Until recently, Colorado Springs, CO, had a reputation as one of the most unfriendly cities for LGBTQ+ people in the nation. But the local queer community has blossomed and as the city has grown, so has the level of acceptance.
After a mass shooting closed down Club Q, the other gay bar in town, the piano bar, Icons, was shut down by the city after a fire ripped through a string of buildings near the tavern. Now, the owners of both say they plan to reopen in different locations.
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Icons’ owners, Josh Franklin and his husband, John Wolfe, purchased a building a few blocks away from the bar’s previous location and started the process of raising the necessary cash to make needed improvements and restock the enterprise.
Franklin grew up in Colorado Springs during its more conservative era, and he knows exactly how important it is for queer community members to find a spot to call home.
“As a kid growing up gay in Colorado Springs, if I had even driven past a place like Icons and saw the amount of life that was waiting for me there, I wouldn’t have left,” he told the Denver Gazette.
Franklin returned to the city after a career on Broadway with his husband during the pandemic.
“I met this city with fresh eyes and no baggage,” Wolfe said. “And I fell in love with it as it is — not as it was. There is just so much art and culture, and there are the mountains. I thought it was amazing. From the start, we quickly became invested in the queer community here. Everyone was so nice — and I think Josh was able to see that.”
The two opened the bar, Colorado Springs’ first gay bar, shortly after moving to town. The piano bar features bartenders who also perform.
After the shooting at Club Q in November 2022, they realized how important it was for them to continue to support the community.
“It’s still heavy,” Franklin said. “That’s the personal response for us just as gay people in Colorado Springs. But then the immediate realization set in that people are counting on us at Icons to provide a safe space, to provide work, to provide community.”
So when several businesses, including Icons, were damaged during the electrical fire at nearby restaurant, the men knew it was a requirement to reopen – with support from the community and friends in Denver. From standard donations, including a large amount from pop singer Gloria Estefan, to fundraisers like a recent charity performance at Denver’s Hamburger Mary’s.
“Icons is the place where I came back from the brink of death,” drag queen Kai Lee Mykels, who emceed the event, said. “I was dying of active AIDS in 2022, right when I got sober — and now I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. Icons is a special place. They stood by me the whole time. It truly is family.”
Co-owner Matthew Haynes says that Club Q will reopen soon as The Q. The new bar will be in southern Colorado Springs and is “an important step in community healing.”
“Safe venues are still very important,” he said. “Transgender people are being attacked and legislated against throughout the country, and the art of drag is under attack as grooming. The Q, in the tradition of Club Q, will stand up to these attacks.”
“I think a lot of people don’t quite understand that a lot of people in our community maybe don’t have the support from a family or a home base that they do,” Wolfe added. “Having a place like this can be lifesaving for them.”
