Support for Doyenne

Support for Doyenne Charlotte Barbershop is Recipient of Human Rights Campaign and SHOWTIME’s Queer to Stay BY CHriS rUDiSiLL | qNOtES CONtriBUtOr

The buzzing sound of clippers fills a few years ago. “This is me. Love me, a small barbershop tucked away or I’m okay with you going,” she says. at Salon Plaza off Galleria Blvd. in She hopes that Doyenne provides that Charlotte. Owners Alicia Phillips, who same level of comfort and safeness goes by Brown, and Sakinah Dunlap for other LGBTQ people. “I just want are all smiles and laughter behind their people to feel the way I felt when I masks. These two women know how to finally said this is me. We just become a make you feel at home. big family.”

Brown and Dunlap met in bar- Places like Doyenne mean that we ber school a few years ago and have have a voice, according to Brown. “You worked together ever since. Brown had can’t take what I build from me,” she a plan for opening an all-girl shop, and says. “Being here, that’s what we’re the two knew they wanted to focus on here to do. We’re here to make you building an LGBTQ-friendly space to- laugh, have a good time, make you feel gether. “When I started barbering, I saw like family.” The two even take trips it was all dominated by men,” she says. to a cabin in the mountains of North

They noticed how LGBTQ people Carolina with some of their clients. “I felt the need to be guarded at mainstream places. Clients that they saw Sakinah Dunlap. (Photo Credit: Chris rudisill) Alicia Phillips. (Photo Credit: Chris rudisill) don’t want it to be just another barbershop,” says Dunlap. “We welcome you at their previous shop are completely to be our family.” different in Doyenne, the space they A client told them about a grant opportunity. The Since both the enactment of HB2 in opened on Feb. 15. The name means “a woman who is the “Queer to Stay: An LGBTQ+ Business Preservation North Carolina and the election of President Trump in 2016, most respected or prominent person in a particular field.” Initiative” launched on July 30 and eligible businesses had LGBTQ people in Charlotte have faced a heightened fear of

Empowering other women of color and LGBTQ people to apply by Aug. 14. Dunlap says it was only a matter of hate and discrimination. The Charlotte Observer reported in has always been a goal for Brown. “Seeing another woman weeks before they received the good news. Doyenne was 2016, that “public records and interviews across the state succeed and do well, that’s everything to me, especially if one of 10 businesses that received funding through the suggest that targeting of LGBTQ residents is so commonyou are part of the LGBTQ+,” she says. “I just want every- initiative aimed at supporting and preserving businesses place that many take it for granted as a sad — and someone to know you can do the same thing. Men don’t have to that serve the LGBTQ community with a focus on LGBTQ times dangerous — fact of their lives.” A partial repeal of dominate everything.” people of color, women and the transgender community. HB2 was passed by the N.C. legislature in 2017.

Opening a month before COVID-19 was a challenge According to a recent press release, “We must “It’s big to have a safe haven,” adds Dunlap. “It’s hard and brought many businesses like theirs to a halt. The first preserve affirming, welcoming community spaces for being LGBTQ+ and being a person of color. It’s just so presumptive positive result for the novel coronavirus in LGBTQ+ people — including young people who may not hard.” She says the conversation gives her chills thinking North Carolina was on March 3. “Stay-at-home” orders and have supportive families or communities at home,” said about the impact that hate has on people. “I just want to temporary closures soon followed. Barbershops were not HRC President Alphonso David. Doyenne is an LGBTQ- live my life and be happy the same way you do,” she adds. able to reopen until May 22, when Gov. Roy Cooper moved and Black-owned barbershop “that serves as a home for Brown grew up in in a church family in Norfolk, Va. and the state into Phase Two of his plan to loosen coronavirus LGBTQ+ people to feel welcome, comfortable and safe,” remembers how hard it was being LGBTQ. “I didn’t really restrictions. The “safer at home” recommendation allowed stated the press release. open up until I moved here,” she says. “Coming here, I saw restaurants, salons and swimming pools to reopen at 50 The fund, which is not a loan, is a partnership between a lot of us making it and building something.” percent capacity. HRC and SHOWTIME. HRC would not disclose the financial “It means the world to us knowing that two African-

LGBTQ-serving businesses like Doyenne which provide amount provided to each business but did confirm via American women who are strong, well-educated, openly a safe and affirming places, sometimes the only ones email that each business received an equal amount, and part of the LGBTQ+ community opened a business, started an LGBTQ person can find in a city, have faced signifi- the funds were disbursed on Sept. 23. a brand and made it through a pandemic,” they say in the cant challenges this year. Data from the Human Rights Other awardees of “Queer to Stay” include: Alibi HRC press release. Campaign (HRC) and PSB Research found that 30 percent Lounge in New York; Amplio Fitness in Rocky River, Ohio; Business has been picking up slowly since Doyenne of LGBTQ have had their work hours reduced, compared Salon Benders in Long Beach, Calif.; Blush & Blu in Denver, was able to reopen and the grant was a needed boost. to 22 percent of the general population and that 59 per- Colo.; El Rio in San Francisco, Calif.; Freed Bodyworks in Now, they are planning for a bright future. They hope to cent have spent less as a result of COVID-19. Washington, D.C.; Herz in Mobile, Ala.; My Sister’s Room in make the Doyenne brand bigger through merchandising

People of color have also faced additional chal- Atlanta, Ga.; and Pearl Bar in Houston, Texas. and involvement in the community after the pandemic. lenges. According to a study by the National Community “This is my purpose,” says Dunlap. “It’s like, growing Reinvestment Coalition, Black applicants who applied for Paycheck Protection Program loans were treated poorly WE WELCOME EVErYONE up, maybe if I had that space how would I have turned out years ago. Would it have took me so long, or would I have or unfairly compared to their white counterparts. Dunlap Dunlap grew up in West Charlotte and remembers the tried to hide it for so long? We welcome everyone. I don’t says they did apply for the loan program but did not have community being close knit, despite being a place where it care if you’re purple — I don’t care if you’ve got a green the business history to qualify. did not always feel safe to be a lesbian. She only came out dog, we’re just going to love you.” : :