Club Savoy

Club Savoy

Location: 3546 Flora Vista Avenue,
Santa Clara, California, USA

Opened: 1969 in San Francisco, moved in the early 1970s to Sunnyvale, and finally to Santa Clara in 1976

Closed: 2011?

Clubfly is always brief and to the point:

In a nutshell: One of the nation's first women's nightclubs with karaoke and dancing...

Here is a 2007 description of the Club Savoy (also called the Savoy) from SanJose.com:

One of the nation's first lesbian nightclubs, the Savoy has been holding down the fort for South Bay girls for over 30 years. Hot bartenders, pool tables and an age-diverse crowd of women seeking women make this a hot hangout for dancing, jumping in on Wednesday night karaoke or just throwing back a few beers most nights of the week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the doors sadly close at 9pm - but don't worry, ladies, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays rock the 2am closing schedule.

And then there is this (undated) description from CollegeBarScene:

Women rock at Club Savoy, which justifiably calls itself "the hottest women's night club in Silicon Valley." With Wednesday karaoke night, sponsorship of the eponymous Savoy Women's Softball League and social activities organized by the Bay Area Community of Women, the Savoy functions as the South Bay's own lesbian clubhouse. Beer is the beverage of choice, with the occasional Thirsty "super-size it" special and the "all you can drink" for $5 a person draft beer nights (the Club also has a full bar—sometimes two full bars). The dance floor heats up with DJs spinning at least four days a week and there is never a cover charge.

A very nice, detailed history of Club Savoy is provided in this 2008 article from Bay Area Reporter:

Now that things have settled down at Oakland's Velvet [Note: Velvet is another lost womy's space], those dancing Oakland ladies can follow the example of Club Savoy, 3546 Flora Vista Avenue, Santa Clara. We talked to owner Barb Hecker, in her eighth year as owner. It was the beginning of a Friday night, and patrons were starting to filter in. They looked like members of a friendly old club, chatting with each other and the bartender. The semi-circular bar extended back on the left. To the right were two pool tables. If anyone wanted a smoke, she could lounge outside on the swing and light up.

Two women swinging to salsa at Club Savoy (2008)

Club Savoy opened in 1969 in San Francisco. It offered a nightclub, saloon, 40s and "Savoy Style" dancing. It was also one of the nation's first women's nightclubs. The Savoy discreetly catered to female clientele who frequented the club to dance and socialize with other women.

Club Savoy takes its name from a style of dancing that originated in the nation's largest dance hall, the Savoy Ballroom, in New York. (Remember the monster jazz hit, "Stompin' at the Savoy?") According to legendary Savoy dancers, if you want to dance Savoy style, you shouldn't be concerned about correctness. Savoy Style is the constant personal creation of new moves. The dance style is more accurately thought of as glorious, creative, free-swinging freedom!

When Club Savoy opened in San Francisco, it offered a dance hall that featured a huge dance floor where its patrons could dance "Savoy Style" in a nightclub atmosphere. Although Savoy Style dancing has little to do with homosexuality, Club Savoy provided a venue where freedom of expression was accepted. Women often went out dancing with their female companions, and it was not uncommon in those days to see a dance hall where women danced with each other.

In the early 1970s, Savoy moved to the city of Sunnyvale, 45 minutes away from SF. In 1976, the Savoy moved to its current location in Santa Clara, where it has remained for the last 29 years.

Although Club Savoy has experienced different owners in different locations over the last 30+ years, it has maintained its original heritage and is one of the oldest lesbian nightclubs in the US.

By the time this column sees the light, the Savoy will have celebrated San Jose Pride. On June 14, the club kicked it off with their "Sexie Pride Party," with live music, food and fun. June 15 was the big event — late in the afternoon, everyone flocked to the parking lot outside the club. There was a barbecue and a wet T-shirt contest, dancers and disc jockeys. On the Pride Stage, Savoy and Lavender Liaisons co-presented a Women's Music Festival.

During the rest of the year, things are a bit more laid back. The club is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. There's karaoke Wednesday and Friday, with $1 off everything. You can select among gourmet beers like Fat Tire, Stella Artois, Newcastle and more. Try some pear cider for a change.

The club participates in a pool league and a softball league. Savoy has the only gay club in a predominantly straight league.

Charity is important. Both patrons and staff took part in the AIDS bike ride, which stretched from one part of California to the other. They had a fundraiser to support breast cancer research, where a number of women bands played for free.

There's holiday fun, too. A New Year's party had champagne at Midnight, and there was a costume party for Halloween. You could also celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day and Thanksgiving.

So visit the very friendly ladies and their friends at Savoy. They're near El Camino and Lawrence Expressway, carrying on a fine tradition of lesbian freedom and fun for many years.

So far so good.

But then we also have this fairly long description from July 2002 at the Metroactive guide to bars and clubs:

Long and lean like a river barge, Club Savoy is a slow starter. If you arrive on a Friday before 10pm, a few chairs may be warmed by the butts of early birds, but the three rooms that make up the club are mostly calm, cool and empty. But the Savoy is no wallflower--it's built for dancing. In the front room, a small bar arcs out in a half-moon, facing a tiled floor that sees a lot of use as the night wanes on: every Monday, "Secret Society Club" DJs turn the place into a rave-type cocoon; Tuesdays, DJ Georgia ropes in Country & Western Dance Night (lessons start at 7:30pm); Saturdays, DJ Claudia shakes the house. The backroom features its own DJ station and dance floor, and can be rented out for special events. On the best nights--like last month's post-Pride parade barbecue--the party spills out into the parking lot, and everyone seems to know one another. 
 
