A group of LGBTQ activists in Atlanta are fighting to prevent a popular gay hangout/sex shop/hookup spot from being shut down.
Tokyo Valentino first opened in Atlanta’s Lenox Park neighborhood in 1995. It bills itself as a “gay megaplex” with “the largest selection of Adult related products, Videoplexx, Video Booths, Open & Private Play rooms, DVD’s, lingerie, and Smoke shoppe products in Southeast.”
Now, lawmakers are trying to shut the whole place down, saying it violate’s the City’s adult entertainment ordinance by being within 500 feet of a residential area.
But local LGBTQ activists aren’t buying it. They believe the whole thing is a homophobic attack to try and erase their entire identity. So they’ve started a change.org petition to stop the closure from happening.
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“Tokyo Valentino at Cheshire Bridge Rd is being shut down by the City of Atlanta unless you help!” the petition reads. “If we lose our culture then we also lose our identity as gay Georgians!”
Related: Small Town On Edge After Persistent “Glory Hole Driller” Strikes Again
The petition was started by Gay Georgia, Inc. (GAGA), a state-registered PAC that works to “preserve LGBTQ cultural and entertainment locations important to maintaining the identity and safety of gay Georgians.”
So far it has gathered nearly 3,000 signatures.
Even local writer Matt Terrell is joining the fight. In a think-piece published by the Georgia Voice titled “Save our historic glory holes,” he writes:
I do think we should save Tokyo Valentino. We should preserve this sex store because we need seedy businesses in Atlanta. There will always be a need for spaces where suburban men can come and have anonymous sex. Drugs and hustlers are part of our capitalist ecosystem, and it’s important that we give them a place to exist. Using the power of zoning and city ordinances to bully adult businesses out of town is short-sighted. The activities that happen there will move somewhere else.
Terrell goes on to say that all cities should have red-light districts because they help keep “skeezy and gross” behavior “clean and quiet.”
“That sort of illicit and illegal activity will happen regardless of how hard we try to legislate it out of our community,” he writes. “Let the hustlers have space to hustle–or else they might walk down to your neighborhood instead.”
He continues, “Making room for Atlanta’s red-light district is important, because it’s safer when we can keep this activity under view of the community.”
GAGA hopes to gather at least 2,000 more signatures on its petition.
“We have fought for acceptance…now we need to fight to preserve it!” the petition says. “Please sign the petition to stop the City of Atlanta from closing Tokyo Valentino. It will only take a few clicks. We are gay Georgia. We are GAGA!”
Related: Glory Hole In College Library Bathroom Sparks Furor On University Campus
tnguy222
I would be a surprised if the law is not on their side. Generally, the legal system frowns upon deprivation of property without due process. In the instant circumstance, where the sex shop was operating before the minimum distance statute was passed, I would think that the statute would exempt pre existing businesses and buildings (i.e., a grandfather clause)
If not, perhaps they should simply hire a lawyer to apply for a variance and exemption from the law. Signatures and petitions are good for raising public awareness, but not so effective for changing the regulatory scheme.
DHT
uhm…this is Georgia okay…just saying that even if they are on the books don’t count on the laws being followed.
Heywood Jablowme
I’m trying to be sympathetic, but seriously? … orally servicing “suburban” (i.e. closeted, married-to-women) men is what passes for gay “culture” in Georgia?
And not all such places have a lot of drugs and/or hustlers.
What other wondrous feats has Gay Georgia, Inc. (GAGA) accomplished, I wonder? Although I must admit, I do like the acronym.
Kangol
It’s one aspect of gay culture in Georgia, and all over the US. They could call it “closeted gay/bi/DL” culture, to be more specific, but it falls under the larger umbrella. You’re so right that not all places like this are magnets for drugs and hustling.
You asked a great question about Gay Georgia, Inc., so I went to their website. The pages for who they are and what they do are blank. They appear to be focused on saving this gay megaplex and have links to its owner. In terms of news about themselves or other gay or LGBTQ things happening in Georgia, they don’t show much at all. Maybe they’re brand new.
Heywood Jablowme
@Kangol: Come to think of it, I seriously doubt there are any “glory holes” – historic or otherwise – at this place.
In the old days, glory holes were drilled/carved in places that were definitely NOT intended for sexual activity — highway rest stops, department store restrooms, and the like. But venues like this “megaplex,” where sexual activity is assumed (if not always quite totally legal), have never needed glory holes because they can fit two men in a booth. Queerty seems to be imagining “glory holes” where they probably don’t exist.
inbama
I don’t know if the term is in use by the current generation, but they were called “Southern Trade Queens” and they’re all bout servicing straights and straight-acting Gs and Bs and no reciprocation. I remember one who swore that “any Southern man could be had with patience and discretion.”
I know one who is pushing 80 who’s managed to get himself arrested three times in the past five years during local park stings.
Brian
You’ve obviously never been to an adult video store. Gloryholes are extremely common. It’s not about need. Not everyone wants to be face to face with whoever is blowing them.
Paco
“We should preserve this sex store because we need seedy businesses in Atlanta.”
It should be up to the people that live in the neighborhood, and all other opinions are void. Trash up your own neighborhood with seedy businesses.
truckproductions
but that’s the thing see… it IS their neighborhood. They were there first. Gentrification has brought in more wealthy communities that are trying to change what is already there.
