However, Asheville and Buncombe County citizens voted against the anti-same sex marriage amendment. The amendment won due to a coalition of conservatives and churches, including large numbers of African-American churches. In 2012, about 61% of state voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage solely as being a union between a man and a woman. North Carolina as a whole is not as LGBT-friendly as cities like Asheville. Also in 2016, Tammy Hooper became the first female Asheville police chief she is a lesbian married to a woman. House seat currently held by the right-wing Madison Cawthorn. Mission Hospital, by far the largest employer in the region, has offered same-sex domestic partner benefits to its employees since 2012.īuncombe County, where Asheville is located, in 2016 elected its first openly lesbian county commissioner, Jasmine Beach-Ferrara. The City of Asheville has offered domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples since 2011, and Buncombe County began doing so in 2013. In recent years it has been held in late fall, usually November.Īsheville has no one gay residential neighborhood or “gayborhood.” Downtown, Montford, North Asheville and West Asheville are all popular with LGBT residents, but you may just as easily find LGBT couples living in a rural mountain cove. The Miss Gay Latina Asheville pageant ( ) attracts attendees from all over the South. Other groups include Lesbians in the Mountains, Asheville Lesbian Social Club (with more than 1,600 members) and Asphalt Sisters, an all-female motorcycle group. Businesses listed in the BRPBA directory can also choose to identify as woman- or minority-owned.Īsheville boasts gay book clubs, garden clubs, nude yoga, supper clubs, coffee clubs and other groups.Īmong local lesbian organizations are the Association of Lesbian Professionals, bringing together Asheville’s lesbian professionals. The directory, available at includes retail, food and drink, leisure and services and other categories. Blue Ridge Pride also has an online business directory for LGBTQ-owned and inclusive businesses called the Blue Ridge Pride Business Alliance. It holds a variety of events and meet-and-greets year-round, including a gay pride parade and event in late September or October that draws more than 150 vendors and 10,000 attendees. One of the best known is the lesbian-owned Malaprop’s bookstore, one of the top independent bookstores in the South.īlue Ridge Pride ( ) is an umbrella organization promoting gay pride. GayAshevilleNC ( ) maintains a listing of LGBTQ-owned and gay-friendly accommodations, businesses, groups and resources in the area. Many businesses in Asheville are LGBT-owned. (See Lodging section for more information.)Īsheville has become a major destination for LGBTQ weddings, and the first local LGBTQ Wedding Expo was held in 2016. Of course, the major hotels are welcoming to LGBTQ folks. Nearly all the many B&Bs and small inns in the Asheville area are welcoming to gays, and more than a dozen local B&Bs are gay-owned. (See Clubs and Nightlife section for more information.) Sadly, the long-running Smokey's After Dark on Broadway in Downtown has closed due to redevelopment in the area. The Odditorium, a music venue in West Asheville, attracts a mixed audience, not just gays, but has occasional drag shows. Scandals, which dates to 1982 and is believed to be the largest LGBTQ club in the state, has three music/dance/bar spaces: Scandals Nightclub, Club Eleven on Grove and Boiler Room Asheville. Henry’s (one of the oldest gay bars in the state, perhaps the oldest), which also operates The Underground, billed as an alternative industrial bar.
You are likely to see a number of openly lesbian and gay couples around town, especially Downtown and in West Asheville.ĭowntown Asheville has several LGBT bars, including O. LGBT visitors increasingly are discovering Asheville, with its great natural beauty, innovative dining and drinking gigs, heavy-duty gallery, arts and crafts scene, interesting shops and numerous gay-owned or gay-welcoming B&Bs and inns and businesses.
In 2010, the gay-oriented publication, The Advocate, ranked Asheville as the “12th gayest city in America.” Atlanta was ranked #1. Another study, in 2011, also based on the latest official census results, found that Buncombe County (with 15.5 same sex couples per 1,000) and Asheville (19.7 per 1,000) are the most gay-friendly county and city in the state of North Carolina, on a per-capita basis well ahead of places like Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Period.Īccording to the latest United States census, the Asheville area has 83% more lesbian, gay bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) identified people than the typical American city or town.