Drinking establishment catering to lesbians
A lesbian bar (sometimes called a "women's bar") is a drinking establishment that caters exclusively or predominantly to lesbian women. While often conflated, the lesbian bar has a history distinct from that of the gay bar.
Significance.
Lesbian bars predate feminist spaces such as bookstores and coffeehouses, and contemporary LGBT services such as community centers and health care centers. While few lesbian-specific bars exist today, lesbian bars have long been sites of refuge, validation, community, and resistance for women whose sexual orientations are considered "deviant" or non-normative. They have been spaces for intergenerational community building, where women had the opportunity to come out without being "outed", which can result in the loss of jobs, family, and social status. They could, however, also be sites of intense isolation.
History.
While women in the United States have historically been barred from public spaces promoting alcohol consumption, women's saloon presence rose in the 1920s. Prohibition's speakeasies allowed women to drink publicly more freely.
Meanwhile, in Weimar Germany, lesbian bars and night clubs were numerous, especially in Berlin. Entrepreneur Elsa Conrad ran several venues which catered to a lesbian intellectual elite. Her bar "Mali und Igel" hosted guests such as Marlene Dietrich. Lotte Hahm was another lesbian activist of that era who created the popular bar Violetta and other events. In Paris during the 1920s, photographer Brassai brought attention to the underground lesbian bar scene with his photographs of customers at Le Monocle. Parisian bars and brasseries for lesbians were numerous in Montmartre as far back as the late 1800s and early 1900s; among them were Le Rat Mort, La Souris and the Hanneton.
San Francisco's Mona's 440 Club, opened in 1936, is widely cited as the first lesbian bar in the United States. In the 1950s, bars began to emerge for working-class lesbians, white and black. Very characteristic of these (often referred to as "Old Gay") bars was binary heterosexist models of coupling and an enforcement of a (white) butch/femme or (black) stud/femme binary. Because of a lack of economic capital and segregation, house parties were popular among black lesbians. Lesbians who changed roles were looked down upon and sometimes referred to as "KiKi" or "AC/DC". Out of this early organizing of lesbians came the homophile movement and the Daughters of Bilitis.
Lesbian and gay identification and bar culture expanded exponentially with the migration and passing through of people in big cities during and after World War II.
In the 1960s, with the rise of the gay liberation movement and an increasing identification with the term and identity "lesbian", women's bars increased in popularity. The 1970s saw the rise of lesbian feminism, and bars became important community activist spaces. Some lesbian bars in the U.S. also supported women's softball teams.
Policing and backlash.
Homosexual acts were illegal in the United States until gradual decriminalization from 1962 to 2003, and police raids were a risk at places where lesbianism was considered criminal indecency. Undercover and off-duty police officers have terrorized lesbian bars since their inception. Lesbians could be harassed and detained by the police for publicly gathering in a place where alcohol was being served, dancing with someone of the same gender, or failure to present identification. Some San Francisco bar owners banded together in the Tavern Guild to fight back against this, collecting funds to defend patrons who had been arrested in raids.
Men were often the landlords of lesbian bars, in order to secure liquor licenses and navigate relationships with the police and the Mafia. Bar owners often bribed police to warn them just prior to raids, upon which they would turn on the lights in the bar and lesbians would separate.
As a form of protection, some bars covered their windows, did not have identifying signage, or could only be entered through a back door. Some bar owners tried membership-based models, which heightened security but was also exclusionary.
Decline.
In addition to drinking, lesbian bar culture has also revolved around community building, dancing, and pool playing. This targeted but not lucrative patronage was not always profitable and caused many bars to shut their doors.
These pieces of history are being lost as the "neighborhood lesbian bar" is increasingly unable to make rent payments, and as gentrification contributes to declining patronage. Gay male bars persist as gay men have more economic capital, and the rise of internet dating culture is displacing the cultivation of intergenerational lesbian communities historically created in lesbian bars. Because lesbian women are more likely to be primary caretakers of children than gay men, lesbian neighborhoods take on a different shape than gay neighborhoods, and as a result, lesbian night life decreases.
Along with the increased mainstreaming of LGBTQ culture, use of the term "queer" for self-identification, instead of "lesbian", has grown among many younger members of the lesbian community; and with the rise in internet dating culture, lesbian-specific bars became less common. By 2023 there were only around two dozen in the country, according to the New York Times. In the United States' largest city, New York City, only three remained.
