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We have been dedicated from day one, and still give back financially and of ourselves to as many LGBT events and causes that we can. We also prided ourselves on always offering a space for any LGBT organization that wanted one. This enticed other businesses and people to move into the area, clean it up, and make it what it is today - one of the hottest locations in the city. We feel that Woody’s has contributed to the Gayborhood not only by the simple fact that we kept it a trouble-free location where every time you walked by, you would see a large crowd of diverse people having a good time. How do you believe Woody’s has contributed to the Gayborhood, and to a larger extent Philly’s LGBTQ community, under your ownership? We also knew that by owning Woody’s, we could do our part to give back to the community and understand what the community’s needs were. At Voyeur, we had First Fridays with Simply Christopher, which was a predominantly African-American crowd. We had Latin nights for the LGBT members of the Latin community. We also knew that with Woody’s came with a huge responsibility to the LGBT community, and we have tried our best to fulfill that by holding events for people running for office who were pro-LGBT candidates. We put in more dance-floor space so we could have different types of music, we continued to add rooms to make Woody’s the entertainment complex that it is now. We listened to our staff and our customers, and made some changes. When we purchased it, we kept everything the same for a few years so we could find out what made Woody’s Woody’s. It was the place where everybody in the community could go to a be a part of our community and be accepted. Buying Woody’s was important to my brother because he knew that the bars were not only the place where people got together to party, but to mourn the losses of people from our community. We had several conversations about what our vision for Woody’s would be if we bought it from Bill Wood. Bill Wood, Woody’s original owner, had told my brother that he was interested in selling and thought that we ran a quality operation and cared about the community. The Mayfield, which was called Pure at the time, was a club that everybody went to after Woody’s. When my brother first started to go out to gay clubs, Woody’s was always known as the top gay bar in Philly. We knew that the 24th Ward Young Men’s Association was moving from its location on Saint James Street, so we moved the Mayfield into that space and it has been there ever since. During this time, my brother was a board member of Mayfield Social Club. Both places did have gay late nights and other gay events. We then opened 8th Street Lounge and Transit in the same area. During the time we ran the Palmer, we had several gay nights, as my brother is gay and wanted to give the LGBT community an option besides what was in the Gayborhood. My brother was an active member of the Palmer Social Club, and when he was elected to the board, they decided in 1996 to move the club to its current location on Spring Garden Street. Woody’s has a long history in Philadelphia, even predating the term “Gayborhood.” What was it about the property that made you and Michael decide to purchase it? The interview has been lightly edited for clarity. The brother of fellow co-owner Michael Weiss, Billy did the following interview over email to address recent allegations of a racially discriminatory dress-code policy at Woody’s and the bar’s next steps in handling public complaints. Billy Weiss is the co-owner of the Gayborhood bars Woody’s and Voyeur.