Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Lace DC (Lace on the Avenue)

Lace DC (aka Lace on the Avenue)

Location: 2214 Rhode Island Avenue NE, Washington, DC, USA

Opened: November 15, 2008

Closed: August 2013

From Tagg Magazine:

Lace DC Lists Property For Sale

Eboné Bell | August 14, 2013

Lesbian-owned bar and restaurant goes on the market

August 14, 2013

Is Lace DC Closing? According to a listing on LoopNet, lesbian-owned bar Lace DC recently listed their space for sale. The listing price is $795,000, which averages to approximately $397.50 per square foot. Lace DC, also called “Lace on the Avenue” is located on Rhode Island Avenue in northeast Washington, D.C.

Owner, Linda McAllister opened the bar/restaurant on November 15, 2008 as a lesbian establishment. Over the past few years, the bar has promoted itself as a ladies nightclub and a neighborhood bar. Lace hosted happy hours, karaoke, jazz events, sex toy parties, ladies nights, and football gatherings, but was never able to find its niche.

Long-time chef, Raymond Crook who recently left Lace in December 2012 was surprised to hear about the news. Crook was known for his signature dishes and trying to create an atmosphere open to all clientele.

“If Lace had of embraced the whole community, then it would have been more successful,” says Crook. “I think it lacked the responsibility needed to run an establishment like this.”

The current listing states that the establishment is “Open and Ready for Business” and boasts a “spacious commercial kitchen, full VIP lounge in basement, and ample storage and parking.”
McAllister could not be reached for comment.

Don't you just love how the former male cook is mansplaining what the owners should have done? Which, of course, from his point of view was "embrace the whole community" (translation: admit more men and cater to them!)

Which I think is distinctly the problem. If your "lesbian bar" is just like every other bar in town (catering to the dudes), then why not stay home? Or if you feel you must go out, why not choose the bar closest to you with the best drinks or music that reflects your tastes and so forth? In fact it might even be safer, since it won't attract the same high percentage of straight men who are obsessed with lesbians and/or cruising swinger dudes.

In all the articles I see on why lesbian bars are disappearing, I think the reasons provided are often half-truths and bizarre generalizations. I think you can go back to basic market theory, myself. Are you offering your customers something they want that's distinctive or provides a "value added" that stands out in the marketplace? Same as why I get my hair cut at this place rather than that one. Or why you get your morning coffee at this shop rather than that one. And lesbian bars no longer offer anything distinctive in terms of catering to women. So who can blame potential customers for defaulting to other criteria (location, price, service, atmosphere, music, etc.)?

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Cherry Pie Nightclub

Biscayne Boulevard

Location: 2041 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Florida, USA

Opened/Closed: c. 2007-2008

Lonelyplanet is exceedingly brief and to the point. But it sure sounded promising:

Miami's only dedicated lesbian club.

Bobbi Miller has a February 2008 review at the Venere Travel blog, which fortunately (unfortunately?) has a lot more detail:

Go to Cherry Pie Nightclub in Coral Gables

One of the must see places for lesbians visiting Miami is Cherry Pie Nightclub. Set adjacent from the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables, Cherry Pie Nightclub is sure to please. Hosted on Friday nights from 10pm until 5am (my emphasis) you can get your party on until the sun comes up. Always full of the finest lesbians in town, Cherry Pie is always packed to capacity with young women ready to have a good time.

The club has many features to appeal to those who like to drink, those who prefer other activities to dancing, and those who rave all night. After paying $12 if you are under 21 or $8 if you are over you enter onto the upper deck looking down on the dance floor. There are 3 bars accessible to those not in the VIP so you shouldn’t have to wait forever to be served. The main bar in the middle of the floor has 2 bartenders behind it to keep the good times flowing. Beers are about $5 and mixed drinks go up from $7.

Hot go-go dancers, rock and techno music

You can head down the stairs into the throbbing masses of sweat drenched party goes or head over to shoot on one of the 2 pool tables. One of the pool tables is held in a separate room with it’s own bar and TV if the music gets to be a bit much. This club is known for having some of the hottest go-go dancers on the main stage and pumping out a blend of top 40 and techno at deafening levels. If you want to get in the mix, head down to the main floor and rock out with some of the coolest lesbians in town but be warned. The closer you get the stage the crazier those women get. If you’d like to take a break just head back up the stairs to the third bar and get a drink while you look down on the madness.

If you’re taking a trip to Miami you cannot miss Cherry Pie Nightclub. With something for everyone this is an experience one can only find in the hottest city on the east coast. Bring some friends, meet some beautiful women and have the time of your life at the hottest club for lesbians in Miami.

at Azucar Nightclub

Here we find out that Cherry Pie is not a "dedicated" lesbian club at all, but simply caters to lesbians for 7 whole hours out of the week. So why not just call it an event or a night? Why not admit it's just the same old nomadic scene that lesbians all over the world are told we have to settle for these days--if we're lucky enough? (And even then, all the non-lesbians will show up anyway, since it's the New Rule that lesbians can't have their own bar space, even though every other interest group in the world--Irish ale drinkers, bikers, big, hairy gay men into leather, etc.--are allowed one.)

