How the Lesbian Bar Project Raised Over 100K To Keep the Lights on for Queer Women

When Lisa Cannistraci started working in bars, she encountered a frustrating problem.

It was the '80s, and she was bartending, “directly across the street [from] the back entrance to the American stock exchange. So at 4:00, I would have 60+ stockbrokers in the bar. You know, money was like water in those days. They would battle over who could tip me the highest.”

Cannistraci was twenty-two at the time. She’s also a lesbian. All that male attention - and the corresponding derision from the stockbrokers’ girlfriends - was wasted on her.

“I came out, and they thought it was hotter. Then, intermittently, a random woman would just try to kiss me. I’d say, ‘What are you doing? Excuse me!’ and they’d say, ‘Oh! I thought you were a lesbian.’”

It was exhausting.

So Cannistraci picked up a copy of the Village Voice and read through the classified ads. There was an open call for staff at a fancy new restaurant. She didn’t get the job, not because she was unqualified, but because she looked like she was seventeen.

Dejected, she headed toward the subway. Then it started pouring. Cannistraci ran inside a random bar to stay dry and encountered a “diesel butch bartender” who promptly hired her to work the slowest shifts imaginable.

She’s been there ever since. She bought the place in 1991, rechristening it Henrietta Hudson and promptly hiring Stormé DeLarverie, who Cannistraci says was “the butch lesbian who threw the first punch at Stonewall” as her bouncer.

In Cannistraci’s opinion, it’s a sacred space. Luckily, she’s not alone in that.

youtube.comLESBIAN BAR PROJECT (Full Length)

There are only fifteen lesbian bars currently operating in the United States.

Yes, you read that correctly.

8.5 million lesbians live in this country, but the spaces that cater specifically to them are fading away. Three of those bars: Henrietta Hudson, Cubbyhole, and Ginger’s, are in New York City.

This pandemic profoundly threatens restaurants and bars of all kinds. But lesbian bars, which are often a haven not just for lesbians but for marginalized queer people of all kinds, were disappearing before it even started.

The Lesbian Bar Project, spearheaded by filmmakers Erica Rose (who, full disclosure, is my second cousin) and Elina Street, along with Jagermeister’s Save the Night program, just raised $117,500 to keep the lights on at the last few lesbian bars left.

Rose moved to New York City for college in 2009, and, “I remember going to Cubbyhole as a person who wasn’t out and immediately feeling this sense of community and safety… I was really invigorated that I saw these representations of queer women, not just romantically or sexually. It was queer women in community.”

Street has a similarly formative connection to the bar - it was one of the first places she felt accepted upon coming to New York from France, where she had never come out about her sexuality. She points out that, “Nowadays you have so many apps where you can meet people, and you can just check on Yelp for ‘What’s the best place to have the cute date.’ But it’s’ crucial that these spaces remain because they are sanctuaries, they are time capsules, and they have so much history in them.”

Lesbian bars might be living history for queer women, but that doesn’t mean that Lisa Meninchino, the owner of Cubbyhole, doesn’t “find exclusivity a little bit boring.”

For her, the essential thing is engendering a welcoming environment for whoever happens to walk in her door - lesbian, gay, trans, straight, etc. - whenever they happen to show up. “For almost 27 years, we never closed a single day. Through 9/11, through [Hurricane Sandy], through blackouts, through blizzards… Even if it was only for a couple of hours, we opened our doors.”

According to Meninchino, “In the gay rights struggle, it almost seems like we’re an appendage of the gay men. You know, in the AIDS crisis, it was the women who took care of the men as they got sick. We were the most aggressive and passionate about fighting for these rights. And yet, as exemplified by there only being fifteen lesbian bars left, we seem to fade.”

That fading into the background is something she combats every day at Cubbyhole: “These spaces, they make us visible. They give us a space where we can meet each other, where we can talk and celebrate.”

Cannistraci, who left her business for multiple years to work full-time as an activist for marriage equality, agrees with that sentiment: “These spaces really still matter. To know that you can walk into a bar and know that you’re safe and you can be yourself… For so many of us, that’s just how we came of age as young queer people.”

At their best, bars and restaurants provide a little escape from reality, a third space where the rest of the world falls away. For queer women, they’re few and far between. By shining a bright light on this issue, the Lesbian Bar Project, has taken a step to keep them from disappearing entirely—and maybe inspired some future queer bar owners in the process.

You can find more information about the Lesbian Bar Project and Jagermeister’s Save The Night campaign at www.lesbianbarproject.com.

Photo Credit: Lesbian Bar Project