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- [00:00]
A
Hello, you're listening to a preview of a premium episode of Blockchain Reporter. This one concerns a couple of pretty amazing meltdowns at LGBT venues. Let's say Katie tells me about them. A lot going on. You're going to want to hear the whole thing to do. So go to blocktoremported.org and become a premium subscriber. In the meantime, hope you enjoy the preview.
- [00:24]
B
Hello, Jesse.
- [00:25]
A
Hey, Katie. I would like to discuss something in a delicate, tactful way, even more delicately and tactfully than usual. Is that okay with you? Do I have your consent?
- [00:35]
B
You have my consent, but not my faith. How about that?
- [00:37]
A
That's sort of the guiding ethos of this podcast. We both consent to podcasts with one another. While the faith. The faith half of the equation is shaky. There's something I get very atheist podcast. Last I checked, we're journalists. I mean, we're lots of things. We're entertainers, dogmas, performers, dancers, actors. Among those other titles were journalists. So I get weirdly annoyed when people make the same dumb critiques about journalists or about journalistic outlets. Someone will say, make a ridiculous complaint about outlets and people will correct them and be like, that's not how journalism works. And just. It never makes any headway because people just refuse to understand how journalism works. So I want to complain about a specific thing without raising that specific thing. Do you think I can pull this off? Do you have faith in me?
- [01:23]
B
No.
- [01:23]
A
Okay. At certain major outlets, there's a divide between the news and opinion side.
- [01:33]
B
Uh huh.
- [01:34]
A
And you with me so far? Do you agree?
- [01:37]
B
So far, I'm with you.
- [01:39]
A
Where a story appears is not a statement of like, the quality of the story or faith in the story. It has to do with like. First of all, you can't jump between the two sides if you're at one of these few remaining newspapers that recognize this distinction between news and opinion. So if you usually write for opinion, you can't write for news. If you usually write for news, you can't write for opinion. I actually know this because we're not doing any proper nouns here, but at one such outlet I've written for, at one point I had to discuss with them, but the potential of potentially writing on the news side, when I read on the opinion side, blah, blah, blah, it's just, it's a no, no. Right. It's a firewall.
- [02:13]
B
Right?
- [02:14]
A
So if you go online and you see really experienced journalists, some of them with decades of experience, complaining that a given story was in opinion rather than news or News rather than opinion at one of these big leg outlets. It's not just that it's a bullshit complaint. It's a bullshit complaint and the journalists in question should know better because they've been in journalism a while and it's just this really annoying shot to take at journalists and media outlets when a lot of shots people take at journalists and media outlets are fair. But this is just dumb and people should stop doing it. Did I do a good job? Do you think anyone knows what I'm talking about?
- [02:46]
B
Yes, Jesse, I think anyone who has been on Twitter in the last 24 hours knows what you're talking about. And this is not to say anything about the veracity of any particular article, especially an article that has some more dogmatic claims. But your point is, and this is a valid one, is that the fact that any given article has appeared in the opinion section does not inherently mean that it is less truthful or less fact checked even than an article that appeared in news. Opinion writers write for opinion. News writers write for news. And never the twain shall meet. Some places.
- [03:22]
A
Yeah, it's just there's. There's so many legitimate grounds on which to critique certain outlets or all outlets really, to be like, oh, this was a column. It should have been a new. Like that's. That's not how it works at all.
- [03:32]
B
Did you see the.
- [03:34]
A
Oh God, don't say it. Don't say it.
- [03:35]
B
No, I know. I'm talking about. I'm talking about awards. Pulitzers, as you. As you like to like to call it. The Pulitzers.
- [03:41]
A
Pulitzer Pro pubeslica. Pro pube.
- [03:44]
B
Did you see that? Once again, we were not.
- [03:45]
A
I like ProPublica.
- [03:46]
B
I don't know why we were not nominated. Once again.
- [03:49]
A
Well, there's a lot of talk about antisemitism. What is and isn't anti Semitism for a podcast as great as ours that is co hosted by one Jewish person and one person with a. Well, a Muslim with a Jewish last name. To not even get a. Not even get a nom nom nom. I mean, maybe it'll be like talking about anti Semitism.
- [04:14]
B
Maybe it'll be like the Julie Brown story in like 10 years. We'll get a special recognition. I did see that. Azinga Reishi's audio series, her podcast on. On youth gender medicine that got a. Or nominated. Yeah, either it either won or not nomination. How did you miss this?
- [04:32]
A
I don't know, but I am.
- [04:33]
B
Blue sky was not happy about this.