Barbara, the Savoy's owner/manager, confirms that there is no nicer crowd in the South Bay, especially for women. The Savoy, you see, started out as a lesbian bar, and the ladies still rule the roost, but Barbara likes the term "gay-friendly" as opposed to gay bar. (Emphasis added). With full-spectrum dancin', two pool tables, darts, 12 beers on tap and a monthly women's talent show, whatever you call Club Savoy, it's the place to practice your rollerskate jams. 

 Notice how reluctant the owner is to claim the name "lesbian bar." She won't even go as far as saying "gay bar." Just "gay friendly."

For all the talk about how "accepted" lesbians are these days, why can't a bar owner openly embrace what has presumably been her core clientele? Would a bar owner catering to motorcycle owners fear the word "biker"? Of course not.

This is always a bad sign when we examine the history of these things. If you are so uncommitted to your base clientele that you won't even say the "L word," then eventually you will end up being all things to nobody. And after that, given the political/economic dominance of the male demographic, men will take over. So we already have that tension at play here, even in the early 2000s.

The hedgy-ness in fact demonstrates the exact opposite: that lesbians are actually in a very precarious position as their command of space and their ability to create and enforce boundaries is increasingly attacked from every direction, often under the ideology of "inclusivity." As nice as "inclusivity" sounds to liberal minds, it's important to focus on actual results, not the pretty speeches.

Which is that a space that centers women and their needs and desires is lost in favor of one that focuses on men. Happens every time.

So how does the process work? First, the venue descriptions start to omit any reference to "lesbians" altogether. Like at Club Planet:

Savoy - So it’s midnight. You’re still feeling it. You’re still buzzed. Why go home? You don’t have to. Savoy, located at 3546 Flora Vista Ave, is open well after normal closing-time, so you can keep the vibe going until it’s scandalously past your bedtime.

And in this particular instance, we also see that Savoy Club became increasingly aligned with the hyper- feminine, exclamation mark-oriented "t community":

CLUB SAVOY TO HOST INTERNATIONAL FASHION EVENT!!!!. FASHION SHOW FANTASIA!!!! MAKEOVER MANIA!!!!) OUTRAGEOUS! NEVER BEFORE SEEN LIVE ON STAGE!!!!

So in reality, it has somehow become acceptable to cater to "t community" interests while simultaneously erasing the word "lesbian" from any promotions because "lesbian" is some how "exclusionary" while "t community" is not.

But it gets worse. Here's another "t community" event at Club Savoy. We see that the "monthly women's talent show" mentioned in the Metroactive guide above has been transformed into "Variety Show" that truly mocks real life women and their limited options in schools and the workforce:

I will NEEEEEEEEEED help; do you sing, dance, stand up comedy, act, strip...oooops ..well, tastefully, have or make or work with props, music, lighting? I am also putting together a group of girlz who will be available for shows. I LOVE IT CHICKS!! 

Join in, who cares if you have talent....great leggs go a long way on stage. Can you stand in the background and do a CanCan? Can you hummmmm along as one of the SUPREMES?  

Can you prance around in a cheerleader or maid's outfit?   

You're HIRED!! . Call me!"

Let's be clear. This type of sh** is not typically part of lesbian culture at all. Too many of us found in high school that the only acceptable role for girls in sports was to join the cheerleading squad and scream for the boys. Other options either did not exist or were underfunded/understaffed with inferior facilities and resources--and that still persists today despite Title IX. And let's not even go into the  "great legs" or "chicks" crap.

As for cleaning jobs, we know for a fact that they are not sexy, fun, or exciting in the slightest, as too many of us have been actually stuck in them. We also know that a "cleaning lady" is paid less than a "janitor" for doing the same damn work. Though some lesbians will no doubt try to play along and be a "good sport" or "ally" with all this, most will be massively turned off.

But this IS a typical heterosexual male/"t community" sexual fetish.

This is not to say that the process of eliminating the women works in a linear or evenly paced fashion. In fact lesbians have been known to still cling to and defend a particular location even after the "lesbian bar" has been sold and/or officially "repurposed." (see this example).

So it is not surprising that women were still trying to hold onto the space (and signal it as theirs through facial expression/body language) at least as late as January 2009, just as this one (clueless male) customer comment unwittingly shows:

I was the only guy there.  w00t for me!  party over here!

Wife and I looking for a drink prior to a party, stopped by the first bar we saw, The Savoy, and it had a packed parking lot.  Happening place, thinks I.  No idea its a gay bar until were there about 2 minutes.  Oh well, when in Rome.   No one else seemed that thrilled I was there, but it was fun.  I gots plenty of love for all peoples even if it isn't returned.

Too bad both pinball machines were busted.  -1 star for not getting my Tommy on up in this hizouse.



The former Club Savoy building for sale

So when did Club Savoy (mercifully) meet its end? Many websites mention that it is now closed, but as usually happens, no date is given.

It is mentioned in the Explorers Guide Northern California (2011), so it must have been existence as the book went to press. (That book still described Club Savoy as a "lesbian dance club" long after the owner decided she wasn't interested in such a thing.) But I will guess it ended around then.

