“But that’s part of the problem, right?” she said.
Initially, the group feared there were only 15 across the United States, but it recently added a “ new discoveries” section to the effort, bringing the count to 19. “We did have people from our community reaching out and telling us about other local bars that we missed,” said Lily Ali-Oshatz, a former producer with the Lesbian Bar Project. This makes the city’s lack of lesbian spaces especially perplexing. New York City, which boasted about 2,100 bars before the pandemic, offers options catering to nearly any niche, from gay “Coyote Ugly” bars to speakeasies tucked behind barbershops or ice cream parlors.
