For women who identify as gay, queer, or lesbian, places to find a sense of community and other like-minded people are disappearing.Īs bars that serve as gathering places to meet other people like you go away, many identifying women are finding themselves without a feeling of community. 'Even back in the '50s and '60s, which some people consider to be a golden age of lesbian bars, it was often community formation as much as it was hooking up,' said Jack Halberstam, a professor of gender studies at the University of Southern California, in the Last Lesbian Bars, a Broadly documentary released last year.
The loss of a lesbian bar is more than a loss of a place for meeting and hooking up - it's the loss of a place to find a community or a place that makes you feel comfortable.
Gay bars and bars that have ladies nights (nights for women who like women, not nights where girls get cheap booze) are still around, but the bars that cater specifically to queer women are shuttering their doors and stacking up their chairs for the last time. Last year, a flurry of articles and documentaries revealed what's been a long, slow phenomenon - lesbian bars are disappearing around the United States.