Since closing, the location has been a (presumably straight) bar called Venuez and a Korean tapas place.

Lila (or Lila Initiative)

Croatian poster depicting a lesbian Virgin Mary
was withdrawn after religious and political pressure
 

Lila

Location: Zagreb, Croatia

Opened: December 1988

Closed: May 1990

Older article (10 years)--but still fascinating--on lesbians in Croatia.

I'm especially interested in highlighting the history behind Lila, Croatia's first lesbian organization which managed to exist FOR ONLY ONE YEAR.  

Important reminder that "progress" (whatever that means) is not linear, and can be reversed at any time.

Notice that that the gains that lesbians made in the late 1980s were actually reversed. With the introduction of "democracy," Lila's meeting space was lost. From then on, lesbians lost any place to talk and relax or "popularize women's culture"--except under the "protection" (supervision?) of gay men.

Sound familiar?

Also, hyperinflation (and free market reforms?) made it increasingly difficult for women to live independently, which had a terribly adverse impact on lesbians.

Once again we are reminded of how fragile women's space really is--not only in the English speaking countries, but world wide.

The bolded sentences are mine.

Lesbians in Croatia

30 Abr 1994 — warresisters    

by Andrea Spehar

 

Lesbian life in Croatia today is a life of women who are victims of totalitarian systems forced to hide their sexuality and to have a dual life--the private and the public. A few of us decided to struggle for our rights, to be public. I hope our activities will stimulate others to join us. Obviously in war time it is very hard to overcome the lack of courage. It is hard to struggle for truth when you can be fired from work the next day.

Some History

 

Lila was the first lesbian organization in Croatia, and was formed within the feminist group Tresnjevka. The idea for such an organization was due to an anonymous public opinion poll of December 1988, during the second feminist meeting in Zagreb. Those questioned felt that the issue should be treated in a more open way. During the organization's one-year of existence, about 70 women where in the group.

 

Lila wanted to make lesbians and bisexuals visible and popularize women's culture. It was not able to achieve all its goals, but there were some positive results: there was a place where women could be together and relax (there was no public place in Zagreb where lesbians could meet). The importance of Lila is best described by a member: "When my long love relationship ended, I was desperate and really alone. It was not possible to talk about this with my friends or my mother--I was a lesbian. When I came to the group, for the first time I felt that my problem was also a problem of these women, and that at least here, it was not a problem."

New Political Situation

After the elections of May 1990, when Franjo Tudjman won, Lila lost her space. Even worse, the political situation for our movement was bad, so new women did not come to continue the work. Lila stopped. In December 1990, Croatia adopted a new Constitution. For the first time in our history, women and lesbians had an opportunity to take part in democracy. But 45 years of socialism had its influence on women's self-confidence: few women took part in the government, and our political influence was zero.

 

There were hopes for human rights and pluralism when the new government began. But it soon became clear that homosexuality was still to be invisible. In 1991, during the middle of Croatian television showing the British series "Oranges are not the only fruit" (after a scene where two actresses kissed), the series was stopped. Technical difficulties were claimed. The reaction from Radio 101 was great: one program was devoted to this event, in which the station's programmer explained that they had received telephone calls from church leaders who asked that the "immoral drama" be stopped.

The Danger of a Kiss

The Church has great influence in Croatia, so the television series was stopped. Lesbian relationships were seen as dangerous to society, especially to the roles men and women play. Lesbians are dangerous especially now during the war, because lesbian sex does not result in children. Lesbianism destroys the hope of a strong, national state. According to the Croatian government, women exist only to reproduce the state.

 

Now when women and lesbians fight for our rights, there is a counter public information campaign, which says we are trying to destroy Croatia and Christianity. It is claimed that we are against an independent Croatia, that we do not love Croatia. We are suppose to be re-educated.

 

If you are a lesbian in Croatia today, you are forced to live in total isolation. We are not only isolated from society, we are isolated from each other. In Croatia there is no public space (outside of our group, Lesbians and Gay Men Action--LIGMA) where lesbians can talk and share their experiences, without prejudice. You cannot read a book based on lesbian themes, as there is no such thing in Croatian and books from abroad are few. The same is true for other media and scientific papers. The only thing you will hear about yourself from the public media is that you are a whore, or are ill, or do not even exist. In a direct, political sense, you are the destroyer of the state and all its moral values.

 

According to the new Croatian Constitution, being a lesbian is not a punishable offence. But in practice this is not true. Croatian families are very patriarchal, and there is great pressure on lesbians to marry. Today, it is impossible for young girls to be independent. The average monthly salary is DM 100. If you want to live on your own, a rented apartment costs at least DM 200 per month.

Lesbians who live in smaller towns see moving to Zagreb as their only chance of freedom. But in Zagreb there are no public spaces for lesbians to meet. Because of the unequal status of women in Croatian society, lesbians have lagged behind gay men in developing a sense of identity and community. The one gay male bar in Zagreb is regularly visited by police, who take personal information about those present away for their files. If you do not give the information, you are taken to the nearest police station, which is even worse.

LIGMA

In June 1992, a few of us decided to form Lesbians and Gay Men Action (LIGMA). LIGMA is only in Zagreb, but we have supporters in other towns. There are many more sympathizers who are afraid to act because of the fear of losing their job or family.

