It is flanked by two empty lots and faces another. WonderLust is an unmarked, one-story concrete-block building on a side street in the north end of town, now open four nights a week, up from two. “You have to live kind of an edited version of your life.” “It’s kind of a time warp,” says Jesse Pandolfo, the bar’s owner, sitting in the back office, eyeing a monitor that displays security-camera feeds. There is no ironic disco ball of happiness on this auspicious evening, no party, no rocking celebration. A couple of guys chat at the bar, so modest that it stocks only six brands of booze. Inside the spacious, purple-lit club are maybe 30 patrons. Now the clock was ticking toward midnight inside WonderLust, locally designated as the hottest and most “Vegas” gay bar in perhaps the most homophobic state in America. Mike Pence (R), now Donald Trump’s running mate, that let businesses refuse service to any group they considered heretical to their religion. It was the first state legislation to mimic an Indiana bill signed into law last year by Gov. House Bill 1523, the legislature’s attempt to establish a sort of Southern-fried sharia over the state’s LGBT population, had been demolished by a federal judge just hours earlier. It was a big night for gay Mississippi. Malaysia Ravor-Black, 38, before her performance at WonderLust, in Jackson, Miss.
