Why America’s Lesbian Bars Need Our Support More Than Ever

Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.4 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Throughout the last year and a half, we've watched as beloved bars, restaurants, and gathering places have closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, as writer Samantha Allen says on this week's episode, that wave of closures has been ongoing for years within the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, there are just over 15 lesbian bars remaining in the U.S., according to the Lesbian Bar Project, an effort to record and protect lesbian bars that's being spearheaded by filmmakers Elina Street and Erica Rose. (Editor's note: Since recording, the project has updated the number of U.S. lesbian bars to 21.)

To talk about how lesbian bars and queer spaces have fared during the pandemic and what is needed in the future to keep them around, we're joined by Allen and Lisa Menichino, owner of Cubbyhole, one of New York City's three remaining lesbian bars. One major takeaway? “You have to come,” says Menichino of post-pandemic visits to bars like Cubbyhole. “You have to support us. You have to be there. Because we're not magically going to be around without you.”

Read a full transcription of the episode here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-americas-lesbian-bars-need-our-support-more-than-ever-women-who-travel-project

Find them.'s Queer Spaces Project: https://www.them.us/story/queer-spaces-lost-covid-19

Find the Lesbian Bar Project's work: https://www.lesbianbarproject.com/

Follow Samantha: @SLAwrites

Follow Lisa at Cubbyhole: @cubbyholebar

Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere

Follow Lale: @lalehannah

Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone and welcome to Women Who Travel, a podcast from Codinass Traveler.
0:08.0	I'm Meredith Carey and with me, as always, is my co-host, Lale Erika Oglue.
0:12.0	Hello!
0:13.0	According to the Lesbian Bar Project, which works to catalog and protect lesbian bars, there are just over 15 left across the U.S.
0:20.0	The bars, which serve as a safe space for
0:22.6	the larger LGBTQ community to gather have been hit hard by the pandemic. To talk about their
0:27.8	importance and a way forward, we're joined by Lisa Manichino, owner of Cubby Hall, one of New York
0:32.5	City's three remaining lesbian bars, and Samantha Allen, traveler contributor and author of Real
0:37.4	Queer
0:37.6	America, LGBT Stories from Red States. Thank you both so much for joining us. Thank you.
0:43.8	To start off, I actually just want to ask quite a simple question, which is, what place have
0:50.0	lesbian bars served in your lives over the years? When I first came out back early 90s, the lesbian bar was really the only place you can go
1:02.0	to meet anyone, romantically or socially.
1:06.0	And so that's the way, you know, lesbian bars more important to me.
1:14.2	It's changed since then with the advent of technology and, you know, our assimilation being
1:20.5	accepted in the broader community.
1:23.5	I think the need for a lesbian bar to meet socialize with people like you is different
1:30.0	because now you can go, a lot of people are out at work, at least in the major cosmopolitan
1:34.8	cities anyway, a lot of people out at work, you can go to a straight bar and meet someone.
1:39.0	I mean, it's just people are less in the closet.
1:42.2	So the lesbian bar is now just a place where you go you know
1:47.6	before a date or after a date or just to socialize with other people like you so it's changed a bit
	...

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