Scottsdale bar that banned transgendered customers goes gay

Club Forbidden opened its doors Friday evening in the same building that once housed the rock, comedy and dance club at 6820 E. Fifth Ave.

“This will be more like a New York nightclub and I couldn’t do that under Anderson’s Fifth Estate,” owner Tom Anderson said.

Anderson, who recently lifted his ban on transgendered customers and settled a discrimination dispute with transgendered woman Michèle deLaFreniere, said the club’s change is a business — not a political — decision.

“Politics has nothing to do with it at all,” said Anderson, who was putting final touches on the club’s facelift Friday afternoon. “It gives the people a place in the East Valley to come and dance.”