First Gay Club at Vegas Strip Hotel 'Validates Equality'

The people behind Liaison, the forthcoming 7,000 square foot club inside Bally's Las Vegas, see it as a symbolic victory for equality.

 “The importance of having a gay nightclub in a major hotel/casino on the strip is huge,” Eduardo Cordova, the club's creative director, said in a statement. “It validates equality and demonstrates just how far we have progressed culturally. This has been the moment that I’ve been working towards for all these years and it’s exciting to see gay nightlife changing in such a big way; these are definitely exciting times in LGBT and Las Vegas history.”

Cordova was hired by nightlife guru Victor Drai to bring Liasion to fruition (Liasion will occupy the space of an after-hours club that Drai is moving to the new Cromwell Hotel). Drai and Cordova describe the gay discotheque as an opulent palace with lots of mirrors, Venetian-style chandeliers, two giant rooms, and multiple stages. It will be open seven nights a week and feature drag nights and a mix of music from top 40 to hip-hop. "Casting calls" for club staff are being held May 17 at Drai’s After Hours in Vegas and on May 20 in Los Angeles at Victor Drai’s new Rare by Drais. 

Liasion's opening, expected later this year, follows Vegas's failed attempt at building the largest gay nightclub in the world. That club was in the slowly-gentrifying downtown area, but Liasion will be smack-dab in the tourist zone.

“It’s really hard to believe that this is the first gay nightclub inside a casino on the Las Vegas Strip,” Drai said in a release. “I am truly humbled to be part of a new era for the gay community."