Knoxville, Tennessee will lose one of its last two gay bars

This story originally appeared on Them.A Knoxville, Tennessee gay bar has announced on social media that it will be closing after 22 years in business, citing rent increases and a dispute with a landlord.Calling the closure a “complete surprise,” the bar alleged on Facebook Monday night that the building’s landlord, Daniel Schuh, issued an eviction with “less than one week’s notice” after the business could not “absorb” a rent increase included the last lease. The Facebook statement called Schuh “homophobic, a tyrant and a proud asshole.”The statement adds that the bar self-funded repairs on the HVAC system and an outdated electric panel that the landlord allegedly refused to pay for. Currently, the bar says it is looking for ways to sell off the business’s physical assets so that the landlord does not take possession of anything related to the bar.“The landlord has made any relationship with his [tenant] difficult since he took possession of the property, making threats, using homophobic slurs, not acknowledging that he had a viable [tenant] that paid rent on time, maintained the business to not be a nuisance to the immediate surrounding community,” the Facebook post reads. “He has dismissed the business owner, he has undermined the business owner, he has even actually told folks he owns Club XYZ.”As of this writing, Schuh has not issued a public response to the bar’s statement.The end of Club XYZ’s 22-year run leaves just one designated LGBTQ+ bar in Knoxville, Tennessee — CORE Knoxville — per local ABC affiliate WATE. The closure of Club XYZ also comes just a year after South Press, a queer-owned coffee shop that served as a queer community space in Knoxville, closed, as well, per Inside of Knoxville.Club XYZ asked Knoxvillians to join them on Saturday for their final dance, with several people mourned the closure in the comments underneath their Facebook post.“Another historic gay bar closed. This is beyond sad,” one per