Lipstick lesbians and butch drag queens swarm the dance floor or rock as live acts perform.”įirstly, this name sounds like cat food. “Meow Mix with its never-got-over-riot-grrrl-grunge is hot nearly every night of the week. Meow Mix (269 East Houston, New York, NY) 1996 to 2004 Inspired, undoubtedly, by how cute Mary Martin was when she played Peter Pan in the 1956 live action film “Peter Pan,” this girlbar dive with noted karaoke promised its customers: “Come with me now to a far off land across a briny sea, to a place where you can laugh and play and fly your heart so free.”Ħ. Never Never Land (1920 Market Street, Shreveport, Louisiana) 2005 to 2010 “Instead, they put their energy into creating a network of friends and allies within the bar.”ĥ. “The bar lesbians were in no position to rebel against Kooky’s dictatorship,” Jay writes. (The toilet paper situation wasn’t unique to this bar, however, this was a common strategy.) Karla Jay, in her book The Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation, tells tales of a hostile owner dressed in complicated pastel prom gowns who would harass clientele into buying more drinks (eventually turning everybody into an alcoholic), a bathroom guard who parceled out three squares of toilet paper to each guest while ensuring no couples snuck in and an intimidating entrance/carding procedure administered by male doormen. One of only two lesbian bars in the city at that time, it seems like everybody who went to Kooky’s mostly hated it. 14th Street, New York, NY) 1960s to early 1970s Yannow?Īnyhow, Our Hideaway was once the oldest women’s bar on the east coast, frequented both by college kids new to the area and locals who’d been partrons for 25 years!Ĥ. I like to imagine this name came from the secret name for a private tree fort where the bar’s owner used to meet her romantic friend for cuddling after school.
More importantly, the creators of this bar discovered a new way to spell “volleyball,” a sport beloved by lesbians because volleyball players tend to wear tiny outfits and have strong fists!ģ. This bar had a very strict butch/femme culture and often found itself subject to random police raids - both common situations at the time. Volli-Bal (2124 North Clark St, Chicago, IL) 1950s-60s When it snagged the 1999 Best Lesbian Bar Award from The Tucson Weekly, the Weekly professed: “The Biz is Tucson’s lesbian Cheers, but with hip music, a good dance floor and an Amazon attitude.”Ģ. Just kidding (kinda), I don’t know why it closed, do you? This hotspot, located in a shopping plaza, began as a lesbian bar and eventually evolved to attract a “mixed-gender” crowd and closed shortly thereafter because MEN RUIN EVERYTHING. I feel like the idea here is that if your homophobic mother asks you where you’re going, you can say “ain’t nobody’s bizness.” Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness (2900 E.Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ) 1994-2011 15 Awesomely Named Yet Totally Closed Lesbian Bars Of Americaġ. All the information in this post, unless otherwise noted, was garnered from that blog. Silverside, the captain of Lost Womyn’s Space, has done serious research to unearth the stories of more lesbian bars than probably currently exist in the world. And everything sacred and profane in between” - and it’s a website I’d recommend becoming obsessed with, as I am. The website Lost Womyn’s Spaceis devoted to honoring both ancient and modern womyn’s spaces that have been lost - “anything from lost women’s colleges and schools, to lesbian bars and clubs. The 200 Best Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Movies Of All TimeĬlick here for more posts from “the herstory issue” // “the way we were”.LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.