Who We Are

CC Slaughters has been a home for Portland’s queer community since 1981 — over four decades on the same corner of Old Town / Chinatown, at 219 NW Davis St. What started as a single dance floor grew into the club you know today: the main floor with its lights and DJs, and the adjoining Rainbow Room lounge next door. In 2013, Out magazine named CC Slaughters one of the “200 Greatest Gay Bars in the World” — recognition of something the regulars already knew.

This has always been more than a nightclub. Through the years CC Slaughters has been a gathering place for the community in good times and hard ones alike — a stage for generations of Portland drag performers, and a space people could count on being open, visible, and unapologetically themselves.

A new chapter

In 2025, after decades under longtime ownership, CC Slaughters faced the real possibility of closing its doors for good. Instead, new owners Jonathan “John” Lo and Christopher “Chris” Lovern stepped in to keep it open — carrying the club’s history forward for the community that built it.

Read more about the transition from KOIN 6 News below, including a video segment covering the story.