Originally published at: The Lesbian Bar Project raises money to save remaining lesbian bars | Boing Boing
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Love for a local institution!!!
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My eternal devotion & love to the Foxhole in SF. That place saved my sanity in my restaurant days. Yes, straight heterosexual man likes LBTGQ bars, what’s not to love, awesome folks, great drinks, and no machismo dbags to ruin the vibes. Peace be on you good Sisters 
!
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Many are always welcoming places to straight friends who aren’t there to gawk and act like stupid tourists… I’ve never not had a great time in a gay bar!
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I hope they at least install fire exits.
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That was true of Meow Mix in NYC when a friend took me there in the late '90s.
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Oh Lordy Lordy! Hmmmm.
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Wow, 200 to 25 is quite the decline. I suspect that is largely because now people can meet people and create a community with out needing a physical location?
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That was one ingredient, there are also changes in the economics. A lot of the bars were in areas that rapidly gentrified raising their costs, while a lot of the patrons remained economically vulnerable, meaning they couldn’t ride the rising tide. I know the final straw for my neighborhood lesbian bar was the 2008 crash. Once a bunch of their regulars didn’t have any discretionary income they stopped coming as much and that sealed it.
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I think people STILL need physical locations. Gentrification is doing a number on gay spaces in major cities.
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In the first bar folks were drinking sips
But in this bar they could shake their hips!
I was thinking mainly bars for “meeting people”, which has a lot more options with the internet now. But true, people need physical places to hang out at, but do they need to be bars? Are there other places and activities people are doing? Coffee shops? I dunno, I don’t go to places to socialize. I rarely did it when young and single.
Good points. It is rarely one thing that leads to the decline of something.
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No, but gentrification is impacting other kinds of spaces too, specifically those not run for a profit by a coproration. And adult spaces like this do matter and have served marginalized communities for a long time now. Given how much anti-LGBQT+ rhetoric there is out there right now, these spaces are even more critical.
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Defining “Lesbian Bar” is a little tricky. Most places are gay men’s places that have a women’s night, dance parties that move club to club every night, or queer spaces that have a ladies’ night. Actual full-time every-day-all-lesbian bars are very rare.
I lived in San Francisco in the 90s and even there it was hard to find one, and they didn’t last long. The Lexington was always there, but otherwise it was “special nights” at other places. I actually used to drive down to San Jose to go to The Savoy because for some reason San Jose could sustain a dyke bar for 10 years where SF couldn’t. Later in LA, there were places like Girl Bar (now gone) and a place in the Valley that’s also gone. So it was Thursday nights at The Abbey for the most part. That’s all we got.
The reason why is simple- women don’t drink enough. I’ve said this in many a thread here before, but gay men drink way way more so it’s just way easier to run a business for that crowd. In straight bars, it’s the men who are keeping the doors open for the women who go in and nurse one beer. Men drink in a way that women don’t and that’s what keeps the lights on in any bar, I’m afraid.
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My liver resembles this remark.
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