On another part of the stage, Scotty-all six-pack abs and floppy auburn hair-arranges himself into a Warrior II pose. Inside Swinging Richards on its last night, Britney Spears’s “Gimme More” blasts as crew-cut Howie, 43, does push-ups onstage wearing nothing but a pair of silver and white Air Jordans. They had their sense of community here.” Over the years the club has seen a number of celebrities walk through its doors, including Tiffany Haddish and Ed Sheeran. “People have created memories here,” Belle says. Over the decades, Swinging Richards has been much more than a den of debauchery, says Cameron Belle, the club’s social media director: It was “a pillar of the LGBTQ+ community from its onset,” hosting benefits for organizations like Atlanta Pride and the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus. Swinging Richards’ 26-year life has coincided with a sea change in LGBTQ rights: In 2003, the Supreme Court struck down antisodomy laws Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell fell in 2011 and in 2015, the Supreme Court extended the right to marry to same-sex couples. In 1996, President Bill Clinton-who had already banned openly gay people from serving in the military-signed the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as between a man and a woman only. When it opened, gay sex was still illegal in some states. Swinging Richards, which opened in 1996 on Northside Drive, was one of the few remaining strip clubs in the country that catered to gay men, and the first club in Atlanta to allow full-frontal male nudity.
Striding past a crowd of about 150 on his way inside, a dancer asks if everybody is ready to see some-well, some Swinging Richards. It’s January 15 they’re here to witness the club’s last day. She’s been coming since 2014, and has the X-rated picture a dancer took with her phone to prove it.
His friend Robin, wearing a velvet jacket, adds, “We’re here to worship at the church of Tyson!”-referring to one of the club’s dancers. He says it’s his third night in a row at the club.
Kris Kale Hanson stands outside Swinging Richards in a black wig and fishnet shirt, lips smeared with dark lipstick. Swinging Richards closed in January 2022.