With the recent news that San Francisco's last real lesbian bar, The Lexington Club, is closing its doors, it's clear that lesbian bars are becoming a seriously endangered species.
In a Facebook post, Lexington owner Lila Thirkield blamed gentrification in the neighborhood for the doors closing on her business of nearly 18 years:
To My Dear Community –
It is with a heavy heart, great thought and consideration that I have made the very difficult decision to sell The Lexington Club.
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.
Please know that if I thought The Lexington Club could be saved, I would not be writing this. I understand what a huge loss this is to the community. It is difficult and painful to lose our queer spaces. However, my faith in queer San Francisco still runs deep. It is the best place in the world and dykes and queers are still an integral part of this city. They always will be. I have spent the better part of my adult life facilitating and creating community among dykes and queers in SF and I will not stop. The Lexington Club had an incredible eighteen-year run. It will forever live on in my heart, as I'm sure it will for many of you. To all who were a part of it - thank you for your contribution to a great chapter in San Francisco and a great chapter in my own life. And, of course, a huge thank you to my amazing staff. We made some incredible memories, and we will make more.
Lila Thirkield (Lexington)
The outcry over the closing makes it clear that lesbian bars aren't just places to get drunk and pick up ladies (though, duh) – they also serve as a rare safe space for many women.
In the wake of the slowly disappearing lady bar, we asked women to illustrate their dream lesbian bar. Here is what they came up with:
"At club Turn Up, there are three bars because fuck lines."
"I didn't put an entrance or bathrooms. I'm not an architect, whatever."
(An architecture student actually submitted this one, though.)
"I'd maybe also throw in a mechanical unicorn for riding and glitter for throwing, but I ran out of room on my diagram."
"The most important feature of my lesbian bar is that it would actually exist."
"It would just be me and Natalie Dormer, hanging out."
Hopefully all of these bars have fire exits.
