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A grassroots tour of the nation’s lesbian bars that illuminates their past, present, and hopeful future, from the co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising
Lesbian bars are so much more than a place to get a drink. For over a century, they’ve acted as community posts, political organizing grounds, and sanctuaries. Yet whereas in the 1980s there were an estimated 200 lesbian bars across the US, the current count sits at a few dozen.
In The Lesbian Bar Chronicles, author and co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising Rachel Karp embarks across the country with her wife and best friend to chronicle the stories of the remaining US lesbian bars. Recent narratives have claimed lesbian bars are dying, but Karp’s group finds many of the places they visit to be thriving, their communities sustaining themselves over decades of change and challenges.
Weaving together over 100 hours of immersive interviews with bar owners, staff, and regulars, Karp highlights places like
- Chicago spot Nobody’s Darling, where readers meet “the mayor” Shirley J, who in the 1970s was instrumental in the birth of house music
- Frankie’s in Oklahoma City, where readers attend a “family night” to learn how a lesbian bar can birth a chosen family
- Redz, a Chicana lesbian bar in East LA involved in the precedent setting court case that followed years of arrests for patrons wearing men’s clothing
A heartfelt reclamation of queer history and queer lives, Karp’s narrative examines how these beacons for community and inclusion can teach us to live openly, cultivate connection, and continue to take up space.
“A bracingly optimistic chronicle of modern queer life.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Snappy vignettes on safe—and fun—spaces.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Rachel Karp hit the road to visit lesbian bars across the country and found that rather than being consigned to history, sapphic spaces are lighting up our future.”
—BookPage
“A beautiful tapestry of the loves, secrets, and stories that shape us, reminding the world that our community has always survived and created a legacy no one can erase.”
—Hayley Kiyoko, American singer-songwriter, actress, director, and New York Times best-selling author
“Stories of humans who refuse to be erased and who create community against all the odds are just what we need right now. The Lesbian Bar Chronicles is an effervescent mix of history, sex, and politics, not to mention fun!”
—Barbara Smith, coauthor of The Combahee River Collective Statement
“I entered my first lesbian bar, the Sea Colony, in New Year’s Greenwich Village in 1958 when I was eighteen. How gifted with life I am to have the opportunity to read this book now, at eighty-five, to stand on the mountaintop with Karp’s found inclusive voices. The richness of histories, identities, and material realities is unforgettable, precious, and instructive.”
—Joan Nestle, Lambda Award–winning writer, teacher, activist, and cofounder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives
“For those of us who’ve long known sacred sapphic spaces like The Cubbyhole and Ginger’s, The Lesbian Bar Chronicles finally captures—and properly documents—their enchantment and vital importance. It stands as one of the most engrossing and essential archives of our queer times.”
—Ricky Tucker, author of And the Category Is . . . Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community
“I can chart my adolescence and young adulthood by the bars I frequented: The Lex, Wild Side West, Ginger’s, Cattyshack. I understand the power of choosing and standing by each other, and I believe deeply in the quiet radicalism of gathering—of creating places that invite people to show up fully and connect. Rachel Karp’s book honors that work and the communities it makes possible.”
—Jessi Hempel, host of LinkedIn’s award-winning podcast Hello Monday and author of The Family Outing
“A love letter to queer survival and joy, this glorious book chronicles the lesbian bars that became sanctuaries, organizing hubs, and chosen homes. Part road trip and part oral history, it reveals why these spaces—of refuge, resistance, and connection—still matter.”
—Debbie Millman, host of the podcast Design Matters and author of Love Letter to a Garden