Lesbian Bar

A lesbian bar is a bar or club oriented toward lesbian, bisexual, and queer women. For much of the 20th century these spaces were vital sites for socializing, organizing, and building community when few other safe gathering places existed. Their numbers have fallen sharply. The Lesbian Bar Project, a campaign founded in 2020 by filmmakers Erica Rose and Elina Street, counted a drop from roughly 200 lesbian bars in the United States in the 1980s to fewer than two dozen by 2021, though its work has since helped the tally recover to around three dozen. The decline reflects economic pressure, the COVID-19 pandemic, real estate costs, and shifts in how people find community. The project works to celebrate, support, and preserve the bars that remain.