THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020 MB 5Protesters have returned to the Stonewall
Inn again and again in recent weeks to de-
mand an end to police brutality, raising their
fists, taking a knee and holding moments of
silence on the same ground where a riot in
1969 helped set off the modern gay rights
movement.
But public health restrictions have kept
the Greenwich Village bar — which its own-
ers describe as a watering hole, community
center and “gay church” — closed since the
coronavirus pandemic began in March. The
lights are out, the doors are locked and the
metaphorical pews are empty. But the bills
— rent, insurance, utilities and more —
keep piling up.
“If Stonewall, the most iconic L.G.B.T.Q.
bar in the world, is facing an uncertain fu-
ture, then think about everybody else,” said
one of the owners, Stacy Lentz, who runs its
philanthropic arm, the Stonewall Inn Gives
Back Initiative. “It is just horrific. Stonewall
is one of our original safe spaces.”
Gay bars in New York City face the same
challenges as other bars and restaurants
shuttered in recent months — high rents,
thin profit margins and now little to no in-
come — but for L.G.B.T.Q. establishments,
the shutdown has been more than a busi-
ness problem. It has struck at the heart of a
community whose culture and history are
passed down through generations of people
who are not blood related, and who depend
on spaces like bars both to find safety and to
meet their peers.
Gay culture and activism have long been
woven into the fabric of New York City life,
making it a magnet for people across the
country and around the world, from the
“fairy resorts” on the Bowery in the 1890s to
the West Side piers in the 1980s.
The financial pain is particularly acute
during June, which is Pride Month, often
the most lucrative time of year for
L.G.B.T.Q. establishments. Millions of peo-
ple attended Pride events in New York last
year, including the parade, which passed
the Stonewall Inn.
“We had hundreds of thousands of people
inside and outside our door last year,” Ms.
Lentz said. “A good number of them were
lined up to get into our bar, and now that’s
just not happening.”
The Stonewall Inn and its environs have
been designated a city landmark, a state
historical site and a national monument. Its
owners say it will not reopen until the risk
posed by large gatherings has passed. That
could be a long time.
“The bar could theoretically close and
‘Stonewall’ would just be a name on a
plaque on the wall,” Ms. Lentz said. She said
the bar had asked corporations that spon-
sor the Pride March or sell rainbow mer-
chandise each June to “put your money
where your mouth is and help us preserve
this legacy.”
The bar was able to begin selling to-go
cocktails last Friday, but that is unlikely to
cover its bills, Ms. Lentz said. As of Friday, it
had raised nearly $16,000 on GoFundMe to
support its staff.
“For most small businesses and
L.G.B.T.Q. bars in New York, because the
rent is so high, our margins are razor thin,”
she said. “One or two months of no income
— we don’t have a ton of cash in reserve.
None of that exists.”
Similar pressure is being felt at
L.G.B.T.Q. establishments across the city.
Some have tried to keep their heads above
water by selling to-go cocktails, turning to
digital fund-raising or holding online events
to keep the spirit of their establishments
alive. And most have laid off or furloughed
their employees.
Alibi Lounge, which opened in 2016 and
describes itself as the first and only black-
owned L.G.B.T.Q. bar in Harlem, has done
all of that. It has raised more than $105,000
on GoFundMe, but the return on its drink
sales “is not anything like what it used to
be,” said Alexi Minko, its owner. “One night
we made $10.”
“If Alibi closes its doors, I am afraid it will
send the message to other black men and
women that people of color who open an
L.G.B.T. business in New York are doomed
to fail,” added Mr. Minko, who kept one em-
ployee, paid from his personal savings, on
staff to help with drink sales.
The bar has also attracted a growing
number of straight patrons who began go-
ing there as a show of support after rainbow
flags in front of the bar were burned in two
separate incidents last year, Mr. Minko said.
But he describes the bar as primarily an
L.G.B.T.Q. community space, and he wor-
ries about the impact of the shutdown on pa-
trons who had found a sense of belonging
there.