 

It is hard as people are more concerned about finding food in order to survive than about struggling for their rights. But we want to work for the protection of lesbians and gays in Croatia, to publish lesbian and gay magazines, and do AIDS education. We have been forced to give interviews to newspapers in order to publicize the group, but the government-controlled media usually made interviews scandalous and insulting.

 

Financing is our major problem. There is a great economic crisis in Croatia (annual inflation is from 2,000 to 3,000 percent). But we also need literature and other materials, advice, and your support. Our organization is young, but well organized and willing to fight for our rights until the very end.

by Andrea Spehar, LIGMA coordinator for lesbian issues. LIGMA, PP 488, HR-41001, Zagreb, Croatia.

Lexington Club

Lexington Club

Location: 3464 19th Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Opened: 1996

Closed: Projected for early 2015

The sad news comes to us via Gawker:

San Francisco Gentrifies Out Its Last Remaining Lesbian Bar

Kevin Montgomery

10/23/14 9:30pm Yesterday 9:30pm

 

San Francisco's insatiable thirst for twee cocktails and ridiculous rents has claimed its latest victim. This time, the famously gay-friendly city's last remaining lesbian bar has been forced to close its doors.

 

SFist reports The Lexington Club, "the city's only, long-standing, dedicated bar for gay women," announced this afternoon that it is being sold to an undisclosed buyer. And the LGBTQ mainstay is closing for the familiar reasons: climbing rents coupled with a clientele that can't afford to live in the city any longer.

 

An open letter penned by the iconic bar's owner lays it out. Emphasis added:

Eighteen years ago I opened The Lex to create a space for the dykes, queers, artists, musicians and neighborhood folks who made up the community that surrounded it. Eighteen years later, I find myself struggling to run a neighborhood dyke bar in a neighborhood that has dramatically changed. A few years back my rent was raised to market rate, and though it was difficult, we seemed to weather it at first. But as the neighborhood continued to change, we began to see sales decline, and they continued to do so. We tried new concepts, different ways of doing things, but we were struggling. When a business caters to about 5% of the population, it has tremendous impact when 1% of them leave. When 3% or 4% of them can no longer afford to live in the neighborhood, or the City, it makes the business model unsustainable.

This is the latest gentrification watershed moment for the city of watershed moments. Countless cultural institutions, from historic music venues to bookstores, have been chopped in the name of economic progress. On top of that, San Francisco's eviction rate keep climbing, rents have recently surpassed New York City's, and the median home price is now over $1 million dollars. Sometimes it is hard to believe the city hasn't yet bulldozed The Painted Ladies to make way for condos.

 

But this one particularly stings. The Lex—as it's known locally—isn't just another San Francisco treasure closing: its loss signals the final erasure of lesbian bars from the city.

 

Unfortunately, the bar's closure is hardly shocking, no matter how devastating it is. Situated in San Francisco's Mission District, The Lexington Club is located only a few dozen yards down from Valencia Street. Years ago, Valencia was the city's queer center with lesbian bars and venues lining the street. Now from The Lex's doorstep, you can watch as hundreds of tech shuttles growl past every day, bringing prosperity and mass-evictions in their wake.

 

It's no wonder The Advocate has begun ranking Oakland as more LGBT-friendly than San Francisco.

This interview--not by a dude--also emphasizes that dykes also have less disposable income to spend on entertainment. A fact that gay men often "forget." From 48 Hills:

OCTOBER 23, 3014 — “I’m selling the Lex,” Lila Thirkield told me, her no-nonsense voice tinged with a little disbelief at what she herself was saying. Lila had pulled her car over to call me — and I hope my sudden wail of bereavement didn’t blow out her speakerphone.

Alas, it’s true: SF dyke institution the Lexington Club (www.lexingtonclub.com) is being sold, and will probably close after New Year’s. But the Lexington Club brand will live on in one-off events. And of course there’ll be a huge closing party.

Eighteen years ago, a 25-year-old Lila opened the homey, punkish Lexington Club as a Mission neighborhood space for “the dykes, queers, artists, musicians and neighborhood folks who made up the community that surrounded it,” as she put it Thursday in a Facebook post announcing her decision. The queer revolution of the 1990s was still in full effect, but bars geared especially toward queer women were rare as two-headed unicorns.

But the Lex was more than just a place for dykes to get wild in the Mission — although, yes, its parties have always been rowdy blasts. It was situated as a queer outpost in the Mission, then the city’s lesbian neighborhood, that acted as a hub for sex-positive and women’s rights activists, longtime cruisers and fresh-faced newbies, butches and femmes, the emerging transman community, and all manner of beautiful freaks who stretched the city’s queer boundaries beyond the Castro and SoMa. Lila went into it with this vision, and it paid off in nurturing the city’s ever-evolving queer movement and style.


So, yeah, Lila selling the Lex is a big deal — an emotional decision for her, and an enormous loss to the community the Lex has fostered. Once I took a few deep breaths after realizing we’re waving “so long” to yet another SF institution, I asked Lila for more details over email.

So, why are you selling the Lexington Club?

This was a very tough decision for me, and one that involves factors that I have been watching unfold for a long time now. A few years back my rent was raised to market rate, which was really challenging for us to adjust to. Then, the demographics and economics of the neighborhood around us continued to change faster and faster. As the neighborhood continued to change, we began to see sales decline, and they continued to do so until it became clear that The Lex model was not going to be viable much longer. I made this decision now basically because of the financial viability of the bar. I want to start the process before things get dire to make sure we can have a positive end to the journey.

