The Oldest Room in the Movement
Cafe Lafitte in Exile opened on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in 1933, the year Prohibition ended. It has been open for over 90 years. It survived police raids when serving gay customers was grounds for losing your liquor license. It survived Hurricane Katrina. It is still pouring drinks.
The White Horse Inn in Oakland, California opened the same year. Also 90 years.
Julius’ in Greenwich Village has been a bar since 1867. In 1966, three years before Stonewall, members of the Mattachine Society staged a “Sip-In” — sitting down, announcing they were gay, and ordering drinks to challenge the State Liquor Authority’s policy of revoking licenses from bars that served homosexuals. They won. Julius’ established the legal right for gay people to be served in licensed establishments in New York. The bar is on track for landmark status.
Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia opened in 1973 and is the oldest LGBTQ bookstore still operating in the United States. The Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in Greenwich Village was first, opening in 1967, but it closed in 2009 after 42 years. Giovanni’s Room reinvented itself and kept going. Fifty years.
The Pride Center of the Capital Region in Albany, New York opened in 1970 and is the oldest LGBTQ community center still operating from its original location. Fifty-five years in the same building.
45% Closed
Between 2002 and 2023, 45% of known gay bars in America closed. There were roughly 1,500 in 2002. By 2021, after COVID, there were 730. About 750 remain today.
1,500 → 750 gay bars in America. 45% closed in 20 years. Texas lost 15 LGBTQ spaces since 2020 alone.
COVID alone killed 15.9% of LGBTQ bars between 2019 and 2021. Some rebounded — 73 new bars opened between 2021 and 2023 — but the net number has not recovered.
In Texas, 15 LGBTQ gathering spaces have closed since 2020. Bars, clubs, Pride associations, restaurants. Only two lesbian bars remain in the entire state: Sue Ellen’s in Dallas (open since 1989) and Pearl Bar in Houston.
Seven states have zero or one gay bar. Wyoming and North Dakota have none. Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, New Mexico, and Vermont each have one.
Lesbian Bars Almost Disappeared
At their peak in the 1980s and 1990s, there were over 200 lesbian bars in the United States. By 2019, there were 15. A 92% decline.
The reasons compound. Women, trans, and nonbinary people have less leisure income due to pay inequity. That means bars catering to women take in less money and are more vulnerable to rent increases. Bars catering to queer people of color saw a 60% decline between 2007 and 2019 — worse than the 37% overall LGBTQ bar decline.
Then something shifted. Between 2019 and 2026, lesbian bars nearly doubled — from 15 to 32-37 today. The mix of LGBTQ bars changed too. Bars serving only cisgender men dropped from 44.6% to 24.2%. Bars serving LGBTQ women and men together rose from 44.2% to 65.6%. The spaces that reopened were more inclusive than the ones that closed.
Wild Side West Has Been Open Since 1962
Wild Side West in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood is the oldest lesbian bar in the city. It has been open for over 60 years. It survived the era when police raided lesbian bars. It survived AIDS. It survived gentrification. It is still a room where LGBTQ women walk in and do not have to explain anything.
These places are not symbols. They are rooms. Real rooms where real people sat down and were themselves when that was dangerous. A bar that opened the year Prohibition ended and is still open the year 29 states passed anti-trans laws is not a historical footnote. It is proof that the community outlasts the people trying to erase it.
Read more on the LGBTQ Rights hub.