A cluster of gay bars in Fort Worth, nicknamed “The District,” is the foundation of a new gayborhood in Texas’ reddest city.
Several bars in Fort Worth have opened in the 600 block of South Jennings Avenue, and the new owners are aiming to create a gayborhood similar to those in Dallas and San Antonio.
The area encompasses Club Reflection, which has been at 604 S. Jennings Ave. for 14 years. Catty-corner to the club is the Liberty Lounge, which owner Jenna Hill-Higgs describes as a “neighborhood dive bar.” Jackie O’s, a craft cocktail bar that opened last July across the street from Club Reflection at 609 S. Jennings Ave., sits next to the upcoming Diablo Cantina, which will be a Latin club for the LGBTQ+ community in Fort Worth.
The area is not unfamiliar to the gay community in Fort Worth. The block was the site of the Rainbow Lounge, which burned to the ground in 2017 and was famously the target of a homophobic police raid in 2009, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The Rainbow Lounge was owned at the time by JR Schrock, current owner of Club Reflection.
“[Fort Worth] has had it tough. I was there when I had to lift my boyfriend up over the fence and say, run like hell and threw the backpack of our tills and stuff because I thought we were being robbed,” Schrock said. “He made it halfway to Oklahoma City before I was able to say, hold on, it’s the police, we’re not getting robbed.”
The raid left one person seriously injured and gay rights advocates rightfully upset, and it garnered a famous non-apology from Fort Worth’s then-Mayor Mike Moncrief.
Jackie O's opened in 2023 on South Jennings Avenue in Fort Worth in the heart of "The District."
Charles Farmer
To start, the focus is on community. The owners of the bars have made sure to create space for everyone, where anyone can feel included.
“I don’t want anybody to feel like they’re alone or there’s not a community to take care of them,” Hill-Higgs says.
“Like this is the neighborhood,” Hill-Higgs says. “Like I marched down the street with my mom when I was a kid during Pride. So to create a space [here] where you can have a little bit of everything, you know, go get some fancy cocktail over at Jackie’s, or you can go dancing. …”
Schrock says the personal connection is what sets “The District” apart from other “gayborhoods”.
“They just want to see the person behind the bar, not just the person collecting the money.” Schrock says. “When you start giving back to your community is when your community starts giving back to you.”
Schrock and Club Reflection gave $10,000 to the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, which has a prominent footprint in Fort Worth and is known for its charity work.
Across the street, Hill-Higgs and Liberty Lounge give a portion of monthly sales to various organizations and charities that support LGBTQ+ folks and their community. They’ve had events for Planned Parenthood, the Stonewall Democrats and Finn’s Place, which supports trans youth.
Both Schrock and Hill-Higgs see the future of “The District” not just as an entertainment zone, but a whole neighborhood, with spaces to highlight queer businesses and art. Schrock plans to turn the back portion of Reflection into retail space for a store catering to the LGBTQ+ community, and there is plenty of vacant space nearby to expand the “The District.”
No matter what it looks like, as long as the community is there, “The District” will thrive.
“We now realize that we have to stay together,” Schrock says. “We have to stay united. It doesn’t matter what bar you drink at, and it doesn’t matter what drag queen you like. It’s the love of everybody, you know, protecting and making sure that everybody’s good and everybody’s safe.”
For Hill-Higgs, it’s not just about money, but supporting the community around her.
“It may not be the best business plan,” says Higgs-Hill. “But when you come in I want you to know you’re heard and that you’re loved and that you’re safe.”
