NYC Queer Bars, Including Stonewall Inn, Struggle to Survive
Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, the world’s most famous LGBTQ bar, is currently in danger of permanently shutting down after losing revenue due to extended closure during the pandemic.
The historic site has been closed since the lockdown in March. This week, Stonewall staffers launched two GoFundMes—one for the bar’s operating costs and one for the staff—so the bar can re-open with the lockdown being lifted.
The description for the fundraiser reads:
We are reaching out because, like many families and small businesses around the world, The Stonewall Inn is struggling. Our doors have been closed for over three months to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of patrons, staff, and the community. Even in the best of times, it can be difficult to survive as a small business, and we now face an uncertain future … We resurrected the Stonewall Inn once after it had been shuttered—and we stand ready to do it again—with your help. We worked diligently to resurrect it as a safe space for the community and to keep the Stonewall Inn at the epicenter of the fight for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. It has been a community tavern, but also a vehicle to continue the fight that started there in 1969. Stonewall is the place the community gathers for celebrations, comes to grieve in times of tragedy, and rally to continue the fight for full global equality.
Due to the efforts to keep the birthplace of the movement open, the staff of the historic site is also struggling with living expenses, according to the staff fundraiser.
“From the managers and bartenders to the barbacks and porters, our staff is the backbone of this institution of living history. Right now, they need your help,” the description reads. “Without their shifts, these dedicated staff members are without the means to support themselves and their families.”
Yet, the Stonewall Inn isn’t the only place struggling to survive. Alibi Lounge, the last Black-owned gay bar in Manhattan, also launched a fundraiser to keep its doors open and staff on payroll amid the pandemic.
According to the GoFundMe for Alibi Lounge, the bar has gone through tremendous hardships, as well as attacks for being the only openly gay bar in Harlem. Through burnt rainbow flags and broken cash registers, the bar still continues to persist.
“We carried on despite adversity, exhaustion, and financial difficulties relating to COVID-19, to remain open for almost four years!” states the fundraiser description.
Now is the time to lift up these safe spaces for queer folk and remind the world that our community is not going anywhere.
“We look forward to the day we can welcome all of you back, raise a glass, and celebrate the return to our normal lives,” reads the page for the Stonewall staff’s GoFundMe. “Until then, stay safe; take care of your loved ones, and be strong.”