Do you already have a buyer? Who is it, and will the Lex be changing? Is it closing?

We are currently in contract with an undisclosed buyer. And while I don’t know what the new business will look like, I know it will not be the Lex. If I thought the Lex could survive, I would not be selling it to begin with. When I first made this decision I reached out to a few qualified people in my community to see if they had any interest in buying the Lexington Club. They too didn’t see it as a possible lasting business model in the Mission and weren’t interested in the purchase.

This is a huge deal for the queer community — especially dykes of course — and especially at this time when we’re losing queer space in the gentrifying onslaught. What do you think the community’s reaction will be? Is this part of the larger changes that are happening in SF, and to queer culture?

It is really difficult for me to anticipate what people’s reactions will be. So far, the folks I’ve told have been shocked and sad. But even when I told my staff, it was not a complete surprise — they have seen the reality of the changing neighborhood and they have felt it financially on their shifts.
What’s happening to the Lex is absolutely a part of the larger changes that are happening in SF. We are closing because we can’t run a sustainable business in the Mission anymore because of the economics of the neighborhood and the diminished presence of queer women living in it.

Another real issue is economic gender inequality. Why is there only one lesbian bar when there are so many gay male bars? Even if you take queerness out of it, women make less money than men and a two male household is going to have more capital potential to start a business than a two female household. How many bars or restaurants do you see being run by women? So few. And that’s just the supply side. Because women have less disposable income and consume less than men, the spending power isn’t the same when you are talking about having a bar for mostly women. But I’m proud that we were able to employ and train so many women and to keep a space open for nearly 20 years that goes against the economics of that gender inequality. It ain’t easy, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

If I could keep the Lex forever, I would. And while I think this loss is sad, I also think that The Lex is something to be celebrated. There had been no dyke bar in SF for about 7 years before we opened. And we were there for nearly 20 years. SF has always been a queer Mecca and it still is.

Is there any plan to help the staff find other positions? And what about a closing party?

So yes, the Lex is closing. But it will take some time and we are still here and having a blast and looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces. Come by for a visit! And YES, there will definitely be a huge closing party but first there will be Halloween and even New Year’s Eve. We are in the very early stages and this won’t happen until into the New Year.

As well, I will be keeping The Lexington Club name and website, etc. My plan is to keep the community alive by utilizing the name we’ve built and continue to do one-off events and fundraisers at outside venues and will hopefully be able to include The Lextenders in those events. And of course, I will be helping my staff in whatever way I can towards their next steps. We’re a family and we have always and will always do that for each other.

So much recent San Francisco queer history is tied up in the 18 years of the Lex. What have been some of your fondest memories?

Owning The Lex for my entire adult life, since I was 25, has been an amazing honor. Really the best thing for me has been the feeling of helping to create community. Giving folks a safe space to be themselves and being willing to change with the times. I’m incredibly proud of all the folks that have worked here and it has often taken a village to make things happen. Meaning tons of artists, DJs and community lovers that have contributed their time to help create great parties and happenings.
Everything from friends building a larger-than-life ass out of chicken wire and fabric with a giant hand slapping it all suspended from the ceiling for a one night Folsom Party to Michelle Tea, nine months pregnant and about to give birth on the pool table, hosting a reading for Lit Crawl (last weekend!).

The things I’m most proud of are always having no cover EVER and throwing great parties, having cheap drinks and always staying open on the holidays. Really I think the Lex is special because of our openness to the community too. When we first started, there was a climate of heavy competition among the parties and lesbian happenings. We took a different road and let everyone put up posters for all their events, even if we were having one on the same night. A lot of people were shocked. But our thinking was the more there is to do for queer women in San Francisco the more of a scene there is and the more reason there is for more women to go out.

I saw this sentiment change over time and really facilitate a different feeling that I see among many of the people throwing events and contributing to the community today. It turned us into a sort of community center for what was going on in the city and we were happy to let someone know where they could go dancing with a bunch of hot girls that night. It really helped create a sense that there was a vibrant and cohesive queer community here in SF and I think there still is.

What will you be doing after you sell the Lex?

Well, I opened Virgil’s Sea Room (www.virgilssf.com) a little over a year ago, right next to El Rio. And it’s been an amazing experience. It is different in that it is an “everybody bar” but it has a huge queer sense about it, many queer staff members, and some great crossover already. Like I said earlier, I hope to throw events under the Lexington Club name. As I let go of the the Lex, I am already imaging new ways for us to come together and new places for us to share. I still love the Mission and will still work and live here. I plan to continue community building and to continue to help keep the queer Mecca that is SF alive.

 

L'amour Sorcier

L'amour Sorcier

The former L'amour Sorcier--now an Irish pub

Location: 789 Cote Ste. Genevieve, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Opened: Early 2000s? Before that?

Closed: Gone by 2009, when customer review notes that location is now an Irish pub

Trip Advisor is very much to the point:

Description: Nice lesbian bar.

Then there's the review in the Rough Guide to Canada (2004):

Popular, intimate lesbian bar with cheap beer, soft music (which gets louder and more danceable later on) and a great roof terrace.

And here's Lonely Planet:

The tamer atmosphere at this café-bar is mainly enjoyed by lesbians, but gay men are welcome too. The gay community may be small but the lesbian one is even smaller and this is the only horse in town.

