The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday revoked all city licenses associated with a longstanding LGBTQ club after hearing safety concerns from police and neighboring businesses.

“You all do not deserve to be open,” Councilor J.T. Moore said to the owner of The Quest Club Inc. and his representatives before Tuesday’s vote.

Moore said he recognizes the importance of the club to the city’s gay community, but he told the owner, “It’s a shame that a space like this is going to go away because you all were negligent in being able to create the safety that people needed.”

The Quest, at 416 24th St. S., was the site of a double homicide in May. A 45-year-old man was also shot and killed at the nightclub in 2022, and a Birmingham police officer was shot while trying to disarm a patron with a gun there in 2021.

The hearing on the Quest’s licenses is part of a broader effort by city leaders to target businesses with high crime rates.

Birmingham police Sgt. Kenneth Knight told the council Tuesday that Quest has received 109 police calls in the past year, including robbery, assault and 12 disorderly fights.

“It was quite alarming at the call volume we get at this location,” he said, noting that one nearby business had four calls in the past year and another had a single instance in which police were dispatched.

Knight said the Quest has fallen short in terms of security measures, and the police department hasn’t seen any improvements since the deaths in May.

Knight added that two plain clothes police officers went into the club at 7 a.m. ahead of Tuesday’s hearing and were able to enter despite having concealed firearms.

Councilor Valerie Abbott said she was under the impression that the owners and managers of the Quest had taken measures to address security concerns since the double homicide, and she was disappointed to learn that on the day of the hearing such major lapses occurred.

“Even this morning, anyone could’ve walked in there with a gun and blown everyone away,” she said.

Richard Mauk, an attorney representing The Quest, said the owner and managers of the nightclub have taken significant steps to make the business safer. Those steps include using metal detector wands and investing thousands of dollars in cameras and door alarms. Mauk also said management has fired 10 employees for not following safety protocols.

“We recognize there was a problem; we know there was a problem; we have fixed, we think, our problems,” Mauk said.

The attorney said the plain clothes police were able to enter the club Tuesday morning because a security guard who was supposed to be on duty left her shift due to a family emergency.

Knight told the council that the Quest’s safety plan called for a manager to step in for the missing security guard.

“It should never be where there was no one there (guarding the door),” the sergeant said.

The council opened the hearing up to public comments Tuesday and several neighbors expressed concerns for their safety going into work in the mornings across the street from rowdy patrons at the 24-hour club.

“It’s habitual, and I don’t think it’s going away,” said Gary Owen, a regional vice president for GMC who works in a historic building across the street from the Quest.

When council members asked him to comment on the safety issues at his club, Quest owner Dan Sparks said he’s dealing with new issues such as the state’s recent permitless carry law.

“We’re having to adapt to the fact that you can buy a gun and carry it, but you can’t buy a pack of cigarettes,” he said.

The council voted unanimously to revoke all licenses the Quest has through the city, including its business license, liquor license and dance hall permit. The revocation is effective immediately. However, representatives of The Quest LLC indicated they would be seeking a temporary restraining order to keep the club open, according to city staff.

A Club With History

Joshua Burford is a historian and co-director of the Invisible Histories, a group that creates community-based educational programming around LGBTQ history in the Deep South.

Burford said the Quest is the longest-running, continually operated LGBT bar in the state. Though the current owners have run the business since 1982, he said, the Quest opened to the public in 1968.

“It holds a really special place for a lot of people because it’s just been so consistent. It’s been there. It’s been a place where you could go,” he said. “Losing a space that’s been open this long is pretty tough.”

Home Repairs

In other business, the council approved an agreement with Cornerstone Revitalization Foundation Inc. to provide home repair services in District 8, a project funded by Councilor Carol Clarke’s discretionary American Rescue Plan Act funding.

The group will provide housing rehabilitation for up to 13 houses in the district – this is aimed to assist moderate to low-income households in need of minor repairs. The funding for the agreement totals $370,000.

This vote comes one week after the council approved similar home repair agreements, totaling nearly $1 million for the communities of Smithfield, Graymont, College Hills and North Birmingham.