Gay Community in Corpus Christi Area (Houston, Dallas: transplants, how much, lawyer)

[heyker]

Is there an active gay community in Corpus Christi?

[Marlow]

There are "out" gay people in CC, but I don't know if there is an active community. We are friends with a gay couple who are active in their church and I think it's a church that is very open to gay people. But that's about the extent of my knowledge of a gay community. There is also an AIDS support center, or at least there used to be, and they have fundraisers in the community. I know about that because of our friends also.

I will say that CC has a very "live and let live" attitude about most things.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by heyker

Is there an active gay community in Corpus Christi?

if there is, i haven't seen much of it. i am 44 years old, born & raised in corpus christi. my parents still live there, so i go back often to visit. there is one bar that i know of called "hidden door". i've been there a couple of times. it was small, nice, inexpensive get together kind of spot near 6 points area. i don't know much of anything else there since i mostly go to corpus to visit family, not much else. being gay and "outed" (as i was) was rough going there in the 80s, but then i guess that it was just about everywhere? i could hardly wait to get out of corpus to austin, dallas, los angeles, anywhere but corpus. i was a little tickled recently when i saw 2 young guys holding hands in front of the target parking lot at moore plaza. you might try some gay oriented websites to meet other gays in the area or even craigslist. please feel free to pm me if you want to know anything else. austin/ san antonio are not too far away to get away to on the weekends/

[changeofpace]

There is a new gay nightclub opening in Corpus this summer called Neon. Owners are a gay couple from San Antonio who have vacationed in CC for years and have decided to relocate from San Antonio to Corpus. I do not know the location of the nightclub in Corpus but know it is under construction.

[escantrell]

I have gay friends who came to visit and went to that "hidden door" bar on Staples. I hung out on the patio w/ them and it seemed to be a pretty small community. They went to a larger dance club for the night, but said it was horrible so ended up back at the neighborhood bar, which may be something like the gay version of "Cheers!"

[meltre]

We are wondering that too. We have been here about 16 months and are starting to feel prety isolated in that respect. Every town I've ever lived in had something. There are a lot of gay bars here but I don't like the area they are in plus we don't really feel like sitting around a bar - neither of us drink much and bars are pretty boring. There is an MCC church and that's all I know. We would like to find some non bar related groups, activities. We drove to Austin for pride this year.

[KerryB]

There's nothing for gay people in CC. The problem is that every non gay always points to bars & clubs as if the only thing gay people enjoy doing is getting loaded & hooking up. Speaking of which, the bars they do have are pretty scuzzy hole in the wall swinger type places. Gives gays in general a bad name IMO, especially in the area.

The best "gay" clubs arent strictly one or the other & has both gays & straights hanging out together. Club Bonham in San Antonio is sorta like that. You wont find anything like this in CC. Its pretty segregated. Every gay club that tries it in CC gets shut down a few months later for lack of business.

But the scuzzy bars is kinda all you have in places like Corpus because the overall population there is pretty skittish about seeing gays in public doing normal stuff. I had a couple gay friends when I lived there & they pretty much felt the same way. Its not gay friendly by any means.

[artsyguy]

A gay buddy of mine told me that every gay in South Texas is in the closet and there isn't much of a community at all. It is all hush-hush, most are married, and it's usually more about hooking up for some same-sex sex; however, I had heard that CC had a gay bar and an MCC church which is open to gays.

I heard San Antonio has two or three good gay bars- one of them being Bonam Exchange which is more of a large night club. Austin has a small but steady gay scene but like the other poster said, they only have bars and do attract low class folks of all ages. Houston and Dallas have the largest gay scenes in all of Texas. Dallas has the largest gay church in the nation, I believe several thousands folks go to it and it is mixed with GLBT people and straight folk.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by meltre

We are wondering that too. We have been here about 16 months and are starting to feel prety isolated in that respect. Every town I've ever lived in had something. There are a lot of gay bars here but I don't like the area they are in plus we don't really feel like sitting around a bar - neither of us drink much and bars are pretty boring. There is an MCC church and that's all I know. We would like to find some non bar related groups, activities. We drove to Austin for pride this year.

out of curiosity, what kind of communities did you live in before? were they bigger cities, cities outside of texas? what brought you to corpus? i would try to see if maybe there is a sports group, choir group or something like that in corpus that you could enjoy. i would be curious to know how much/if corpus has changed much.

[meltre]

Originally Posted by wehotex

out of curiosity, what kind of communities did you live in before? were they bigger cities, cities outside of texas? what brought you to corpus? i would try to see if maybe there is a sports group, choir group or something like that in corpus that you could enjoy. i would be curious to know how much/if corpus has changed much.

We lived in Lincoln, NE for 9 years and Omaha for one year prior to moving to CC. We moved here for the weather, good property prices and smaller town atmosphere. My partner lived on Padre Island many years ago when she worked for a company down here. We didn't like the size of Dallas and my partner lived in Houston years ago and didn't want to go back.

Lincoln is much smaller than CC and NE is overall a very conservative Republican state. Yes, there were many GLBT related groups and activities including a coffee house, lesbian potluck group and a glbt democratic caucus. In Omaha there was a glbt bookstore and coffee shop, a yearly women's boat ride, a good size pride event and a large MCC. Lots of bars and all downtown but all bars but one were in good locations and upscale. We went to Austin for pride and we were really surprised at how small it was.

On the upside we just completed some legal docs and wills with a local glbt lawyer who gave a discount because we saw her name on gaycorpuschristi.com

Our neighbors have all been very friendly and we dont feel at all uncomfortable and have had zero problems. I've been called names by strangers on the street in Lincoln but we have not experienced any of that here. I find the South Texans to be extremely friendly and the exact opposite of Nebraskans who are not friendly and do not like to make eye contact. Neither of us are from the Midwest but were transplants there for work and school. We found our niche there pretty quickly and gathered a good group of friends and figured it would be no different here.

I like CC and think it seems to get bashed for odd reasons like potholes and the city council. Really, this town has all the same problems any town has. Try navigating Omaha in the spring when the roads are full of tire busting holes and it takes the city six months to fill them. You have not seen potholes until you have been to the Midwest in the early spring

Anyway thanks for the posts.

Mel