Londonderry 'needs new queer-specific venue'

Drag performer Aaron Deery says a new venue would put a 'wee bit of life back into Derry's nightlife

"If you're growing up here now you're going to want to find your queer community and you're going to have to venture further out to do that."

Drag performer Aaron Deery - also known by his stage name Robyn Diamonds - knows how important having a safe LGBT community space was growing up in Londonderry.

It was a comfort for him, somewhere to meet others and socialise and a place where he felt safe.

But when Envy nightclub was demolished following an arson attack in 2020, it left Derry without a dedicated LGBT community venue.

That, Aaron told BBC News NI, means "people from the community are going to be leaving the town if there's no safe space for them.

"They're not going to feel in a way wanted here," he said.

It's incredibly sad, he added, that the city no longer had a dedicated gay venue.

Aaron is one of a number of people and support groups backing calls for a new LGBT community space in the city.

Police at the scene of the arson attack on Strand Road in 2020

The Rainbow Project promotes the health and wellbeing of LGBT people in Northern Ireland.

Eimear Willis from The Rainbow Project said the level of isolation felt within the LGBT community in the north west was among Northern Ireland's highest.

"A queer-specific venue allows our community to connect in a safe space where they can be themselves openly and free from harm," she said.

"We've seen the positive impacts of this first-hand.

"The more services and spaces available for our community to meet up and connect in, to organise from and learn in, to dance and celebrate in, the better."

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Derry DJ Orlagh Dooley, who is best known as Or:la, wants to see a nightclub open in the city.

"It feels crazy to me that there are no real bars for young queer people to go to where they can feel completely safe and free to be themselves," she said.

LGBT community support group Cara Friend said it would love to see more venues in the north west.

"As queer people we will not allow a hate attack to take away our safe havens," said the organisation.

"We need opportunities for the community to socialise after an isolating pandemic for lots of people in Northern Ireland."

Journalist Damian Kerlin says Derry is missing out by not having a LGBTQ+ venue

Damian Kerlin is an LGBT community journalist and writer from Craigbane in the outskirts of Derry.

The city, he said, was missing out by not having a dedicated venue.

He said it would be a safe space for the community to be able to meet and enjoy themselves in a place that catered for them.

"It's spaces where we celebrate our culture, it's where we celebrate our music, our dance."

Damian said growing up in Northern Ireland was for a long time dangerous for people in the queer community.

"The whole political undertone was very much against our equality and it was very much against us as a community," he said.

For him and his friends, inclusive venues were a place where they could feel safe and express themselves, he added.

A planning application has been submitted for a three-storey night-club at the former Envy nightclub site, but it is not known whether the space will be used a gay bar.