The Pursuit to Preserve Ever-Changing Spaces: An Ethnographic Retelling of the Beauty and Vulnerability in the American Lesbian Bar.

Abstract

By the end of the 1990s, there were over 200 lesbian bars throughout the United States. In 2022, only 21 lesbian bars remain nationwide. How did the lesbian bar as we know it come to be? What vulnerabilities has the lesbian bar displayed that could have contributed to its steady decline? Considering the ways space, leisure, sexuality, and economic power play into the creation and maintenance of the American Lesbian Bar, this thesis examines how queer women reclaim the spaces that were created to serve their identity formation. Privileging New York City’s history alongside that of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, this thesis is a compilation of the beauty and fragility of lesbian bars across the nation, from their early existence in the 1910s, through their fight during the 2008 Great Recession. This piece aligns the narratives of lesbian bar patrons and bar owners with theories of public space and queer kinship formation.