At Soho Lounge

Not surprising, then, that on Facebook and at Clublezlife.com they finally got real and just started calling it "The Return of Cherry Pie" Fridays. Apparently started just this year--and at a new location, of course. That being the Azucar Nightclub.

But this was apparently a revival, as there are also
earlier references to Cherry Pie Fridays ending with a "New Event by the Ladies" at the Soho Lounge. That event being called "Pink Fridays." Not sure of the date.

Confused yet? Ah, but it gets better. There was also a Cherry Pie at Club O'Zone which dates to 2006--which was apparently EARLIER than the one on Biscayne Boulevard.

But all the shuffling and improvising has been deemed a Good Thing, ya know. In the same way you'd rather be a stateless refugee than have citizenship. Or homeless instead of a homeowner.

One more thought. Happened to be looking at an old post on a ladies restaurant from 1888, and had one of those "the more things change the more they remain the same" moments. In the advertisement, we saw the same "confusion" about whether this was "exclusively" for women (i.e. "dedicated" to them) when it clearly wasn't and never was. This is clearly a well established tactic. Promise the ladies something "just for them" when clearly you're delivering nothing of the sort.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Ernie's Restaurant/Three Ring Circus

76 West Third Street today

Location: 76 West Third Street, New York, New York, USA

Opened: 1940

Closed: 1962

Recently found a New York City Landmarks Commission document called 150 Years of LGBT History. There are lots of places of lesbian interest, including a whole page devoted to the "20th Century Lesbian Presence" in the South Village Historic District, Manhattan.

A good number of the places listed have been documented here before, such as Eve's Hangout, Tony Pastor's Downtown, Swing Rendezvous, Mona's, Pony Stable Inn, Bonnie & Clyde's, and Portofino.

But there were still a couple of establishments I had never heard of before, with Ernie's being one of them. Unfortunately, nothing is said about the place. The South Village Historic District Designation Report says a little, but not much more:

Ernie’s Restaurant/ Three Ring Circus, 76 West 3rd Street (c. 1940-62), mostly heterosexual but also attracting working-class lesbians

Same with the Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Culture, which merely states that "Ernie's Three Ring Circus" was an important gathering place for "working class lesbians in the 1940s."

Ernie's also gets a passing mention in the book Mafia Cop. Tess Esposito, who started dating Ralph Esposito as a naïve 17-year old, reports the following:

Ella Shields

We dated on and off for four years, one thing led to another, and eventually he proposed. He didn't sweep me off my feet or anything like that. But he was a good man, and with the war on, good men were getting scarce. We were married on October 23, 1943. The night we wed he took me to Ernie's Three Ring Circus, a club in the Village owned by one of his cousins. I think his brother Freddy may have had a piece of it, too. Vito Genovese was at the bar, and when he found out that we had just been married, he closed the bar and ordered champagne drinks for everybody. We had an all-night party.

Newspapers and magazines from the time give us an idea of some of the entertainment offered. For example, Billboard tells us that music hall singer and male impersonator Ella Shields (1879-1952) was there in April 1943. Here is a 1933 performance on film. Don't know what the straight folks thought, but I bet she was a big hit with the lesbians.

Ernie's is now a restaurant called the Half Pint-- a burger and beer joint.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Dating apps?

Even dating apps that are (presumably) designed and/or intended for lesbians are rapidly becoming a "lost womyn's space"...that is, if they ever were a true womyn's space at all (Full disclosure: I met my partner through one of these, so it worked for me:) But even a few years ago, it was a lot of diligent sifting and elimination of obvious male poseurs and predators.) From The Telegraph (UK):

Why are straight men using lesbian dating sites?

Lesbian online dating apps are increasingly on 'penis duty', according to website developers, who claim more straight men than ever are posing as gay women - in some cases just for fun. Joshua Hooper-Kay talks to those developers fighting back

Lesbian online dating apps are fighting back against straight male
predators posing as gay women.

By Joshua Hooper-Kay

7:00AM BST 08 May 2013

Online dating apps are big business in the UK but there is still one very real problem preventing developers from real and sustainable growth: users can't be 100pc sure that the person they are talking to is the person that they say they are.

Even the app developers admit this is a problem: so-called "catfishing" - where someone pretends to be someone they are not by setting up a fake online profile on Facebook or any other social media site - is alive and kicking, they say.

