Less Edifying Than Two Bald Men Fighting Over A Comb

That's the scrapping goining on in the States right now over an incident at a lesbian bar. Let Arwa Madhawi (Guardian columnist and author) tell us all about it:

Here we go: those shenanigans, reported in a viral story by the Boston Globe, don’t represent us all. #NotAllLesbians.

But, of course, I shouldn’t be centering myself here.

Oh, don’t be modest, sweetie! What else do you write a column for, after all? 

Nor should I be assuming knowledge in a way which reinforces oppressive hegemonic structures. So let me hold space to share the details of everything that has transpired with all you folx reading who have not had the privilege of devouring every detail of the drama already.

Yes, please do, it sounds fascinating! 

The story begins at the Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue, which opened up last year as a place for “dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, and their friends”. One of the bar’s key selling points was that it required KN-95 masks (“or better”) at all times, to accommodate the immunocompromised and the Covid-conscious. Well I say “selling points”, but a big issue with Last Ditch is it didn’t do much selling. In keeping with its values, it had an open-door policy, stating that nobody would be turned away if they couldn’t pay the cover charge, including “unhoused people”. This was very generous of them, but also a formula for losing money.

Who could have predicted that? Oh, wait, everybody who lives in the real world, not the fantasy world these people like to live in! And when the inevitable happened…

In order to try to stop hemorrhaging cash so they could continue to pay rent, the venue eventually decided to move to a mask-optional policy. This caused an uproar. A sample comment on Instagram: “I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists [sic].”

Narcissists are always the most insufferably entitled people.

And from there the story wades deeper and deeper into “surely this isn’t real, surely this is a psyop by rightwingers who want to make the queer community look unhinged” territory.

Speaking for the right wingers, why would we bother, when nothing we could come up with could ever top the average everyday drama you wallow in?

An emergency Zoom meeting was declared and lasted over three hours. A performer called Soe Noire accused Jackie Matellian, the last remaining operator of the venue (the other founders left; one so they could enrol in clown school), of shedding “WHITE THEY THEM TEARS”.

Strange how the ‘be kind’ people always pivot to the things they love to accuse everyone else of, racism, sexism etc…

The bar was not “a safe environment nor interested in revolutionary praxis”, Noire added.

Nope, I haven’t a clue what that means either… 

Matellian, who is working four different jobs in a desperate attempt to pay off the $50,000 loan for the business, was contrite. “There’s conflict, but we just hope that there’s more repair than conflict,” she told the Globe.

Who the hell loaned her the money!?! 

Alas, it’s the conflict (and the lesbians) which has made this story go so viral. It fits squarely into a genre I will call “moderately ridiculous lefty infighting”, which is beloved by sensible centrist authors and the rightwing press.

Speaking again for them, yes, yes we do! 

But while there is a lot of absurdity in the Last Ditch saga, I think it’s worth stressing that it is still ultimately a story about a woman who tried to create an inclusive space where some of the most vulnerable people in society could feel accepted.

Well, I suppose that’s one take on it… 

It’s easy to laugh at all the shenanigans....

Yes indeed! 

...but the world would be a lot better if it had more people like Jackie Matellian in it: kind, well-meaning people who try to live their values.

I can’t see there’s any shortage of them…successful left wing businesses are like giant pandas, and just as likely to survive in the wild without human assistance! 

Narcissists who use a marginalized identity as cover for bad behaviour can find themselves drawn to places like Last Ditch because it’s the only space in which they will be indulged.

Nah, they are indulged at ‘The Guardian’ too…