From coast to coast, they play a crucial role in the LGBTQ+ community, and they're disappearing.
By Mathew Rodriguez
February 18, 2026
(Link) | (Archive)
When it comes to the queer bar in the wild, so many threats exist, and it's only gotten worse in the past few years. Higher upfront costs combined with lower foot traffic have caused a nationwide problem for the service and food industries, which is exacerbated in queer spaces, which deal with smaller demographics than the average bar or restaurant. And of course, there’s the fact that many people, especially younger people, just don’t go out or have a third space anymore.
It’s hard to say whether anything can economy-proof the gay bar. In the past year alone, the U.S. has seen closures of long-running queer spaces, such as the Bay Area’s Ginger’s, which was open for 47 years, or Rochester, New York’s, Avenue Pub, which just inched past five decades of serving queers. New businesses aren’t exactly faring better, with bars such as Iowa’s General Wood Shop and Brooklyn’s Club Lambda having opened and closed within the span of just a couple years.
In some cases, a bar’s public frankness about its financial difficulties can prompt a community response that allows it to stay open. In the last few years, many struggling spaces have turned to sites such as GoFundMe to make ends meet, keep creditors at bay and continue to sling food, drink and community to its underserved patrons. (Efforts on the fundraising platform saved East Nashville’s Lipstick Lounge and Washington, D.C.’s As You Are.) And, of course, there are organizations such as the Lesbian Bar Project looking to not only document queer history, but keep these spaces vibrant. But just as important to fight for new and existing queer spaces is commemorating those that were lost, for a myriad of reasons, in the past year.
Club Lambda (Brooklyn)
After opening Lambda Lounge in Harlem, married couple Charles Hughes and Richard Solomon expanded their brand, and the creation of safe spaces for queer people of color, to Brooklyn with the opening of Club Lambda in Williamsburg in 2022.
“We saw that a lot of urban communities didn’t have a location that they could go to every night of the week,” Hughes told amNY in 2022. “Brooklyn didn’t have this, so we are opening Club Lambda.”
“The past 5 years have been nothing more than exciting as we have hosted some of the most iconic and memorable events New York has seen!” Club Lambda wrote in the post. “Servicing celebrities, socialites and many from all walks of life within the community has imprinted many memories for us to hold on to for years to come!!”
Upon announcement of its closure, many in the LGBTQ+ community, especially Black LGBTQ+ people, mourned the loss of a space owned by Black people that catered to a Black queer crowd.
Denver Sweet (Denver, Colorado)
After six years of operating in Downtown Denver, Denver Sweet closed its doors in July 2025, citing increased labor costs and less foot traffic in the bar, per the Denver Post. “This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but we believe the time has come,” owners Randy Minten and Ken Maglasang said in a statement to the Post. “Creating and running Denver Sweet has been a dream come true for us — and saying goodbye is heartbreaking.”
Sweet celebrated its farewell with a bottomless mimosa lumberjack brunch featuring pancakes and unlimited mimosas, as well as performances from two local drag kings, per its final Instagram post. Not only did it feature an upstairs patio, it was, per the Post, one of the only bars in Denver that catered to the bear community.
Ginger’s (San Francisco)
Ginger’s closed permanently after a brief resurrection in 2024. The bar, which had previously closed, reopened for Pride 2024, per Eater San Francisco, but following financial hardship had to close permanently in late 2025, despite being the last LGBTQ+ bar in the city’s Financial District, per the San Francisco Chronicle.
Prior to its final closing, Ginger’s had operated in the Bay Area for 47 years. As with other closures, the owners cited dwindling bar traffic for the closure.
“The traffic to Ginger’s has not been consistently strong,” Future Bars Group, which operated Ginger’s, owner Brian Sheehy told SFGATE. “Without enough customer support, our staff don’t earn enough tips, and Ginger’s operates at a loss. We have struggled to get people into Ginger’s, despite the valiant efforts of our entire team and the great shows being put on by the performers.” Per SFGATE, Ginger’s first opened in 1978 by owner Don Rogers, who named the bar after actress Ginger Rogers due to their shared surname.
