Bang Town

Monica Raye Simpson said she arrived in Charlotte as a student and was just figuring out who she was.

It was during her tenure at Johnson C. Smith University that she became her true self.

“I started to realize more and more who I was identifying as wasn’t really the truth and felt like I was having to keep that face as a person who was young, black, woman who had to be with a guy because that’s what fit and that’s what society wanted to see. I wanted to be a good [communications] professional, I wanted to make a difference in society. And I didn’t see women who were black and identified as lesbian in that role. So whenever those thoughts came up when I was in college and those feelings and those urges, I was like push that to the side, stay in the picture.”

But she said that after awhile, she couldn’t do that any longer.

“I saw many of my friends being abused, violent acts started happening against LGBT folks on campus and nothing being done about that. So, a group of us came together at that time and said, we’re going to stand up for our people. We didn’t really know who to call or contact. The Lesbian and Gay Community Center was getting started at the time. One of the other people I met at the time was a pastor who had just moved here to start a church that was welcoming all of God’s children home and her name was — at that time — Rev. Tonia Rawls, now it’s “Bishop.” She became a really great advisor to us. We had a big forum on campus, and I graduated … and I think they were ready for me to graduate because I had become really militant at that time. I was a very militant lesbian and was like, “you better get used to it”. I was the editor of the student newspaper, so I was writing about this stuff, and I was about to denounce my sorority letters. At the time, I was really about it.”

After coming out, Simpson made a career of working in the LGBT community. Her first job after college was with the Lesbian and Gay Community Center. She was one of the founders of Charlotte’s black gay pride and she currently works for Grassroots Leadership, a progressive Southern movement that works to bring Southern activists together.

You’d think North Carolina’s largest city and county would already have a foothold in this niche market, but Charlotte isn’t on the map for many in the LGBT travel community.
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New York Times best selling author Omar Tyree makes his foray into erotic fiction this fall with the release of Dirty Old Men and other stories.

But don’t expect Tyree to become a full-time erotic author, he just wanted to write about older men and younger women since he’s 40 now.

“I’m not in the erotica thing; I just had one subject I wanted to deal with. If you look at the Steve ‘Air’ McNair thing, dying at the hands of a 20-year-old [in July] that’s always going to be an issue. I’m not going to be making up erotica books for entertainment. This was something I needed to say,” Tyree told Creative Loafing in a phone interview about the book.

Dirty Old Men and Other Stories is scheduled for release next month and is presented by Zane, who can seriously be called the “Queen of Erotica.” Tyree knew this and that’s why he linked up with the publishing maven to release his book.

“I’m not an erotica writer, that’s not my style. I had small pieces that I wanted to get out and Zane is an erotica writer, that’s what she does and that why I put it out with her imprint because she has that audience for it.”

So, how will the Zane-faithful take to Tyree’s flirtation with erotica?

The stories are sexy, but if you’re looking strictly for sex on top of sex, you got the wrong book. Dirty actually takes readers into to the minds of older men and why they’re drawn to young women.

And, Tyree said, that’s really the point of the book.

“I know it’s a lot of different reasons why men get involved with women who are considerably younger than them. You have guys all over the world getting involved with young women,” he said.

Initially, Tyree wanted to write magazine articles about men, but he couldn’t find anywhere to place them. “Nobody does short stories in magazines like they used to. So, I needed a vehicle to put out masculine short stories,” he said. To make these stories marketable, Tyree said he had to turn up the sex.

“My experience in the publishing world has been if you’re writing about men, you’d better make it sexual or nobody cares,” he said.

With 14 stories exploring what makes old men dirty, Tyree might not make you care, but this collection is sure to start tongues wagging.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, September 11, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Check out the VIP and Champagne rooms at The Gentleman’s Club.

• After hours party at The Men’s Club.

• Southern Charms at The Estate.

• Blues, Brews and BBQ in Uptown.

• Take your date to The Fair.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, September 3, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Dance party at Bar Charlotte.

• After work Thursdays.

• Kick ass lunch at The Men’s Club.

• Get a VIP dance at The Gentleman’s Club.

• Last Thursday night pool party.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, August 26, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

• Wine Thirty.

•Ladies Night Line Dancing at Coyote Joes.

• Wednesday night salsa social.

• Guys Night Out at Uptown Cabaret.

• Wet Wednesday at Leather and Lace.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, August 21, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

•After hours party at The Men’s Club.

•Gallery Crawl Evening in NoDa.

•Stripper Pole Fantasies at The Estate.

•Live Band Karaoke.

•Party until 5 a.m. at Club Onyx.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, August 20, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

•Champagne Thursday at Club Onyx.

•$5 Table Dances at Baby Dolls.

•Ladies in free at Halo.

•Alive After 5: Featuring Peace and Love.

•Emerald Isle Thursday at Dilworth Billiards.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, August 19, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

•Free Salsa Social.

•Guys Night Out at Uptown Cabaret.

•Wet Wednesday at Leather and Lace SouthEnd.

•Ladies Night Line Dancing at Coyote Joe’s.

• Rush Hour Retreat.

Here are the five best events to get you hot and bothered with or without a date going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, August 18, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.

•Boots and Bikini bash at Whisky River.

•Two for Tuesday at The Crazy Horse.

•Argentine Tango with or without a partner.

•Tremont Pool League.

•South of The Border Tuesday at Uptown Cabaret.