Whether it's out of curioristy, boredom or sheer spite, nowhere is the problem more astute than in the lesbian online dating community (my emphasis), say developers, where men pose as women to get to know other female users.

As many as one in 10 people signing up to lesbian dating app Dattch are actually male (my emphasis), according to founder Robyn Exton, who is fighting back against the nasty trend.

She believes that this has led to poor user experiences and a lack of trust in the platforms, which is deterring many women from signing up.

“Some guys do go so far as to set up fake Facebook accounts, but these are quite easy to spot.

Usually they will have been set up a few days before or have just a few ‘likes’ - such as Dattch or lesbian dating in London,” says Exton.

Dattch keeps a close eye on its user accounts and claims it can verify each one through Facebook, guaranteeing users a male-free environment in which to meet other gay, bi-sexual or bi-curious women.

Another lesbian matchmaking app, FindHrr, which has over 8,000 users since its launch in February, is also fighting back.

'Penis duty'

Applicants’ photos and emails are checked individually and the app has a report system that allows members to flag suspected male accounts. These are then investigated by FindHrr’s co-founders, Nicola Chubb and Rebecca Paisis. Chubb jokes: “Myself and my business partner often ask each other whose turn it is to be on ‘penis duty’, but it really is quite a serious issue and it takes up a lot of admin time.”

The FindHrr app uses geo location technology to help people find other users in their vicinity. This technology has meant Chubb and Paisis have been able to track where these men are based. “On the basis of their GPS signals, the vast majority of them seem to be based in the Middle East and Thailand,” says Chubb.

In her opinion, their interest in signing up stems from a degree of naivety and fantasy. “I think they just want to know what’s going on. Of course, some may have the idea of porn and scantily-clad females in their head, but I imagine they are pretty disappointed when they find our members are just everyday women.”

Men posing as lesbians

The theories about why men would pose as lesbians are many and varied. They range from male delusions about their sex appeal, prowess and ability to ‘convert’ the lesbians they meet online, to an interest in women who might be bi-sexual.

One 24-year-old man from Stockwell, London, who used to infiltrate online lesbian apps posing as a lesbian, said he did it simply to amuse himself. “It sounds stupid now,” he says. “But when I was bored I used to go on these chat sites for kicks.”

Ruth Hunt, deputy chief executive at Stonewall, a gay, lesbian and bi-sexual charity, says this is no laughing matter. “This issue of men lying to meet lesbians is as old as time, they’ve just found a new way to do it," she says. "While we can’t say for certain what is motivating this behaviour, we would advise caution when using the internet to meet partners and recommend that people always try to meet in a public place.”

What is clear is that there is a huge potential user base for lesbian dating apps and they could come to represent quite an attractive commercial advertising proposition. According to Hunt, 6pc of the UK population identifies themselves as gay, lesbian or bi-sexual. You only need to look at Grindr, the wildly popular hookup app for gay men, to get an idea of what success in this market could look like.

Lesbian apps have reached a tipping point. The false perception still exists that the world of online dating is the preserve of men looking for titillation and they may continue to struggle to attract their target audience. However, if apps such as Dattch and FindHrr are able to effectively root out imposters, they have the potential to flourish.

No women allowed: tourist destinations where women are forbidden

Mount Athos

Instead of our usual post on a no-longer existing space for women, let's look at the opposite: places that still exist for men where women are banned.

This list is from a January 2013 Fox News piece:

Whether via girlfriend getaways, solo sojourns or adventure-heavy holidays, women are traveling more than ever these days. But even in today’s age of increasing gender equity, there are spots across the globe where the absence of a Y chromosome means a traveler must tread lightly – or not at all.

Many of these bans on females are steeped in religious tradition and etiquette, but is a reminder of how far, or not,
women have come.

Here are some tourist destinations where females strictly are forbidden.

Mount Athos, Greece: The longstanding gender ban on this ancient mountain doesn’t apply to just women – it also includes many female domestic animals. Commonly known among Greeks as the “Holy Mountain,” the self-governed Mount Athos, which encompasses both the mountain and a peninsula in Macedonia, is accessible only via ferry -- and only to men with a special permit. A centuries-old belief maintains that the presence of females inhibits their path to the spiritual enlightenment of the monks living there among its 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries.

Over the years, several women have been successful in sneaking onto Mount Athos’s forbidden-to-females shores, including a French writer who reportedly underwent a double mastectomy in order to disguise herself as a monk in the 1920s, and, more recently, four Moldovan women who illegally entered Greece and accidentally ended up at Mount Athos.

Saudi women

Saudi Arabia: If you’re a solo female traveler looking to visit Saudi Arabia as a tourist, you’ll have an easier time booking a trip to Mars. As of 2010, tourist visas to Saudi Arabia don’t exist, and visas for business and to visit family are notoriously difficult for Americans to obtain. On top of that, women who do travel to the country must be accompanied by a male relative in order to be granted entry. And even then, Saudi Arabia isn’t exactly a welcoming destination for females. Women need a man, or government permission, to do just about anything – Saudi Arabian women aren’t even allowed to drive.