Some documentaries about the decline include:
Evolution.
Some lesbian bars have evolved into "queer" bars, welcoming not only lesbians but other members of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2021 Henrietta Hudson, which had opened in 1991 as a lesbian bar, evolved into "queer human bar built by lesbians." Mobile, Alabama, bar Herz opened in 2019 as a lesbian bar but by 2022 was welcoming customers with "a range of identities, including lesbian, bisexual, pansexual and more." This rebrand appears to have had little impact on the number of attendees, as Herz closed in 2023. In Paris, the lesbian bar Unity rebranded itself as a more inclusive "queer feminist" bar called La Mutinerie.
Some new bars have opened with this business model. In 2023, bars Ruby Fruit and Honey's at Star Love opened in Los Angeles, California; the new bars describe themselves as a "queer bar" that caters to a more diverse group than the typical lesbian bar, and gay bars. As You Are Bar opened with this model in Washington DC in 2022, describing themselves as "a lesbian-slash-queer bar." They said that framing themselves this way (as well as many of their business practices, such as a dedication to anti-racist practices and inclusion of activities and beverages that do not contain alcohol) was the result of long conversations with the Washington D.C. queer community. News outlets like "Eater" reported on both Ruby Fruit and Honey's as lesbian bars as did the "Georgetown Voice" for As You Are Bar and that the clientele and ownership of all bars mentioned in these sections appears to not have shifted too far astray from their original attendees or owners.
The repositioning into queer spaces is, according to the "Washington Post", sometimes viewed negatively, "particularly [by] older women who identify as lesbian, [who] bristle at that expansion". According to "Tagg Magazine", Henrietta Hudson's rebranding "proved to be controversial" on social media as to some it felt the bar was no longer lesbian-centered. However, this controversy did not appear to prevent patrons in 2021 from filling reservations for their new space that served charcuterie and cocktails. Henrietta Hudson's digital manager stated that, "It's not that we aren't lesbian-centric, we are built by lesbians. It's a more truthful renaming. We are a queer-centric bar, we are welcoming to the entire community. We want to acknowledge our history that we are built by lesbians and have been a lesbian bar, so we're centered in that way."
There continues to be an interest in creating unique spaces that center around women loving women. For example, popups in the 2020s like Dave's Lesbian Bar in Queens, New York have fundraised for "a queer-centric mutual aid hub by day, and lesbian bar by night." According to "Autostraddle's" Queer Girl City Guide, bookstores, cafes, and roving parties are also popular for lesbians and other queer women all around the world.
List of lesbian bars.
Lesbian bars have become rare in Western culture nations, and there are signs of decline in parts of Asia as well. However, there are some lesbian-friendly and gay-owned bars today that host "lesbian nights" or "queer women" nights. Some current and past lesbian bars include:
Australia and New Zealand.
Various nights occur regularly in Sydney catering to LGBTQ women.
Canada.
By 2019, there were no lesbian bars left in Montreal, though events for queer women continued to be held.
Europe.
Other Parisian lesbian bars include La Mutinerie, Le Bar'Ouf, Le 3W Kafé, Ici Bar de Filles, and So What.
United States.
According to a June 2021 article on "PBS NewsHour", there were more than 200 lesbian bars across the United States in the late 1980s and that number has dropped to 21 due to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of dating apps, gentrification, and assimilation of queer people.
In the late 1930s, 208 Bond Street was the location of a women's bar. In the 1970s, the third floor of the M&amp;K nightclub, a gay disco on Cookman Avenue, was for lesbians.
New York city comprises five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.
Many lesbian bars in the 1940s and 1950s were in North Beach and included Tommy's Place/12 Adler Place, Anxious Asp, Artist's Club, Beaded Bag, The Beige Room, Blanco's, Chi-Chi Club, Copper Lantern, Front, Miss Smith's Tea Room, Tin Angel, Tommy 299, Our Club, and Paper Doll. The police raid of Kelly's Alamo Club in 1956 and the arrest of 36 women on charges of "frequenting a house of ill repute" led the Daughters of Bilitis to publish a guide, "What To Do In Case of Arrest."
In the East Bay, Mary's First and Last Chance Bar, in Oakland, was closed in 1958 for "catering to lesbians", but the bar challenged the ruling and won. In the 1970s and 1980s, other lesbian bars in the East Bay included Jubilee, Driftwood, Bachanal, and Ollie's.
References.
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Further reading.
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