Eagle Houston (Houston)
When Eagle Houston closed this past summer, it took the Texas city’s residents by surprise. It had just hosted a spat of LGBTQ+ pride events in June before news of its close started to spread in local Facebook groups for the bear community, per the Houston Chronicle. What followed was mostly silence: neither the bar’s owner nor its social media pages responded to several requests for comment from the Chronicle. However, at the time of its closing, a notice to vacate had been posted on its front door, which had also been plastered with a sign noting various violations and boarded up with a solid wooden plank. The bar first opened in 1984.
Barracuda (New York City)
Open since 1995, Barracuda was known in New York City as a drag hotspot. (And if you were going to see a diva at Madison Square Garden, you’d walk a few blocks down to an afterparty most likely happening within.) Over three decades, the bar has seen the likes of Sherry Vine, Jackie Beat, Hedda Lettuce and others grace its stage.
“Thirty years is a very long time,” owner Bob Pontarelli said in a statement to Eater upon its closing. Pontarelli cited the opening of a condo project next door, and the accompanying construction, as the reason for the bar’s closure. “The damage from the construction has significantly affected the interior and overall operation of the bar.” The ongoing drilling meant there was “no way to anticipate the additional damage and risks that could arise in the future. It is impossible to conduct business as usual,” Pontarelli wrote.
This Is It! (Milwaukee)
When This Is It! closed its doors in 2025, it wasn’t just the shuttering of a Milwaukee queer staple. It was the closing of the oldest gay bar in the state of Wisconsin: This Is It! Had started operating in 1968. The bar announced its closure on its Facebook page on March 9, citing the COVID crisis as bringing a financial hardship from which the bar couldn’t recover, as well as an 8-month closure of the bar’s street and sidewalk in 2024.
“It’s with much sadness, but with so much love, we bid all of you farewell,” the bar wrote. “Take care of each other, and please continue to support local and queer-owned businesses.” Drag superstar Trixie Mattel even became a co-owner of the bar in 2021; at the time, she said that she bought it because she didn’t want to see it suffer the same fate as so many other queer havens post-COVID.
Under the announcement of the closing, many patrons were confused as to why the bar closed so suddenly, without a chance to either fundraise to keep the bar open or send it off with a farewell event.
Macri Park (Brooklyn)
New Yorkers were shocked to find out about the surprise closing of Brooklyn-based Macri Park in January without much notice. In an Instagram post in January, the bar had announced that it had already closed, giving bargoers nary a chance to celebrate or mourn the space.
Macri Park did not begin as a gay bar, first starting at a dive bar before ownership passed to the same person who owned nearby Metropolitan, per Greenpointers, in 2015. From then on, Macri became a gay bar with a new aesthetic. When the bar shared news of its closing on social, many local drag icons flew to its comment section to mourn.
“The doors may close,” wrote drag queen Bible Girl, “but i'm still in the walls.”
The Ruby Fruit (Los Angeles)
The Ruby Fruit, a lesbian wine bar located in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood, announced in January 2025 that it would close its doors; though the bar had been struggling financially for some time, business paused and then dropped precipitously during and after the LA wildfires, per Eater. “When we’re talking about being vulnerable, the line is so thin between being able to carry on and not,” owner Mara Herbkersman told the outlet. “It became really clear after two days of being open that if we were to go on one more day, we would run the risk of not being able to pay our employees, a nonnegotiable for us.”
News of the bar’s closure sent shockwaves throughout the Los Angeles sapphic community as well as the queer internet. It also spawned considerable drama. After crowd-sourcing funds to stay open, the bar finally closed, per the Washington Blade, leaving some to wonder where the community aid it had asked for had gone. After its abrupt closing, former employees spoke candidly with the Blade about lingering and long-running financial affairs that predated the fires and alleged mistreatment at the bar. There was also some alleged clash over whether the bar was a “lesbian bar” versus a “sapphically-inclined” bar that was ultimately for everyone, per one employee who spoke to Eater.
Also, several trans and POC patrons reported feeling unwelcome in the space. “I don’t think they purposefully didn’t include them,” Sienna Deadrich, a former line cook at The Ruby Fruit told Eater. “But from the perspective of someone who is POC and trans, it was very clear that they didn’t include them.”
