Blush & Blu, Denver’s Only Lesbian Bar, to Close

On October 8, 2023, the iconic Triangle Bar closed its doors for good. Now, nearly a year later, another bar is following suite. Blush & Blu is set to close its doors on October 5. It was one of the few lesbian bars left in the country, and the only one in the entire state of Colorado.

Owner Jody Bouffard announced Blush & Blu’s closing via Instagram on September 28, only a week ahead of its destined closing. In the post, she says it is her decision to close the bar. The bar originally opened in 2012 as a coffee lounge with Bouffard at the helm. She previously opened other queer-centric businesses in the Denver area.

In the post, Bouffard says there are only 20 remaining lesbian bars across the country. According to the Lesbian Bar Project, who ran a documentary which featured B&B in 2022, the number has grown to 34 bars. This includes Blush & Blu at the time of this article.

Blush & Blu’s closing comes amidst a nearly 10-month long boycott due to alleged racial discrimination and wage theft. Additionally, the bar and its owner were sued for the same reasons. Beccah Schechter, a former bartender at Blush, led the boycott after quitting when she allegedly heard the owner’s wife say “Fuck Muslims.” The boycott followed organically from Schechter’s announcement of her departure, as others shared their own alleged mistreatment by Bouffard.

“I think the community has truly had enough of the injustices,” Schechter says about the bar’s closing. “We have collectively witnessed the same blatant racism and discrimination happen over and over again. Enough is enough, and we certainly got our message across.”

According to Schechter, the lawsuit ended with a $60,000 dollar settlement across 33 employees. “Closing the bar was the only option considering she could not afford to stay in business and back pay all of the wages she stole,” she says. However, court records show that, in 2023, the case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that this particular lawsuit cannot be opened again.

At the start of the boycott, Schechter urged for a change of ownership for the bar. With its closing, this seems unlikely to happen. When asked to comment on the closing, she says, “(Bouffard) deserves to be permanently closed down for good, which is the justice a lot of us wanted to see.”

OFM reached out to Bouffard for comment, but she has not responded at this time.

Edit: OFM has corrected inaccuracies. One stated that Blush & Blu opened since 1996. The other was that the lawsuit ended in a settlement between both parties. The information in this article has been update to reflect the truth of the events. For more information on this developing story, click here.

Photo courtesy of OFM