This description from World 66 (from 2005) is kind of cute:

A little cafe for the ladies who enjoy the company of other ladies!

Here is the listing from Quebec Travel Guide:

Lesbians form most of the clientele at L'Amour Sorcier at 789 côte Ste-Geneviève (tel. 418/523-3395). There's a low-pressure bar inside the old building and a terrace out front. Gay men aren't turned away. It's about three blocks west of place d'Youville.

The only real customer reviews I have found are at trip zen:

Service was very good and friendly.

Their sangria was so-so but cheap so who's complaining.

But apparently, there is no dedicated lesbian bar in town.

The crowd was very genial;

Quebec City's Lesbian scene is almost more impressive than its Gay scene, given the number of bars in the city.

It is still listed in a 2009 guide book.

But it stayed in business for only another year or so. According to a customer at Trip Advisor posting in May 2009, L'amour Sorcier was gone as of that date:

Bar no longer exists. The building now houses an Irish Bar.

It fascinates me that this place went out of existence only 5 years ago or so. But the only evidence that L'amour Sorcier ever existed is limited to little fragmented descriptions consisting of one line or so. There are probably places in ancient Greece that have more written documentation than this. Sad.

An All Female Mission to Mars

Once again, we see one of the very few arguments for an all-women space (in space!) in the mainstream media (in this case Slate). Though the argument is entirely fact-based, writer Kate Greene waffles towards the end and argues that "diversity" is better, but "if the bottom line is what matters in getting to Mars, the more women the better."

But of course all the waffling and preemptive appeasement doesn't matter. She's attacked by the dudes anyway. Such a surprise...

Never mind all the all-guy missions. As we all know, all-women anything is an instant threat to men, while all male anything is okey dokey status quo and infinitely defensible.

We've actually posted on this subject before.

An All-Female Mission to Mars

As a NASA guinea pig, I verified that women would be cheaper to launch than men.

By Kate Greene

In February of 1960, the American magazine Look ran a cover story that asked, “Should a Girl Be First in Space?” It was a sensational headline representing an audacious idea at the time. And as we all know, the proposal fell short. In 1961, NASA sent Alan Shepard above the stratosphere, followed by dozens of other spacemen over the next two decades. Only in 1983 did Sally Ride become America’s first female astronaut to launch.

But why would anyone think a woman would be the first to space, anyway? Medical studies, for one thing. Some studies in the 1950s and ’60s suggested female bodies had stronger hearts and could better withstand vibrations and radiation exposure. Moreover, psychological studies suggested that women coped better than men in isolation and when deprived of sensory inputs.

Some of these investigations were limited in their design and sample sizes. But there was another, more compelling reason that women might outshine men as potential astronauts: basic economics. Thanks to their size, women are, on average, cheaper to launch and fly than men. As a NASA guinea pig, I had the chance to verify this firsthand.

Read the rest at the Slate link above.

In Other Words Feminist Community Center

In Other Words Feminist Community Center

In Other Words' former location on
Hawthorne Boulevard (2006)

Location: 14 North East Killingsworth Street, Portland, Oregon, USA

Opened: 1993

Closed:

In Other Words is not lost yet, but it is seriously endangered. Here is their self-description from their website:

In Other Words has been serving the Portland community as a feminist bookstore, a low-cost and safe events space, and a community resource center since 1993. We are a feminist community center whose mission is to support, enrich, and empower the feminist community through literature, art, and educational and cultural events.

We were founded by Johanna Brenner, a PSU professor, and Kathryn Tetrick and Catherine Sameh, both women’s health activists. The center was created in response to the closure of “A Woman’s Place,” Portland’s only feminist bookstore.

We moved from the original location on SE Hawthorne to NE Killingsworth in 2006 to a bigger space in the former Albina Arts Center, which is still owned by the Albina Women’s League. The move to the new space enabled us to expand the programming we offered and accommodate more people at events in our space.

When we opened in 1993 there were over 200 feminist bookstores in the United States and today there are fewer than 30. In Other Words is the only feminist bookstore in the United States that also functions as a nonprofit organization, which has allowed us to serve a unique role in our communities.

As we have observed the demographic, cultural, and social transformations of Portland’s diverse feminist communities recently, we’ve identified new needs and shifting interests that have inspired us to undertake one of the largest expansions in our organization’s history: we are becoming In Other Words Feminist Community Center.

But now they are in trouble:

In Other Words is facing closure

Most years, October is a month of joy and gratitude as we celebrate our birthday.  This year, the month of our 21st birthday, felt bittersweet as we held an urgent community meeting on October 5th to talk about our capacity deficits and the fact that we are seriously considering closing our doors.

We heard your voices loud and clear that you don't want this to happen and that you are committed to having In Other Words around for years to come.  We gave ourselves until the end of the month to increase our capacity.  At the next public community meeting on November 8th, we will determine whether we have built enough capacity (re)commit to In Other Words so that we don't have to go out of business.

That said, now comes the hard part.  It is time to walk the walk.  We are in need of serious funding, and a serious increase in our volunteer capacity and our board of directors membership.  Part of increasing our volunteer leadership and board leadership includes asking YOU to help us lead In Other Words towards becoming the open and affirming feminist community organizing space we all crave and desire.