Avenue Pub (Rochester, NY)
Citing concerns both economic and safety-related, Avenue Pub in Rochester, New York, shut its doors after five decades in business. “You know, just the economic times right now. Monroe Avenue and the violence on the weekends,” owner Peter Mohr told WHEC. “It’s just, it’s making a very unsafe place for my consumers.”
Mohr elaborated in an Instagram post issued on its final day open. “If I had more resources to keep it going, I absolutely would,” Mohr wrote. “But the reality is that I’ve invested my life savings into these businesses — and I may never see that return.”
General Wood Shop (Grand Rapids, Iowa)
General Wood Shop got its name from the furniture store that used to occupy its space in the 1940s. When it opened in 2023, the bar was hoping to bring an LGBTQ+ space to Grand Rapids, Iowa. By the time it closed, it had succeeded.
“When we opened in July 2023, our dream was to create a place where everyone could feel welcome, safe, and celebrated,” the bar wrote on its social media post announcing its closure. “Together, we built more than a bar; we built a community we will always be proud of.” The bar did not give a reason for its closure on Instagram, nor did it offer one to local news affiliate WoodTV.
City Side Lounge and Kurt’s Place (Tampa)
In an extremely rare occurrence, two separate bars in the same space closed their doors within the same year. After City Side Lounge closed in March, Kurt’s Place opened up in the former venue in August, then finally announced its permanent closure in November, per Watermark Out News.
When City Side announced that it would close in February, local talent bemoaned the loss of the space, which was especially known as a haven for Tampa’s Latinx community. One DJ, DJ Manne, even posted that the bar’s Latin Night would continue in another venue.
Prior to its closure, the Facebook page associated with Kurt’s Place posted a notice from the building’s landlord stating that Kurt’s owed more than $30,000 in rent and past due fees.
Get the best of what’s queer.
Mathew Rodriguez is the former senior news editor at Them. In the past, he has been a senior culture editor at The Atlantic, as well as a staff writer at Out Magazine, INTO, and Mic. His writing has been featured in Slate, Teen Vogue, The Village Voice, MEL Magazine, and more. He is currently writing a young adult graphic novel for Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
By Mathew Rodriguez
February 18, 2026
(Link) | (Archive)
When it comes to the queer bar in the wild, so many threats exist, and it's only gotten worse in the past few years. Higher upfront costs combined with lower foot traffic have caused a nationwide problem for the service and food industries, which is exacerbated in queer spaces, which deal with smaller demographics than the average bar or restaurant. And of course, there’s the fact that many people, especially younger people, just don’t go out or have a third space anymore.
It’s hard to say whether anything can economy-proof the gay bar. In the past year alone, the U.S. has seen closures of long-running queer spaces, such as the Bay Area’s Ginger’s, which was open for 47 years, or Rochester, New York’s, Avenue Pub, which just inched past five decades of serving queers. New businesses aren’t exactly faring better, with bars such as Iowa’s General Wood Shop and Brooklyn’s Club Lambda having opened and closed within the span of just a couple years.
In some cases, a bar’s public frankness about its financial difficulties can prompt a community response that allows it to stay open. In the last few years, many struggling spaces have turned to sites such as GoFundMe to make ends meet, keep creditors at bay and continue to sling food, drink and community to its underserved patrons. (Efforts on the fundraising platform saved East Nashville’s Lipstick Lounge and Washington, D.C.’s As You Are.) And, of course, there are organizations such as the Lesbian Bar Project looking to not only document queer history, but keep these spaces vibrant. But just as important to fight for new and existing queer spaces is commemorating those that were lost, for a myriad of reasons, in the past year.
Club Lambda (Brooklyn)
After opening Lambda Lounge in Harlem, married couple Charles Hughes and Richard Solomon expanded their brand, and the creation of safe spaces for queer people of color, to Brooklyn with the opening of Club Lambda in Williamsburg in 2022.
“We saw that a lot of urban communities didn’t have a location that they could go to every night of the week,” Hughes told amNY in 2022. “Brooklyn didn’t have this, so we are opening Club Lambda.”
