Over the last few years, articles have been highlighting the loss of physical spaces for lesbians and queer women. With headlines like “Why Do Lesbian Bars Keep Disappearing” and “There Are Only 14 Lesbian Bars in the Country. Here’s Why,” it has become clear that the crumbling cultural bedrock of the lesbian bar universe is a serious issue.
In 2021, queer creatives Sarah Gabrielli, Rachel Karp and Jen McGinity were contemplating a podcast topic that would bring all their audio production and writing skills together. Gabrielli and Karp are longtime friends and Karp and McGinity are engaged. After reading articles about disappearing lesbian bars, the idea for the “Cruising” podcast came to the trio.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we went to every single one of these bars and interviewed folks and documented them and that could be the podcast?” Karp said in an interview with News is Out. “We all live in New York and we’ve got Cubbyhole and Gingers and we know how important those spaces are to us. And how many interesting stories there are behind people that go to these bars and people that run these bars. We had a hunch that’s probably the case all over the country.”
Once the Covid-19 vaccine became available and it was safer to travel and visit spaces, the trio headed out for a month-long, 10,000-mile road trip to visit all the remaining lesbian bars in the United States. The adventure took them from their local New York bars to cities like Columbus Phoenix and Seattle.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we went to every single one of these bars and interviewed folks and documented them and that could be the podcast?
Rachel Karp
Season one of the podcast includes 21 bars, featuring interviews with owners and patrons alike. The expertly produced podcast captures the emotional connections to these beloved spaces, the sometimes fraught histories and human stories of the lesbian community around the country.
Since their first road trip, something exciting happened that the podcasters didn’t expect. New lesbian and queer women-centric bars started opening up. The podcast even inspired one: Femme Bar in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Gabrielli recalls visiting the bar’s soft opening with her mom. She recalls being surprised when one of the owners, Danielle Spring, recognized and approached them.
“When we walked in, the owner was at the front and she immediately knew who I was, which is really shocking to me,” said Gabrielli. “That never happens to me. And she just said something like, ‘Oh, this is all because of you.’ And she told this beautiful story of how she and her wife had never really been to lesbian bars and got really into ‘Cruising’ during the pandemic and then decided to go to their first one. They took a trip down to New York and were really taken with it and wanted to bring it back to their community.”
Danielle’s sister, who was a champion of the bar, sadly passed away before opening.
“That was kind of like the big push to then actually open it,” Gabrielli said. “That sticks with you. I mean, she’s attributing the whole space to our podcast which, obviously, it’s more nuanced than that. But that’s the coolest and the thing that’s sat with me the most: that this whole place exists.”
For season two of the podcast, Gabrielli, Karp and McGinity headed back out on the road to visit new spaces like Femme Bar and Dorothy Downstairs in Chicago. Season two also explores the rich past of lesbian bars of yesteryear, like Charlene’s in New Orleans, which was open from 1977 to 1999. Sadly, Charlene has passed away, but the trio was able to speak with her partner.
“Charlene was this massively instrumental figure in the gay rights movement in New Orleans, and she passed away in the early 2000s,” said Karp. “We went to her partner’s home outside of New Orleans and spent an afternoon with her.”
They learned about the history of Charlene’s work in the area and how much she meant to those who loved her.
“We got to sit with this woman and hear her tell her love story and talk about Charlene from this really deeply personal place,” said Karp.
The new season took the podcast to Portland, where two spaces for queer women have opened up since season one: The Sports Bra and Doc Marie’s.
For McGinity, visiting The Sports Bra was a key moment in her journey on the podcast. Owned by Jenny Nguyen, The Sports Bra created a unique space where Nguyen had seen a significant gap. There was nowhere to watch women’s sports, so Nguyen created one in Portland. McGinity, who has played sports her whole life and was a fan of women’s sports, covering The Sports Bra was a memorable experience.
