Hairrari x New York Times
Where Are All the Lesbian Bars?
Coming to a Place Near You.
Around the country, new pop-ups have sought to fill a void left by L.G.B.T.Q.-focused spaces that have closed.
On Feb. 12, couples and singles came to Bohemian Beer Hall in Astoria, Queens, for a Heartbreaker’s Ball. The event was one in a series of monthly queer pop-up events hosted by Dave’s Lesbian Bar.Credit...Photographs by Ali Kate Cherkis for The New York Times
By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner
Feb. 26, 2022
For years, people have mourned the slow death of the lesbian bar. Only three are left in New York City, according to the Lesbian Bar Project, and fewer than two dozen total in the United States. The pandemic’s toll on the service industry has not helped. Many L.G.B.T.Q. institutions closed to patrons in the spring of 2020; some never reopened.
But as full service has resumed at bars and nightlife has made a comeback, new pop-up sites have sought to fill the void and reimagine what lesbian spaces are for.
Dave’s Lesbian Bar, a monthly pop-up in Queens, is among them. For its February event — a Valentine’s Day-themed Heartbreaker’s Ball on Feb. 12 — more than 1,400 people packed into the Bohemian Beer Hall in Astoria, which had been decked with pink streamers, balloons and signs indicating the gender neutrality of every restroom. In the upstairs ballroom, guests sang along to a cover of Muna’s “Silk Chiffon,” a single about women loving women, performed by the pop-punk band Daisy Grenade. Downstairs, several guests chanted “Mullet, mullet!” as a stylist from Hairrari, a gender-neutral barbershop, clipped another’s hair.
In line with the night’s prom theme, there were tuxes and ball gowns; Princess Diana- and cottagecore-inspired outfits; and lots of spandex and sequins. Several guests had come in from the suburbs for the event.
“It makes me feel so good to see so many queer people hang out,” said Jordan Chase, 26, who was there with a group of friends from Bushwick. “It feels freeing.”
In the 1980s, the United States was home to more than 200 lesbian bars. “It was the only place we could be out,” Deena Updegraff, 61, who frequented many of them as a 20-something in Southern California, said in a phone interview. “We could just be who we were, with each other, and not get bashed.”
In the decades that followed, L.G.B.T.Q. people began to live more openly, as social acceptance, legal protections and mainstream representation all increased. Lesbian bars, in turn, began to feel less essential, and attendance dropped as operating costs rose. Many spots closed.
But even those who came of age in the time of marriage equality still long for a sense of community.
“We need a bar like this,” said Erica Butts, a 26-year-old performer who attends Dave’s events. “This is euphoric, it’s a dream.”
In July of last year, Kristin Dausch, a nanny and performer in Astoria, announced plans to open a lesbian bar in the neighborhood — one that would help promote the work of local musicians, mutual aid organizations and makers through concerts, fund-raising events and pop-up markets. Thus, Dave’s was born.
The pop-ups rely on the help of volunteers: architects, sound engineers, bartenders. “There’s a queer to do anything,” said Mx. Dausch, 34, who uses the pronouns they and them. Donations from each event are pooled toward opening a permanent Dave’s space, which Mx. Dausch hopes to have running by the end of the year.
See the full article here.