“The past 5 years have been nothing more than exciting as we have hosted some of the most iconic and memorable events New York has seen!” Club Lambda wrote in the post. “Servicing celebrities, socialites and many from all walks of life within the community has imprinted many memories for us to hold on to for years to come!!”
Upon announcement of its closure, many in the LGBTQ+ community, especially Black LGBTQ+ people, mourned the loss of a space owned by Black people that catered to a Black queer crowd.
Denver Sweet (Denver, Colorado)
After six years of operating in Downtown Denver, Denver Sweet closed its doors in July 2025, citing increased labor costs and less foot traffic in the bar, per the Denver Post. “This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but we believe the time has come,” owners Randy Minten and Ken Maglasang said in a statement to the Post. “Creating and running Denver Sweet has been a dream come true for us — and saying goodbye is heartbreaking.”
Sweet celebrated its farewell with a bottomless mimosa lumberjack brunch featuring pancakes and unlimited mimosas, as well as performances from two local drag kings, per its final Instagram post. Not only did it feature an upstairs patio, it was, per the Post, one of the only bars in Denver that catered to the bear community.
Ginger’s (San Francisco)
Ginger’s closed permanently after a brief resurrection in 2024. The bar, which had previously closed, reopened for Pride 2024, per Eater San Francisco, but following financial hardship had to close permanently in late 2025, despite being the last LGBTQ+ bar in the city’s Financial District, per the San Francisco Chronicle.
Prior to its final closing, Ginger’s had operated in the Bay Area for 47 years. As with other closures, the owners cited dwindling bar traffic for the closure.
“The traffic to Ginger’s has not been consistently strong,” Future Bars Group, which operated Ginger’s, owner Brian Sheehy told SFGATE. “Without enough customer support, our staff don’t earn enough tips, and Ginger’s operates at a loss. We have struggled to get people into Ginger’s, despite the valiant efforts of our entire team and the great shows being put on by the performers.” Per SFGATE, Ginger’s first opened in 1978 by owner Don Rogers, who named the bar after actress Ginger Rogers due to their shared surname.
Eagle Houston (Houston)
When Eagle Houston closed this past summer, it took the Texas city’s residents by surprise. It had just hosted a spat of LGBTQ+ pride events in June before news of its close started to spread in local Facebook groups for the bear community, per the Houston Chronicle. What followed was mostly silence: neither the bar’s owner nor its social media pages responded to several requests for comment from the Chronicle. However, at the time of its closing, a notice to vacate had been posted on its front door, which had also been plastered with a sign noting various violations and boarded up with a solid wooden plank. The bar first opened in 1984.
Barracuda (New York City)
Open since 1995, Barracuda was known in New York City as a drag hotspot. (And if you were going to see a diva at Madison Square Garden, you’d walk a few blocks down to an afterparty most likely happening within.) Over three decades, the bar has seen the likes of Sherry Vine, Jackie Beat, Hedda Lettuce and others grace its stage.
“Thirty years is a very long time,” owner Bob Pontarelli said in a statement to Eater upon its closing. Pontarelli cited the opening of a condo project next door, and the accompanying construction, as the reason for the bar’s closure. “The damage from the construction has significantly affected the interior and overall operation of the bar.” The ongoing drilling meant there was “no way to anticipate the additional damage and risks that could arise in the future. It is impossible to conduct business as usual,” Pontarelli wrote.
This Is It! (Milwaukee)
When This Is It! closed its doors in 2025, it wasn’t just the shuttering of a Milwaukee queer staple. It was the closing of the oldest gay bar in the state of Wisconsin: This Is It! Had started operating in 1968. The bar announced its closure on its Facebook page on March 9, citing the COVID crisis as bringing a financial hardship from which the bar couldn’t recover, as well as an 8-month closure of the bar’s street and sidewalk in 2024.
“It’s with much sadness, but with so much love, we bid all of you farewell,” the bar wrote. “Take care of each other, and please continue to support local and queer-owned businesses.” Drag superstar Trixie Mattel even became a co-owner of the bar in 2021; at the time, she said that she bought it because she didn’t want to see it suffer the same fate as so many other queer havens post-COVID.
Under the announcement of the closing, many patrons were confused as to why the bar closed so suddenly, without a chance to either fundraise to keep the bar open or send it off with a farewell event.
