Page 8 HIGH GEAR MARCH 1981

A touch of class on Ninth

By Gordon Hathaway Cleveland's gay community turned out in large numbers for the Grand Opening of Keys, Cleveland's newest bar Thursday evening, February 12, with an estimated crowd of 500 attending

the gala festivities.

The enthusiastic crowd was apparently thirsty. Twenty cases of champagne were consumed along with every can of beer and the bar's entire stock of top shelf

liquor. Crowds feasted upon delicious edibles from the beautifully-adorned buffet table.

Owners, Kevin and Mark, began work on the bar last September. The walls, ceiling and air conditioning unit were all that remained since the previous tenant, the Rainbow, vacated several years ago. New heating and plumbing systems were added as well as an entirely new floor. The interior was designed by Chet Davis of Entertainment Dynamics, Inc., with floral accents provided by Walsh's Flowers.

Mark and Kevin have traveled widely in the Washington, D.C. and New York areas and have obtained some ideas from visits to the more elegant bars of these two cities. The overhead lighting, for example, was patterned after Sticks, formerly the Barefoot Boy, in New York.

They believe that "the gay man deserves first class service" and are working toward that goal. Another goal they will pursue is to have a close affiliation with other Cleveland bars.

Currently the bar's regular hours are from noon until 2:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. on Sunday. A cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres and live entertainment runs from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. The guitarist playing during opening week was a pleasant addition to the cordial, relaxed atmosphere after a day's work. Upon obtaining a piano, Mark and Kevin hope to have sing-a-longs of Broadway show tunes as is done in some New York bars.

After hours for men only (2:305:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday) provides a cruisy intimate atmosphere to talk to that special

person.

The owners have indicated that opening week crowds have been very good. In conversations with various patrons and friends at Keys, this writer has received

many favorable comments about Cleveland's newest bar, including the friendly atmosphere, the great music and the unique interior design.

Photos by Carl Hammond & Bill Suhay

No room at the inn for Adam and Steve

NEW YORK (IGNA) A lawyer for the Moral Majority is drawing up a law that will call for motels located on interstate highways to rent rooms only to those couples who are legally married, according to an article by Jimmy Breslin in the New York News.

The law is expected to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by President Reagan. It should spark a number of lawsuits about the legality of renting only to married couples and not to others who may wish to share a room for whatever reason, including a financial one.

Members of the Moral Majority feel that the motel room law will strengthen the deteriorating American family. The church spokesman added: "For too long now, people have been fornicating right in the face of the Lord and doing it so much that they don't even see what's wrong with it anymore."

The plan is for the Department of Health and Human Services to issue marriage cards that will be shown to motel clerks, much as voter registration cards are shown at polling places.

supervising them, the way it's supposed to be. That's what fidelity does for you--spreads out all over the place," he went on.

Some observers claim that such a law could produce economic chaos in the motel and hotel industry.

"Nobody has the right to forni-ilies getting destroyed because cate in the face of the Lord!" one of tomcatting." of Falwell's parishioners said. "The Supreme Court can follow an election landslide just as well as anybody else. Ronald Reagan won that election because the American people are tired of fam-

Discrimination Costs

AUSTIN (IGNA) The former owners of a disco have pleaded no contest to two counts of vioThe lawyer said that "if somelating Austin's Public AccomThe Thomas Road Baptist body gives into his manly appe-modations Ordinance when they Church in Lynchburg, Va., tite and shows up at a motel with refused to let two gay couples whose pastor is Rev. Jerry Fala woman who has no family card well, is behind the proposed leg-of her own or who has one with a islation. A member of the church different last name on it than the said recently: "Highway motels man's, then the clerk will handle just give out rooms to anyone them the same way an election who comes in off the road, peo-worker does an improper voter."

ple walking in like two stray dogs in heat... If two men walk in and sign the register, that's all right too. If women came in and want to rise the bed together

that's fine. Homosexuality! Doesn't anybody care about it? God hates homosexuality."

"And we're going to be cutting down on this indiscriminate fornication of unmarried people. cards to show the motel clerk on,

dance together.

The Driskill Cabaret paid $200 in fines and $85 in court costs two years and seven months after the discrimination charges were

filed.

Judge Steve Russell issued a denying the

16-page opinion de

of their not being Martial, and County Court Judges ried. And if they go home, their Brock Jones found the cabaret fathers and mothers will begin guilty after its plea of no contest.

The decision verifies the 1976 Public Accommodations Ordinance in Austin, Texas that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The lawsuit arose because two couples, Amme Hogan, Norma Funderburg, Dennis Milam and Bruce Aleksander went into the soon switched partners and cabaret as mixed couples but

danced as same-sex partners.

He added: "And I remind you of one thing about homosexuals: It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!"

same-sex dancing. The couples stopped dancing, but later filed a

suit.

The cabaret cited economic reasons in not wanting the disco to attract a primarily gay clientele, lest the gay crowd move on to another Austin bar when it

grew tired of the Driskill.

The cabaret chose not to fight the case any further chiefly because it has been sold to a new owner, Laral Hotel Corporation, They were tolerated until the firskapen in March, 198) as a bar and is being remodeled and will stow dance began, at whigh time w an employee told the two men restaurant where there will be Ho that a house rule prohibited dancing on the premises.