If you are interested in volunteering, please email us at volunteer@inotherwords.org; please email us at humanresources@inotherwords.org to express interest in joining the board of directors.
In addition to our critical need of increasing our volunteer base and developing our board of directors, we hope to raise at least $20,000 in order to keep our doors open, and ideally need to meet our annual goal of $60,000 in order to remain sustainable.  It costs us a bare minimum $5,000 per month in order just to squeak by, and we need all the support you can give in order for us to stay open into the year 2015.

We need to do some serious fundraising in the form of financial donations, and serious "friendraising" in the form of recruiting new volunteers and new board members. 

We have four weeks in order to build up our capacity in terms of new volunteers, new board members, and new donations.  If we haven't met our capacity goals by November 8th, we will need to close our doors.  Please contribute to this campaign to help us ensure that is not the case!

The question we get most often is, "but don't you make zillions of dollars off of the TV show Portlandia?!"  The short answer is:  NOPE.  Far from it.  Unfortunately, the fact that the TV show Portlandia features a regular feminist bookstore parody does not provide us with any substantial revenue flow and Portlandia-related donations are far from enough to pay our bills.  We aren't rolling in money from Portlandia, but we do have a great time meeting local celebrities Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, and enjoy chatting with them about feminism and community organizing in between shoots. 

As you well know, we are an entirely volunteer-run feminist nonprofit community space that truly relies on volunteers and donations to keep going.  

Please help us increase our volunteer and board leadership, and please make generous financial gifts if you are able, in order to help In Other Words continue to grow in to the passionate, committed, brave, resilient feminist community organizing space we all need and want.

Roxy's

Roxy's after closing

Roxy's

Location: 884 Main Street, Buffalo, New York, USA

Opened: 1999

Closed: June 23, 2013

Here's the description from clubfly:

In a nutshell: Buffalos hottest lesbian bar. Karaoke every Wednesday, burlesque shows every Thursday night...

So are we about lesbians or striptease? Oh wait, I think
I found the answer.

And from GayCities:

Roxy's interior view --above the bar

Casual lesbian bar
Roxy's is the kind of bar where you can sometimes find the hot bartenders dancing on the bar, surrounded by a crowd of Buffalo ladies (and a few guys). Don't miss the weekly burlesque show on Thursdays!

Hmm. Given the mention of the "burlesque" part, I'm suspecting this place was not especially oriented towards or committed to women in general or lesbians in particular.

So I am not particularly surprised when we later find out that this "lesbian bar" eventually became "very mixed" (i.e. basically dominated/taken over by gay and straight men and their female enablers). From buffalogaybars:

Roxy's  is a Lesbian, gay, very Mixed bar featuring DJ's and live music in a mirrored, surreal setting. On any busy night at Roxy's you might find the lady bartenders dancing on the bar. Karaoke and dance parties keep the crowds coming while drink specials on the weekends create a crowded but always kicking atmosphere.

Another Roxy's interior view--at least they had a
pool table, not just strippers

In addition, I am not surprised that this positive customer review comes from...a man. This is from GayCities:

"Great lesbian bar in #buffalo - I love my lesbian friends."

Well, I'm SOO glad. But I guess you didn't love them enough to leave them a space of their own without all the freaking dudes.

And here's a (self-identified) "straight guy" who liked the place. Surprise! From yelp:

Saw the Burlesque show here last night. Seen it once or twice before in the past too. Roxy's is definitely worth going to and checking that out if you have never before. Besides for the Burlesque its a Lesbian bar, and for being a straight guy there, I've never felt uncomfortable. Its pretty laid back from what I see.

Of course, some women liked Roxy's as well. But quite a few did not. This woman customer also posted at yelp:

Another view above the bar. Notice the reference to
"Roxy's Girls"

Unfortunately this is currently the only lesbian bar in Buffalo.  My personal rule: don't go here unless you're already drunk.  Otherwise you won't be able to deal with it.  It's great for those nights when you're on a mission to just do shots and dance the night away.  But stay clear any other night.

The bathrooms are atrocious, the drinks are watered down and the beer selection leaves much to be desired.

Last but not least: expect to pay a $3-5 cover to experience the above-mentioned "charms."

Can we just get a classy lesbian bar? Maybe a pub or a wine bar? That's all I ask.

But it gets worse when we find out how crooked his place really was. From exploiting women's bodies, to sucking up to men, to... stealing customer credit cards. From the Erie County District Attorney's Office:

Owner of Buffalo Bar "Roxy's" Pleads Guilty to Charges of Grand Larceny and Petit Larceny 12/20/2012       

 

Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announced that 41 year old Julia Greenwood of 543 Plymouth, Buffalo, pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree and Petit Larceny before County Court Judge Kenneth F. Case. 

Greenwood admitted that on August 7, 2012, she stole $4,480 from Key Bank by writing phantom checks from an account at Citizens Bank and then depositing them into her Key Bank account and drawing off of them.  Greenwood further admitted that, as owner of a Buffalo bar known as “Roxy’s”, she used a credit card of a patron left at the bar to make personal purchases during the period August 26, 2012 through August 30, 2012.  The ultimate loss of $818 was sustained by M&T Bank which had issued this credit card. 

Sentencing is scheduled for March 26, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. before the Hon. Kenneth F. Case when Greenwood faces a maximum prison sentence of 4 years.

She eventually got off with five years of probation.

Julia Greenwood

Julia Greenwood then has the nerve to grant this totally self-justifying interview. The title? ‘Don’t be sad, guys… We did it!” She totally explains away what happened as a "mistake" and that she didn't "intentionally steal" from anyone. In her mind, she has even become the persecuted one! Are you kidding me? Read it if you will, but I can't even post a snippet. I don't deal well with folks who have sociopathic tendencies.

