Long before rainbow flags flew openly across Charlotte, there was the French Art Cinema — a discreet adult theater that became a quiet but significant gathering space for gay men in the Queen City.
Operating through the 1970s into the 1990s, the French Art Cinema was part of a network of adult theaters that, in many Southern cities, functioned as informal meeting grounds at a time when openly gay bars were fewer and visibility came with risk. Tucked along Wilkinson Boulevard, it carried the coded name “art cinema,” but locals understood its real role.