Paco
I live in a condo complex and there is one resident that has lived here for 20+ years and he throws a fit whenever we all have a new vote for old issues that were settled by residents that no longer live here.. New residents deserve a say too.
But my point was if you aren’t living in the neighborhood and think it should have “seedy” businesses you can come visit and then leave to your clean neighborhood, your opinion shouldn’t matter.
Invite the seedy businesses to move in next to you.
PinkoOfTheGange
The difference is they moved next to the existing seedy business, and now are trying to zone it out of the neighborhood.
It is like moving under the flight path, whining about all the loud aeroplanes, and trying to get the airport shut down.
Paco
So as Matt Terrell said – “Cheshire Bridge can be skeezy and gross, and a lot of this action happens out in the open.”
You are saying that once a neighborhood goes to sh*t, it can never be cleaned up and revitalized because some guys will have to be inconvenienced and go elsewhere to get a BJ on the DL before returning to their neighborhoods that aren’t “skeezy and gross”?
All those guys that care so much about it should move to these skeezy and gross neighborhoods with seedy businesses and all the blight that comes with them. Live in it.
Heywood Jablowme
@Paco: Yes. As even Matt Terrell admits: “The activities that happen there will move somewhere else.” Well, uh, yeah. They will. So there’s no problem. They’ll move to some suburb that’s down on its luck and needs the tax revenue.
@truckproductions & Pinko: The gentrifiers may not be upset about the sleazy gay sex, per se. They may be MOSTLY worried about the drugs and the hustlers. That seems pretty reasonable to me, and I’m somewhat of a fan of sleazy gay sex!
Mack
Actually in Reno Nv. they were trying to close down two strip clubs because the makeup of the area has changed over the years. The strip clubs (straight) have been there for more than 20 years and recently a church moved in nearby and now suddenly the City Council wants to close them down. So they’ve changed some laws that will affect the businesses. The main one being no more lap dances. It’s not just a gay thing, but the business should be grandfathered in based on age of business.
JerseyMike
I think we need to look at the bigger picture… Gay people are the first ones to move into a neighborhood and fix it up… Once it’s nice… the str8s move in and start complaining about shit!! That’s why all the bars, bookstores, etc. shut down… they complain about traffic and noises that was there before they moved in. The armory, backstreet, Loretta’s, Tracks and many more have shut down because the str8 people move in and complain… Look at DC, NYC and many other places…
PinkoOfTheGange
yup.
mhoffman953
>Gloryhole
>Historic
LOL pick one
Zambos271
Tokyo Valentino is a lot of fun. And yes, there are gloryholes inside.
They have deejays late at night and for 25 bucks per person, they are quite profitable.
They just bulit the highrises beside it. I guess those are the residents that are complaining.
Heywood Jablowme
If they have glory holes, it’s a jokey “ironic reference” and purely decorative. There’s no need for glory holes in an openly pro-gay establishment where gay sex is a given. And I doubt the glory holes are used much, if at all.
Very much like a bar in 2018 calling itself a “speakeasy.” Yeah, it happens a lot, and the bar may look sort of like a jokey version of 1927 (to modern customers, anyway), but that doesn’t mean it’s really 1927.
Brian
Heywood, you are completely wrong about this. There are freaking bathhouses that have gloryhole rooms. Some people are into the anonymity, even if you’re not.
DHT
I never noticed gay men as being especially political while I was living in Atlanta (unlike my experiences living in Boston, DC, and Fort Lauderdale). Weird that this is what they have chosen to get political about.
Roan
Read the FULL story here:
https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/sites/dailyreportonline/2018/01/09/judge-rules-cheshire-bridge-adult-superstore-violates-city-code/?slreturn=20180315125328
seaguy
Save it to stop the homophobes.
chris33133
These buildings reflect a time in Atlanta’s history when gay folk were forced to stay in the closet and find semi-private places to congregate because bringing someone home was simply too dangerous. The focus on glory holes ignores the broader homophobic contexts in which gay people found it too dangerous to do anything else. Let me propose this thought: glory holes were a rational response to….
Times2
Y’all need to read the link Roan provided above. While “gentrification” has inspired neighborhood efforts to close sex venues on Cheshire Bridge in recent years, most have been protected from closing. They are grandfathered, in other words. So was Tokyo, but its owner screwed that up by failing to comply with permit laws when he expanded the space. Blindly greedy, he actually sued the city for lost income (as I understand it). In effect, he caused the business to lose its grandfathered status. This is why Southern Nights operates without threat just down the street from Tokyo, which has been ordered to close.
Mr. Heywood Jablowme: Glory holes provide anonymous sex with virtually 100 percent genital stimulation only (a fetish for many). The fact that consensual sex is legal does not mean anonymous sex isn’t attractive to many people, straight and gay — and that’s not a psychological disorder. You could as well argue that dark rooms are unnecessary leftovers from our shadowed past, but their appeal is likewise far more than that of an archaic ritual.
Personally, I do think it’s laughable to describe Tokyo as some kind of landmark of gay identity. The owner, who has spent time in prison for tax evasion, bought another such landmark and put it out of business. He has one interest: making lots of money. He has done absolutely nothing to contribute to the welfare of Atlanta’s LGBTQ community and refuses to make any effort to curb the absurdly rampant drug trade inside and outside in the parking lot, where people sit in their cars for hours at a time.
Interesting too, Tokyo’s clientele has become almost completely African-American, while the white boys seem to have migrated to Southern Nights. I can’t help wondering if racism isn’t part of the story here.