“As gay people, we don’t have a communi-
ty like straight families have — they’re mar-
ried, they have children, and then thosechildren have friends and those friends
have parents, and that all creates a sense of
community,” Mr. Minko said. “Our sense of
community is going out. If I don’t go to a gay
club or L.G.B.T. establishment, who will I
talk to? How will I meet people who under-
stand me as if we were family?”
Maintaining a sense of community dur-
ing the pandemic has been keenly impor-
tant to lesbian bars, whose numbers across
the country have sharply dropped in recent
years to little more than a dozen. Before the
shutdown, only a handful remained in New
York City.
Henrietta Hudson, a West Village bar
that opened in 1991, has put on free Zoom
events to cheer up its regulars, including
D.J. nights from Thursday to Sunday, its
owner, Lisa Cannistraci, said.
“We want people to know we are still here
and we still have their backs,” she said.
Ms. Cannistraci described the establish-ment as “a lesbian-centric queer human
bar,” and said that she thought it had sur-
vived because it welcomed people of any
sexuality or gender identity.
“We are a reflection of the queer commu-
nity as a whole,” she said. “Whatever it
takes, I will reopen this bar.”
But Henrietta Hudson may not reopen
until next spring, she said. In the meantime,
she has been busy working to keep it afloat.
That has included renegotiating the rent,
talking about the bar’s challenges to
L.G.B.T.Q. media organizations and raising
money from supporters, including more
than $32,000 on GoFundMe. She said there
had been “an outpouring of support.”
“It’s different for queer people, because
all we have is each other,” Ms. Cannistraci
said. “Like, I got an email from a stripper
who I have never even met: ‘Listen, I am
going to do a strip show and donate every-
thing to Henrietta’s.’ It’s incredible.”
The question of when to reopen is a com-
plex one for many gay bars, which often
house stages, dance floors and areas where
groups — sometimes as large as a wedding
reception — can meet.
Eric Sosa, the owner of C’mon Every-
body, a club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brook-
lyn, said his establishment would not re-
open for months because dance parties, live
music and other types of performance were
vital to its business model.
“We really want to be safe and that kind of
means being one of the last spaces to open,”
Mr. Sosa said. The club, whose rent of
$9,500 per month has gone unpaid since
April, has raised more than $20,000 on Go-
FundMe.
But a new bar he is opening in Park Slope,
Brooklyn — its planned April start date was
delayed by the pandemic — will probably
open next month because it is a smaller
space.
“People are really excited to go out, even
if it’s in a limited capacity or it’s a little more
restricted,” he said. “I think people are sort
of yearning for their spaces and their com-
munity again.”
These community spaces may remain
imperiled for years, though, because of the
continuing threat of the coronavirus.
Brenda Breathnach, who owns the
Phoenix in the East Village and 3 Dollar Bill
in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said she
expected both establishments to open in
July. She renegotiated the rent for her Man-
hattan bar down to $12,000 from $19,500,
but the monthly bills for the Brooklyn club
are usually $40,000.
She said she was eager to get back on
firm financial footing, but also “afraid of
what is to come.”
“Everyone is in the same boat,” she said.
“One person can destroy all of this again.
One person going out with the virus who
gives it to 10 people, and then those 10 peo-
ple give it to another 10 people.”City’s Gay Bars Struggle to Survive the Pandemic
High rents and a loss of income
threaten the existence of places
like the historic Stonewall Inn.
By LIAM STACKThe Stonewall Inn in
Greenwich Village, above.
The owners, Stacy Lentz and
Kurt Kelly, left, say the bar
faces “an uncertain future.”‘It’s different for queer
people, because all we
have is each other.’PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN J WEE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESClockwise from right: Alexi
Minko, owner of Alibi Lounge in
Harlem; Lisa Cannistraci,
owner of Henrietta Hudson in
the West Village; and Michael
Zuco, left, Sam Gilliland, center,
and Eric Sosa, who run C’mon
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