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The Old Town LGBTQ+ dance club CC Slaughters and its adjacent cocktail space, the Rainbow Lounge, will close Aug. 3.
CC’s, as it is commonly known, shared a social media post June 1 thanking Portland for decades of memories, including 22 years under the ownership of Bruce Rice.
“CC Slaughters has played an iconic role as a safe-space for queer nightlife for over 44 years in Portland, Oregon,” the club’s Facebook post reads.
CC’s first opened in 1981. After the club closed in October 2020 due to lockdown restrictions, the queer news outlet Them noted that CC’s opened during the onset of one pandemic—the HIV crisis—and closed during another. Rice did not respond to WW’s interview request on Sunday, but told former Arts & Culture editor Matthew Singer in 2021 that CC’s was able to reopen that spring by negotiating with his landlord.
“We’re not in the ’80s and ’90s anymore where, if you were gay, you really kind of needed to go to a gay club to feel inclusion,” Rice said at the time. “Portland has progressed so much. You can be gay holding your boyfriend’s hand in pretty much any club and it’s fine.”