Needless to say, customers weren't so good-natured and forgiving about the whole thing as this Shut Down Roxy's site demonstrates.

Then we find EVEN WORSE things like this new item about a lesbian who was stabbed outside of Roxy's in January 2010:

Buffalo Police are investigating an early-morning stabbing outside a club in the Allentown area. A woman was taken to the hospital after she was slashed in the right eye. Police responded to the incident on Main and Allen Streets, outside Club Roxy's just after 2 a.m. Friday. No word on the victim's condition or if an arrest has been made.

So this place wasn't even PHYSICALLY safe for lesbians. Are we surprised?

If this is what a "lesbian bar" has become (or at least perceived as being), then no wonder they're becoming extinct. Who needs this?

So I can't say I was sorry when I saw that this thoroughly coopted and corrupted "womyn's space" finally came to a merciful end. From the Buffalo News, May 2014:

The downtown building that was formerly home to Roxy’s, a well-known gay and lesbian bar, has been acquired by a Lewiston money manager and real estate investor, who wants to shift the property’s focus toward the nearby Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

 

  

The lies that are spread about the destruction of women's colleges

I found this notice at the savechatham site. For those of you know may not know, the administration at Chatham College (located in Pittsburgh, PA) recently made the decision to go coed. And as we see again and again, it was a decision made with a great deal of subterfuge and lying. The disinformation continues as history is rewritten--the new line being that the decision wasn't "controversial" with current students and alumnae. That is demonstrably false:

On September 29th, Time.com posted an article originally sourced from a website called The Hechinger Report. The article highlighted the fight against the Wilson College co-ed decision, but also commented on Chatham’s decision. In that article, Bill Campbell, VP of Communications and Marketing for Chatham, is quoted as saying the decision to go co-ed at Chatham wasn’t controversial [like Wilson]. We disagree.

In response to this misrepresentation, we have drafted a letter to the editor that will be sent both to the Time.com and The Hechinger Report to let them know that Chatham’s decision was indeed controversial and that we, as alumnae, still disagree with Chatham’s decision as well as the way in which the decision was presented, made, and alumnae relations were soured purposefully over many months.

We have included the text of our letter below, including the signatures already gathered from supportive alumnae. If you would like to add your name to this letter, please do so either through comments here or on our corresponding Facebook post.

Here is the link to the original article. 

Dear Editor,
In your September 29 article, “Why Women’s Colleges are Opening the Door for Men,” it was suggested that “At Chatham University, the decision to admit men was much less controversial” than the decision by Wilson College to become a coeducational institution. Chatham’s administration continues to believe that the opposition to their decision was limited to a “small, but passionate, group of alumnae,” but the momentum the Save Chatham movement built in a short time proves otherwise.

The Save Chatham movement, consisting of more than 2,100 alumnae and supporters, launched on social media just hours after alumnae and current students received an email from Chatham announcing the resolution. Save Chatham’s mission brought these women together to brainstorm ways to fundraise, increase enrollment, and to continue to provide future generations of women the option to become World Ready Women at Chatham. The short-term mission of Save Chatham quickly changed to focusing on delaying the June vote as Chatham’s administration increasingly disrespected and disregarded alumnae and refused to have open and honest discussions.

Chatham’s administration, particularly President Esther Barazzone, has unsuccessfully attempted to make this decision “much less controversial.” During the town hall meetings in March, Dr. Barazzone dismissed alumnae lines of questioning and obfuscated the facts when she did not want to answer questions. She rejected outright many of the solutions offered by alumnae, giving many alumnae the impression that the decision already had been made, a belief that was strengthened when promotional materials for the decision and its tenets were made public immediately after the vote. Peaceful protests on campus on April 23 resulted in alumnae being threatened with arrest and escorted off-campus by campus security. On May 1, the day of the Board of Trustees vote, alumnae, current students, and supporters were corralled into a “Free Speech Zone” by the very institution that taught many of us how to use our voices to stand up for what we believe to be right. Following the vote in favor of a coed Chatham, Save Chatham transitioned to the Chatham College Independent Alumnae Association in order to provide a safe space for alumnae to process the decision while still identifying with the former college. When it became clear that the new alumnae group would not be disbanding, Chatham University issued “cease & desist” letters to Chatham College Independent Alumnae Association administrators and threatened legal action if the group did not immediately discontinue using the name “Chatham” in its title, further alienating alumnae.

The Save Chatham/Chatham College Independent Alumnae Association lives on today as the Filiae Nostrae Society (FNS). The name is derived from the Chatham College motto “Filiae nostrae sicut antarii lapides: that our daughters may be as cornerstones.” The FNS provides disenfranchised alumnae of Chatham College for Women a place to call home and gives alumnae an opportunity to network, to shine the spotlight on them and their successes, to support institutions that value a women’s-only environment, to reinvigorate former relationships and to build new ones with women from former and current women’s colleges – all part of alumnae engagement that Chatham abandoned long before the vote.

Additional information, including documentation supporting the information outlined above, can be found at www.savechatham.com or Save Chatham’s Facebook page. Information about the Filiae Nostrae Society can be found at ourdaughtersourfuture.com.

Sincerely,

The Filiae Nostrae Society and supporting alumnae