“We hear nonstop all this bad press about Iran and how terrible Iran is, but Saudi Arabia is much more oppressive of women,” notes Michelle May, a San Francisco-based journalist who has traveled extensively to Middle Eastern countries. “Their human rights record and their treatment of women are far worse than Iran.”

Haji Ali Dargah Shrine

Haji Ali Dargah Shrine, Mumbai, India: One of Mumbai’s most iconic landmarks, which is dedicated to a 15th-century Sufi saint Pir Haji Ali Bukhari. The site, which also holds the saint's tomb, draws between 15,000 and 20,000 daily visitors of all castes, creeds and religions, according to the organization that runs it. But in July, a women’s group visited and found the Dargah’s most sacred area, called the sanctum sanctorum, had been barred to females. The shrine’s authorities claim that it is "un-Islamic under the Sharia Law" for women to visit graves and that they were rectifying a mistake that had allowed women to enter this area.

By November 2012, news of this development had spread, sparking outrage among many women’s rights groups that say the ban represents clear discrimination of women and that it damages the reputation of Islam in India. The state government has refused to intervene in the issue, which it claims is a religious matter, so at least for now, the shrine’s sanctum sanctorum remains off-limits to women.

Balinese Hindu temple

Hindu temples in India and Bali, Indonesia during certain times of the month: It’s a common sight – and a curious one, at least for many Westerners – at many Hindu temples in these parts of the world: signs that prohibit menstruating women from entering. It’s unclear exactly how this ban is monitored, but it’s based on the belief among some religions, including Hinduism and the Eastern Orthodox Church, that menstruating women are impure, and as result they are banned from entering sacred areas of worship or receiving communion.

The ban has been challenged in some places, but it’s still the status quo at many temples throughout India and Indonesia. Even more disturbing: It occasionally comes with the threat of violence if women visitors violate the rule.

Warning sign, Mout Omine

Mount Omine, Japan: In 2004, the United Nations declared this mountain in southern a UNESCO World Heritage site, but thanks to a centuries-old gender ban, it’s one that women are still not allowed to visit. For more than 1,300 years, only men have been allowed to navigate the rocky paths leading to the Buddhist temple near the 5,640-foot peak. That’s because, according to long-held religious beliefs, women pose a distraction for the religious pilgrims who should be engaged in strict self-denial while on the mountain.

Today, the gender ban continues, despite an 1872 Japanese government decree that struck down longstanding conventions that kept women off many of the country’s mountains, including Mount Fuji. Since then, Mount Omine has defiantly ignored that order. Predictably, Japanese women’s groups lobbied the government and the United Nations against naming the mountain as a World Heritage site, to no avail.

Galaxy water park, Bavaria, Germany: This past summer, one of Europe’s largest and most popular waterparks, which is part of the sprawling Therme Erding sauna complex near Munich, banned women from one of its high-speed slides because owners determined it to be causing “intimate injuries.” According to a park official, at least six women suffered injury to their genital area on the X-treme Faser slide, in which participants can reportedly hit speeds up to 45 miles per hour.

A park spokesman told an English-language newspaper that it was working on developing a bodysuit for women to prevent such mishaps in the future. According to a gynecological association that was referenced in the newspaper, however, there was no medical condition other than pregnancy that should prevent women from using such a slide. In other words, this particular gender ban appears to be washed up.

A few observations. I find it fascinating how men can command enormous pieces of male-only territory--entire mountains!--for hundreds of years, and completely legitimize their exclusive possession and control through religion and "tradition." These are male-only spaces from top to bottom. And they are backed up by institutions as powerful as the United Nations.

By contrast, women's space tends to be short-lived, very limited in size (a single dining room, a single club), and very compromised--e.g. often managed by males, owned by males, including males as employees, admitting males if they are accompanied by women or even if they are not. Trans women, we are told, should be admitted as women are--even in locker rooms or saunas--based solely on identification. In the end, it's really not that unusual to end up with so-called women's spaces that have more men present than women.

And even then they are relentlessly attacked as "exclusionary."

But I can assure you that none of the religious "brothers" in the spaces described in the Fox piece have ever lost any sleep over admitting women, or even trans men. Wouldn't even occur to them to consider it. No guilt, no apologies.

And you know that the "non-exclusionary" folks who are hounding the few remaining women's colleges out of existence or screaming about the Michigan's Womyn's Music Festival (a relatively large territory to be sure, but women-only for just ONE WEEK out of the year) are sure not picketing, protesting, or camping out beneath Mount Omine. Oh no, that would be culturally and religiously "disrespectful."