Introducing Cruising - Trailer
SARAH: IN THE 1980S, THERE WERE AN ESTIMATED 200 LESBIAN BARS OPEN IN THE US, THEY EXISTED OUT OF NECESSITY. WITH FAR LESS TOLERANCE AND UNDERSTANDING OF QUEER PEOPLE OUT IN PUBLIC, THERE WAS SIMPLY NOWHERE ELSE TO BE GAY. TODAY, THERE ARE ROUGHLY 20 LESBIAN BARS LEFT IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. I SAY ROUGHLY BECAUSE EVEN IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS, NEW BARS HAVE OPENED, SOME HAVE CLOSED, AND OTHERS HAVE COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK. SO BEFORE THEY'RE GONE, I'M TAKING A ROAD TRIP WITH MY TWO FRIENDS. OVER 8000 MILES ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND BACK TO TELL THE STORIES OF THE LAST LESBIAN BARS IN THE US. THREE QUEER WOMEN, ONE HONDA SUV, AND PERHAPS THE LONGEST BAR CRAWL EVER. MY NAME IS SARAH GABRIELLI. AND THIS IS OUR NEW PODCAST, CRUISING. WHILE WE'RE HOPING TO MEET SOME COOL PEOPLE AND MAKE FUN MEMORIES ALONG THE WAY, WE ALSO HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS. WHY DO THESE SPACES KEEP CLOSING? AND DO WE STILL NEED THEM IN 2021? WHAT EVEN IS A LESBIAN BAR ANYWAYS? WE'VE BEEN ASKING EVERYONE WE MEET ALONG THE WAY.
NICCI: I identify it as, as a radical, feminist, queer space.
ALLY: A queer bar built by lesbians.
DEB: That doesn't mean we're not in everybody bar either, you know what I mean?
LISA: So we went from lesbian bar to lesbian centric--lesbian centric, queer human bar.
RACH: Ultimately, a lesbian bar in 2021 is a bar that includes all the quote unquote lesbians of our community that have a language that they could never speak of before.
SARAH: WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THESE VOICES AND THE BARS THEY'RE DESCRIBING? THEN SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST AND TUNE IN TO CRUISING COMING THIS OCTOBER. IN THE MEANTIME, HERE'S AN EXCERPT FROM OUR FIRST STOP IN NEW YORK CITY. PICTURE THIS:YOU'RE 15 YEARS OLD, AND YOU ALWAYS END UP KISSING OTHER GIRLS AT PARTIES. YOUR CLASSMATES DON'T REALLY GET IT. THEY THINK YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ATTENTION, AND THEY CALL YOU FREAKY. AFTER SCHOOL ONE DAY, THIS LITTLE GREEN STORE-FRONT CATCHES YOUR EYE.
HADLEY: I remember there were rainbow daisies, like stickers of rainbow daisies all around the front on the windows. And I love that. And I was like this place looks so cute. And I saw like the rainbow flag in the window.
SARAH: THIS IS HADLEY, NOW 26
HADLEY: It was right on the corner and it was on kind of a quiet street with like cobblestones like, it had like really pretty like town houses like brownstones next to each other. And so I just decided to go in like not really knowing what it was. But I figured it was a bar obviously because I was peeking in through the window, and there was a bar.
SARAH: INSIDE, THE BAR WAS NO BIGGER THAN A SMALL GENERAL STORE. TOYS AND KNICKKNACKS HUNG FROM THE CEILING, MAKING A THICK, COLORFUL CANOPY. HADLEY HAD STUMBLED UPON CUBBYHOLE OR CUBBY TO ITS REGULARS, A LESBIAN BAR IN NEW YORK CITY'S WEST VILLAGE.
HADLEY: So we're going back like 11 years. So this was a while ago. But I do remember very, very vividly. The first time I ever went to Cubbyhole. I had a purple backpack from American Apparel. It had like pins all over it. And like 1000 keychains on the zipper. I had like a little rainbow pin.
SARAH: SHE WAS COMING RIGHT FROM HER HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY LAB SCHOOL, WHICH IS ABOUT SIX BLOCKS SOUTH OF CUBBY.
HADLEY: So I was trying to like sort of hide behind people pretending that I was like doing something. So I think I like whipped out a notebook from school. And I took my backpack and I remember, I didn't want people to see my backpack. So I threw it underneath the bar. I had like the perfect spot where I could see the entire bar and see the door. In case someone was coming after me to find me or something.
SARAH: SHE PULLED HER STRAIGHT BLONDE HAIR BACK INTO A PONYTAIL, TRYING TO LOOK A LITTLE OLDER AND WAITED FOR SOMEONE TO KICK HER OUT. BUT THEY NEVER DID. SO, SIX, SEVEN AND EIGHT O'CLOCK WENT BY. A BOUNCER TOOK HIS POST AT THE DOOR AND MORE AND MORE QUEER WOMEN FLOODED INTO THE TINY SPACE. SHE DIDN'T GET A DRINK OR EVEN APPROACH THE BAR. SHE JUST OBSERVED AND TRIED TO TALK TO PEOPLE.
HADLEY: I got right up into people's space and was just kind of like smiling and being like, Hey, how's it going? And like just literally like standing there like so excited to talk to people. You know, my eyes kind of said, Hey, come talk to me. Like I'm excited to meet you. And then that's kind of what started this journey of me going many many times. Thereafter being a loyal customer.
SARAH: CRUISING IS REPORTED AND PRODUCED BY RACHEL KARP, JEN MCGINITY, AND ME SARAH GABRIELLI WITH MUSIC BY JOEY FREEMAN. FOLLOW US ALONG ON OUR ROAD TRIP AND SEE PICTURES AT OUR WEBSITE CRUISINGPOD.COM OR FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA @CRUISINGPOD. YOU CAN LISTEN WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS.
