Denver’s solely lesbian bar will quickly shut after greater than a decade as a hotspot for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood on Colfax Avenue.
Blush & Blu, which opened in 2012, will have a good time its remaining night time of service on Oct. 5, in accordance with a put up on social media. Within the closing announcement, proprietor Jody Bouffard lamented the adjustments within the homosexual bar scene: As of 2017, Blush & Blu was the final standing lesbian bar in Denver and by 2021, it was one in all simply 21 nationwide.
“Once I moved to Denver in 1996, there have been over 200 lesbian bars throughout the nation, every a beacon of refuge, although not at all times secure,” the put up learn partially. “Now, 28 years later, solely 20 stay. The world has shifted and so have we.”
Bouffard couldn’t instantly be reached to touch upon the circumstances of the closure. The announcement stated solely, “It’s my determination to shut this chapter of my life known as Blush & Blu.”
In earlier interviews with JHB, Bouffard stated she had been attending pharmacy faculty on the College of Colorado when she started working at an area bar known as The Elle and caught the hospitality bug. She went on to function a number of lesbian bars, together with tHERe and Her Bar, which she ultimately bought.
In 2012, Bouffard re-acquired the tHERe bar area and altered the identify to Blush & Blu. She wished the model to be extra inclusive – there’s “us” within the phrase “Blush,” she stated.
By 2017, Blush & Blu was the Mile Excessive Metropolis’s solely remaining lesbian bar. On the time, Bouffard attributed the decline in queer areas to a confluence of things, together with social media and wider cultural acceptance of the neighborhood. LGBTQ+ people felt safer going to locations not explicitly marked as homosexual bars.
Nonetheless, Bouffard emphasised the significance of getting neighborhood areas when interviewed in 2021. That yr, Blush & Blu was featured as a part of The Lesbian Bar Mission, which raised funds to help the couple dozen lesbian bars left within the U.S. throughout the pandemic.
“Lots of people don’t have household as a result of they’re rejected by their household. So coming right into a queer area like I’ve and those which are remaining, you discover your new household there,” Bouffard stated in 2021.
In recent times, nonetheless, Blush & Blu attracted controversy for a few of its enterprise practices. In a 2021 lawsuit, former staff alleged Bouffard routinely did not pay them minimal wage, stole suggestions throughout shifts and discriminated towards one of many institution’s solely Black staff, amongst different issues. The events agreed to settle the claims in 2023.
Within the closing observe, Bouffard thanked “each promoter, performer, DJ, drag queen, drag king, comic, poet and artist who has graced our stage.” The put up additionally famous particulars of its goodbye celebration could be introduced quickly.
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