“Jenny and I kind of had similar paths,” said McGinity. “I was working for Bon Appetit at the time and Jenny had come from there through portions of her career.”
McGinity and her group of women’s sports-loving friends understood the inspiration all too well.
“All of these things that me and my group of friends had experienced throughout the last, like five to seven years trying to watch women’s sports or just having access to it,” said McGinity. “For somebody who plays sports and really loves sports, I feel like that resonated pretty deeply. I love what she’s doing. It’s so popular, you know, so wholesome. And now they’re popping up everywhere. You know, just kind of like taking her model and running with it.”
While it’s encouraging that new spots are opening that center on the experiences of lesbians and queer women, the question remains: why have some many lesbian bars closed over the last 20 years?
Gabrielli thinks it has to do with several factors.
“Maybe the biggest thing is that they’re not as necessary in 2024,” said Gabrielli. “At the height of the lesbian bar in the ‘70s and ‘80s, there were around 200, which is still not that much for an entire country. At that point, that was the only place that you could go to meet other queer women and be accepted and safe.”
“Now, in a lot of parts of the country, you don’t need to go specifically to a lesbian bar,” said Gabrielli. “There are just so many places for the people in the community to go. It’s not as much of a necessary hotspot, which is an amazing thing in a lot of ways.”
There are other suggested reasons for the decline of the lesbian bar universe, including financial disparities, gentrification, the internet, that queer women don’t spend as much money out at bars and that lesbians stop going out once they are coupled up.
“We heard a lot of rhetoric about lesbians,” said Gabrielli. “They nest and settle down and then they stop going to the bars at a point, whereas gay men don’t have that. That’s just not as common for gay men.”
What are the trio’s thoughts on this new generation of lesbian bars and spaces for queer women?
“It’s been really exciting to see these new spaces pop up, and for the most part, with a few exceptions, be really successful,” said Karp.
“I think that like the trend that we’re seeing across these newer lesbian bars that have had a lot of success is that they’re really intentional in the language they’re deciding to use. And really intentional in their branding. To both, quote unquote, reclaim words like ‘lesbian’ or ‘Sapphic’ or ‘dyke’ but make it clear that they are welcoming to the larger, queer community. And it feels like it is more inclusive, but still like unapologetically lesbian or dyke or Sapphic spaces.”
“It’s been really exciting to see these new spaces pop up, and for the most part, with a few exceptions, be really successful.”
Rachel Karp
So, how can we as a community support lesbian and queer women’s spaces? For McGinty the answer is simple.
“Go to them,” said McGinity. “Support them, you know. Spend money in them if you can, get to know who runs them, who protects them, who goes in and out of the door. I think that’s one of the biggest ways. Actually to support them, physically and monetarily.”
Gabrielli agrees.
“It’s almost like being intentional about that. If you’re picking a bar to go out to, why not hit up the local lesbian bar? You’re going to spend your money somewhere and I always feel like I’m trying to get people to just try it. ‘Just come with me to Ginger’s. You’ll love the vibes.’ I can’t describe it to you, just come. Get friends to try it out with you and I think it’ll be clear that that’s where you’ll want to spend your time.”
Karp also suggests not gatekeeping who can and can’t support a lesbian bar.
“Not everyone will agree with me on that. But that’s a personal value of mine and I think of ‘Cruising,’ is that we’re not here to say who is or is not allowed in a lesbian bar. Aside from that, most bars that we’ve been to, their motto is kind of like, ‘everyone but assholes is allowed here.’ lf you’re going to be respectful of the space and who it’s for and what it means, you’re welcome here.”
Season 2 of “Cruising” is still happening, covering both the past and present of lesbian bars. You can listen to “Cruising” wherever you get your podcasts and support Gabrielli, Karp and McGinity’s next adventure by picking up “Cruising” merchandise or becoming a Patreon member of the pod.
If you want to support lesbian bars or take your own “Cruising” trip, here’s a list of the bars covered in the podcast. Cheers!