Massachusetts COVID-conscious lesbian bar closes after mask rule fallout
The COVID-conscious Massachusetts lesbian bar is closing (Envato)
Viral lesbian bar Last Ditch has announced its closure, weeks after the fallout of its COVID-masking rules took over the internet.
The bar, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, became the talking point of social media after its masking rules were relaxed on Saturday nights – so much so that it attracted the attention of Hollywood.
The change to the venue’s rules caused uproar among its patrons, with a meeting to try and sort things out going viral thanks to podcast Blocked And Reported, and the Boston Globe.
A post to promote the mask-optional Saturday nights at the struggling bar was met with hostility. One person said they “hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ableists”, while another said the bar owners were “complicit in a mass disabling event”.
Now, just weeks later, the bar has announced it is “soft closing” while it searches for new owners.
On Instagram, they wrote: “We need new owners ASAP, we close this winter.” They noted that events that were already booked at the bar would go ahead as planned.
They wrote: “We have put our lives on hold to foster networks of care, resources, and a home base for organising. It’s time we pass it on.
“We’ve been fighting since the beginning to fill out the team, and we still don’t have a board/leadership to manage workers owned Co-op transfer.”
They finished: “Love and solidarity to all.”
Last Ditch fallout
Last Ditch, which had a rule that patrons must wear face masks, despite there having been no COVID cases in Greenfield for two months at the time, announced plans to relax its rules on Saturday nights.
They were accused of not taking the pandemic seriously, while others were more sympathetic with the owner, who was living out of a car and in thousands of dollars of debt.
The bar was struggling, with many surprised to learn that nobody would be turned away, even if they couldn’t afford the entrance fee.
The announcement led to backlash from the local community, with some even complaining it wasn’t an “accessible” post as it didn’t have any alt text. Someone else said: “It indicates the lack of care or interest in Disability intersectionality.”
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