Now they get to honor the building and the LBGTQ+ community with a mural Lo is painting of the progressive LGBTQ+ flag.
“People would open the front door and they would throw fireworks and bottle rockets and water balloons in to the bar as well as harass the patrons at the time,” Tenpenny said. Tenpenny said the bar served as a beacon for the LGBTQ+ community and continues that legacy today despite owners and patrons not always feeling welcomed in the city. Napalese was established in 1982 and has been at its current location on Cedar Street since the early 2000s. Justis Tenpenny said Napalese is Wisconsin’s second-longest-running gay bar, behind Milwaukee's This Is It! that was founded in 1968. Lo found a safe space in Napalese Lounge and Grille. “Being a queer person of color coming to a town like Green Bay, it was very very intimidating,” Lo said.
He said moving to Green Bay was a big deal because, as a gay man, he wasn’t sure he would be as accepted by the community as he felt he was in Oshkosh. – A Green Bay artist is painting his first mural on a business he said made him feel safe enough to be his true self.
