I'm in a very nostalgic mood tonight. Just found out that what is effectively the only lesbian bar in my city (and one of the oldest, if not the oldest, continually operating lesbian bars in the US), just shut down suddenly. The owner claims that he (yes, he, but don't get me started on that...) will reopen sometime, but he's given no timeline for doing so, hasn't stated what he wants to get done before he reopens, and has been unresponsive to the staff, so I'm not holding out much hope of it returning in its old form. He didn't even give enough notice for the regulars to come in and have a last drink before the indefinite hiatus
.
I'm not as much of a regular now as I used to be, but I remember how important that bar was to me when I was first coming to terms with my own sexuality. Walking through those doors for the first time was such a significant step towards acknowledging who I was as a person and the women that I met there became the friends and lovers who made me the person that I am today, and it makes me sad that the young women moving to my city today won't have that space any more.
Anyway, I'm not even sure why I'm posting this here, other than maybe because after today I've developed a greater appreciation of the importance of having a variety of spaces for us LGBTQ folks, and, even though I haven't had the chance to meet many of you in person, I'm glad that we can hang out together in this small little corner of cyberspace.