Macri Park (Brooklyn)
New Yorkers were shocked to find out about the surprise closing of Brooklyn-based Macri Park in January without much notice. In an Instagram post in January, the bar had announced that it had already closed, giving bargoers nary a chance to celebrate or mourn the space.
Macri Park did not begin as a gay bar, first starting at a dive bar before ownership passed to the same person who owned nearby Metropolitan, per Greenpointers, in 2015. From then on, Macri became a gay bar with a new aesthetic. When the bar shared news of its closing on social, many local drag icons flew to its comment section to mourn.
“The doors may close,” wrote drag queen Bible Girl, “but i'm still in the walls.”
The Ruby Fruit (Los Angeles)
The Ruby Fruit, a lesbian wine bar located in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood, announced in January 2025 that it would close its doors; though the bar had been struggling financially for some time, business paused and then dropped precipitously during and after the LA wildfires, per Eater. “When we’re talking about being vulnerable, the line is so thin between being able to carry on and not,” owner Mara Herbkersman told the outlet. “It became really clear after two days of being open that if we were to go on one more day, we would run the risk of not being able to pay our employees, a nonnegotiable for us.”
News of the bar’s closure sent shockwaves throughout the Los Angeles sapphic community as well as the queer internet. It also spawned considerable drama. After crowd-sourcing funds to stay open, the bar finally closed, per the Washington Blade, leaving some to wonder where the community aid it had asked for had gone. After its abrupt closing, former employees spoke candidly with the Blade about lingering and long-running financial affairs that predated the fires and alleged mistreatment at the bar. There was also some alleged clash over whether the bar was a “lesbian bar” versus a “sapphically-inclined” bar that was ultimately for everyone, per one employee who spoke to Eater.
Also, several trans and POC patrons reported feeling unwelcome in the space. “I don’t think they purposefully didn’t include them,” Sienna Deadrich, a former line cook at The Ruby Fruit told Eater. “But from the perspective of someone who is POC and trans, it was very clear that they didn’t include them.”
Avenue Pub (Rochester, NY)
Citing concerns both economic and safety-related, Avenue Pub in Rochester, New York, shut its doors after five decades in business. “You know, just the economic times right now. Monroe Avenue and the violence on the weekends,” owner Peter Mohr told WHEC. “It’s just, it’s making a very unsafe place for my consumers.”
Mohr elaborated in an Instagram post issued on its final day open. “If I had more resources to keep it going, I absolutely would,” Mohr wrote. “But the reality is that I’ve invested my life savings into these businesses — and I may never see that return.”
General Wood Shop (Grand Rapids, Iowa)
General Wood Shop got its name from the furniture store that used to occupy its space in the 1940s. When it opened in 2023, the bar was hoping to bring an LGBTQ+ space to Grand Rapids, Iowa. By the time it closed, it had succeeded.
“When we opened in July 2023, our dream was to create a place where everyone could feel welcome, safe, and celebrated,” the bar wrote on its social media post announcing its closure. “Together, we built more than a bar; we built a community we will always be proud of.” The bar did not give a reason for its closure on Instagram, nor did it offer one to local news affiliate WoodTV.
City Side Lounge and Kurt’s Place (Tampa)
In an extremely rare occurrence, two separate bars in the same space closed their doors within the same year. After City Side Lounge closed in March, Kurt’s Place opened up in the former venue in August, then finally announced its permanent closure in November, per Watermark Out News.
When City Side announced that it would close in February, local talent bemoaned the loss of the space, which was especially known as a haven for Tampa’s Latinx community. One DJ, DJ Manne, even posted that the bar’s Latin Night would continue in another venue.
Prior to its closure, the Facebook page associated with Kurt’s Place posted a notice from the building’s landlord stating that Kurt’s owed more than $30,000 in rent and past due fees.
Get the best of what’s queer.
Mathew Rodriguez is the former senior news editor at Them. In the past, he has been a senior culture editor at The Atlantic, as well as a staff writer at Out Magazine, INTO, and Mic. His writing has been featured in Slate, Teen Vogue, The Village Voice, MEL Magazine, and more. He is currently writing a young adult graphic novel for Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
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