The Great American Pilgrimage of Lesbian Bars

VVisiting every roadside attraction, presidential birthplace, state capitol, or even gay club in the United States can take years, if not a lifetime on the road. But visiting all the lesbian bars in the country? You could hit them all in a month. According to the preservation campaign the lesbian bar project, there are only 21 self-identified lesbian bars in the entire country. These decade-plus spots have withstood the test of dating apps and new nightlife trends, fusing queer history while remaining enticing destinations, despite the fact that nearly 200 lesbian bars have closed across the country since the 1990s.

“One of the first things I do when traveling to a new city is to search for ‘lesbian bar [name of city]’ or ‘queer bars near me’ or ‘queer dance party’,” says 39-year-old writer Krista Burton. She is currently visiting every lesbian bar in the country as she researches her next book. Moby Dam. It’s a major trip considering she had only visited 3 on the Lesbian Bar Project’s list of 21 when she started her trip in August 2021. “Many bars I spent a lot of time in are closed now,” Burton said. “I love lesbian bars! I feel like I’ve come of age in spaces for queer women. Now a New Yorker, she grew up at the Pi in Minneapolis and the Lexington Club in San Francisco. Both are now closed.

From March, Burton is about halfway through his pilgrimage (split into multiple trips as his day job and the pandemic permit) and has felt the eerie joy at every space. “I was overwhelmed by the welcome and friendliness of strangers, not knowing I was writing about them,” she said. While visiting Seattle the wild rose in February 2022, she felt particularly lonely in her former hometown, upset by the redecoration of a lesbian bar she used to heritage. Long gone are the mismatched tables and DIY bar stools around the well-used dance floor, which has taken on a sleeker, more cohesive and contemporary style signifying Seattle’s move from grunge to tech hub.

“I was sitting at a table by myself, watching other groups of fags laughing and having a good time with each other, and I just felt bad, like a shy fat prick with no friends,” Burton recalled. “Then a huge group of older fags came in, yelling and causing a ruckus, and one of them came straight to my table and said, ‘Hey, are you sitting alone? Do you want to come sit with us? It was the kindest, most unexpected thing anyone could have done for me that night. It was one for the book, literally. “It reminded us of how easy and loving it is to include people,” Burton says.

Currently, Burton’s favorite lesbian bar in America is the back door in Bloomington, Indiana, where last November she saw one of the best drag shows in two decades of visiting gay hangouts. “The artists were playing so hard, and everyone in the audience was so excited and tipping like I’ve never seen people tip – I mean, there was a six-person queue at the ATM, just to get more money to tip,” says Burton. “People were so friendly and open. The bar is so lovely decorated and welcoming. It was clear that all the decor was homemade. They have an amazing Golden Girls mural on the outside, and inside the walls are painted in black and white zebra stripes.The pictures on the walls are of famous queers, drag queens and queer icons, most of them framed from fluffy feather boas to glittery frames. It was amazing!” Thrilled with mocktails to include non-drinkers and creative cocktails like “The Salad Tosser” and “Cherry Poppins,” Burton suggests immediately planning a road trip through the surprisingly weird college town.

I take my queer life for granted here in New York. These spaces are so important, and I hope they will continue to last for a long time and more will appear.

Burton isn’t the only one on this mission. In 2021, New York-based creators Sarah Gabrielli, Rachel Karp and Jen McGinity got into their Honda Pilot for a 30-day road trip across the country to tell the stories of America’s lesbian bars for their new podcast, Cruise. In each episode, they focus on the history and legacy of a place that’s still standing, interviewing regulars, owners, staff and other personalities that make each one so special.

“I take my queer life for granted here in New York,” says McGinity. “These spaces are so important, and I hope they will continue to last for a long time and more will appear.” Friends in towns along the way helped open a window into queer life in various parts of the country, but even when the trio was camping, crashing in motels and renting budget Airbnbs, there was a common thread in every place they visited: The lesbian bar felt like home.

“In every bar we went to, the buzzwords we heard all the time were: ‘family, community, home’,” says Gabrielli. “You learn how essential these spaces are for people to make friends, find partners and have places to go. They are extremely important and essential to everyone’s life, an easy way to find community and family. She’s been impressed with bar owners and staff who have stepped up for the community, like Audrey Corley, owner of Phoenix’s boycott bar and who ensures that intoxicated guests are always offered a safe ride home at the end of the night.

When Podcasters Visited Frankie’s Oklahoma City on a Tuesday, aka “family night out,” everyone at the bar was a regular, and they had the tables pushed together in the center of the room, family dinner style. Co-owner Tracey Harris introduced the Cruise group at the premises. “We were a little intimidated at first, but we were immediately welcomed into the group, given drink recommendations and challenged to a darts tournament,” Karp says. “Everyone kept telling us throughout the night that we had to come back and visit on a weekend so we could see a drag show there. . . . By the end of the night, we had promised to return and sent out a slew of invitations for people to come and visit us in New York.

While McGinity, Gabrielli, and Karp expected to collect great stories on their journey, one thing that surprised them was how powerful these stories were, spanning multiple generations and various iterations of social progress.

“There are so many queer stories that I didn’t know about, everyone of different ages has stories about oppression or organizations, nuanced and unique ways of fighting and overcoming things,” McGinity said. .

Small tidbits of progress were evident in most visits to the bar. For example, when San Francisco wild west side was founded in 1962, original owners Pat Ramseyer and Nancy White couldn’t even run the bar themselves – women weren’t legally allowed to be bartenders in California until 1971. And in Chicago, the Cruise band interviewed Shirley, a regular at No one is darling, an Andersonville cocktail bar that opened during the pandemic. She shared memories of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ nightlife scene in the 1970s, spoke about the racism she, as a black woman, faced in some mainstream lesbian bars, and her role in creating “The Warehouse.” , a queer nightclub from the 1970s and 80s, which is considered the birthplace of house music in Chicago.

Burton echoed that sentiment, and as he continually saw the excitement and energy in the limited number of lesbian bars across America, he was left with general optimism. “New queer spaces are opening up all the time,” she said. In fact, Washington, DC is waiting for a new lesbian bar, the second in town, Bar as you are, this spring. “It gives me a lot of hope that we are in some sort of renaissance for these spaces.”

Travelers looking for lesbian bars on the go can check out the list of the Lesbian Bar Project. Cruise has provide a map of his road trip to anyone who would like to emulate the route, and Burton’s book is expected in the near future. Finally, in a pinch, you can always take Burton’s advice to google “lesbian bar + [insert city here]”- if you like a new one, let the community know.

>>Next: Queer history continues to be made in Washington, DC

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