“We’re not a lesbian bar. We’re a women’s bar.” — Gossip Grill owner Moe Girton
Moe Girton’s white-blonde faux-hawk floods cotton-candy pink under Gossip Grill’s disco balls and neon lights. She’s sporting loud paisley prints in all shades of blue—a party of one at 3 p.m. We sit at a high-top table on the perimeter of the dance floor, chatting about how she opened this bar 12 years ago; the doors are open to the patio and I can feel the velvet sun, ubiquitous over Hillcrest, warming my legs.
I’ve come across several explanations for the fragility of sapphic-friendly spaces, not just in California but throughout the U.S. For one, lesbian bars—as many queer bars—have a troubled relationship with racial inclusivity, in spite of their intended role as oases for the marginalized. Several of the first and most influential dyke bars in New York City discriminated against people of color, according to the Lesbian Bar Project.
A few days later, Brittany Rae Leach, Gossip’s head of marketing, joins me at the bar during off hours. She has a big smile and auburn hair that’s been waved with precision. When she talks about Gossip, she crackles like a bonfire. She says the decision to identify as a women’s bar and not a lesbian bar is not only motivated by appearances or the bottom line. If anything, it’s personal.
Seated at the high-top at our first meeting, Girton regales me with tidbits of Gossip history. In 2011, during the county-wide blackout that left 1.4 million residents without power, the community flocked to the bar. Chris Shaw, founder of Gossip’s parent company, Mo’s Universe, had a generator installed on-site, prompting staff to throw an impromptu dance party that became an annual event. When the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando happened in 2016, the community grieved at Gossip.
Girton and her team are reenvisioning divey, gritty, one-note lesbian spaces to offer variety to lesbians and queers seeking sanctuary from the horde of masc and normative nightlife options. Across the street from Gossip Grill, they opened the upscale sit-down restaurant Barrel & Board this past June to do just that.
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