do, we accept everybody."

How it works

"People now think we're just a night club and don't take in the fact that we are a nonprofit," Morris-Lewis said. "We do do good. We are not just a night club, we are a social club."

People come from all over the state as far and as Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

"They want to socialize with the owners and the staff because we make everyone feel welcome," he said. "When you walk in the door I look at you as a potential member and a potential family member."

The set-up of Impulse is much like a Moose Lodge, which is a fraternal and service organization that is membership-based.

Members pay $50 a year for a membership or $15 a month, which allows to bring in one guest and even your own liquor to be served to you behind the bar. The club has a beer and wine license.

"Unless you're a member, you can't drink hard liquor," Morris-Lewis said.

The club is 18 years and up between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. — but only 21 and up can drink.

"It gives them a place to come and feel there is relief and there are people who understand where I'm coming from," he said.

After 2 a.m. the social club becomes a nightclub for members.

There's only two people employed by Salty Dog — Morris-Lewis and one bartender. The rest are volunteers. Butcher volunteers his time as a DJ and other friends and family members act as bartenders, works the door, security or helps with other things the social club needs.

Currently, the club has 650 active members and since opening it's seen almost 4,000 members. On a normal night, the club can see a rotation of about 100 a night with about 50 people in the club at one time.

Growing in Waynesboro

Morris-Lewis has called Waynesboro home for just over two years.

"We've gotten to know a lot of people in Waynesboro and we have a lot of members that live in Waynesboro," Morris-Lewis said.

He's hoping to reach a new group of people in the Shenandoah Valley.

The new spot will include a patio and an area for outdoor games like corn hole. The new space will give Morris-Lewis the opportunity to purchase the building down the road. He is currently leasing the space and renovating it.

The Waynesboro location will open earlier and more often. Morris-Lewis is looking to be open four days a week with different events. He will also offer more bar food options for members at the new location.

For now, Morris-Lewis is renegotiating his lease in Charlottesville at 1417 Emmet St. and hopes to run both social clubs in the two locations.

Morris-Lewis has seen a number of people oppose him in Waynesboro using biblical verses to denounce homosexuality. Those who have opposed him, he encourages them to check out what the social club is all about.

"I don't mean to disrespect anyone but anyone who thinks this way in today's society, you're not contributing, you're taking away," he said.

For more information visit Impulse Gay Social Club on Facebook.

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Follow Laura Peters @peterslaura and @peterpants. You can reach her at lpeters@newsleader.com or 213-9125.