- [04:35]
A
Dude, that is awesome.
- [04:36]
B
How. How did you not know this? This Was like a week ago.
- [04:38]
A
I don't know, I've been traveling and stuff. That is really great.
- [04:41]
B
Let me, let me, let me double check this.
- [04:43]
A
No, I'm looking at it right now.
- [04:45]
B
Did they win or.
- [04:46]
A
Finalist Aene Gian Austin Mitchell of the New York. So she lost for the Protocol Loser. Oh, right. Because they list the winners. Oh, right. Well, this was the one. Pablo Torre won the nominees. I don't even know how the different categories work, but yeah, that's great.
- [05:00]
B
That's how far you are from winning a, a, A big award is you don't even know how the categories work. Masha Guessen also won.
- [05:07]
A
M guessing.
- [05:08]
B
M sorry? M guessing also won. And I just listened to M guessing's podcast on Serial, the Idiot. Have you heard it?
- [05:15]
A
I've heard of it. Is it good?
- [05:17]
B
Worst podcast I've heard in so long.
- [05:20]
A
How so?
- [05:21]
B
So, all right, this is going to be. I don't want to like spoil it for anybody, but the podcast, it's called the Idiot, as I mentioned, and it's about an idiot. And you might think that there would be some complex like it's a, I think six part series and the story itself is quite interesting. It's about one of Masha Guessing's cousins who was a con artist and a shitty man.
- [05:42]
A
You keep saying Masha. Their name.
- [05:44]
B
I'm sorry, his or their name is M. M Guessing's cousins.
- [05:49]
A
The level of disrespect. You asked me in private to call you K Dog and I agree to do that and you won't extend that same courtesy to others. K Dog.
- [05:57]
B
So Mdog has this, has this cousin who's just like shitty guy. Legal problems, terrible husband.
- [06:05]
A
James Fish back.
- [06:05]
B
Kidnaps. Kidnaps his children from his wife.
- [06:08]
A
Well, spoiler. They're venturing to spoilers.
- [06:10]
B
Well, that's. It's like in the first series. But this is the thing about the show and just if anybody's going to listen to this, it's like you might want to fast forward 30 seconds or not. He starts out being the idiot and then there's no complexity. There's no like, in the end it turns out I was the idiot. There's no twist. You, you, like, you are told in the beginning that this man is evil and in the end it turns out that he's evil and that's it. Like, like in the end I thought that, I thought like, surely there has to be a twist. Like, surely, surely, surely. It's not this black and white. This is a story of, about, about a bad man. Doing a bad. A bad thing. Surely it's going to turn out that Masha Gessen is the idiot, and it turns out that he. He's not the bad man. And in the end, Gessen is talking about how they're having these fantasies about getting this cousin deported after his legal problems are resolved or whatever. And then they say in the end, but I wouldn't do that because I'm not an idiot.
- [07:07]
A
So it's basically like that. The line from Dumb and Dumber. Like, just when I think you can't get any dumber. Except the punchline is, it turns out you're also. You're still very dumb. Yeah, like, there's no twist. Okay.
- [07:17]
B
I just. You know what? I expected more. I expected that would do better.
- [07:20]
A
I'm surprised that the Pulitzers. Pulitzers.
- [07:26]
B
You say Pulitzer, I say Pulitzer.
- [07:29]
A
Let's call the whole thing off. I am surprised that they became so transphobic so quickly. And I'm disappointed by that.
- [07:36]
B
Well, I mean, I guess giving the. Giving the actual award to M. Gessen, maybe. Does that counteract that counteract the nomination for Azine Qureshi?
- [07:46]
A
I mean, I thought that series was well done. We discussed it. I'm not gonna check Blue Sky. What I'm guessing is, oh, they're thrill. Another 500 people telling a journalist to kill themselves will, you know, she'll realize the error of her ways because 300 people telling her to kill yourself to do that. Okay, this has been a great intro. What are we actually talking about today on this episode of Blocked Reporting? Jesse Today, Spiritual sequel to the Idiot.
- [08:13]
B
Today we've got a lot of Dyke drama. Oh, and by the way, thank you to everyone for your kind notes about my lisp, which apparently I've always had.
- [08:21]
A
I sort of. It was a strange sort of gaslighting recording for the folks who are not regular listeners. Katie's teeth are.
- [08:30]
B
They're transitioning.
- [08:31]
A
Transitioning to being more straight. Yeah, you got them. Conversion therapy, which entailed Invisalign. And Katie, through some sort of long simmering psychosis, convinced herself she suddenly had a severe lisp and was really self conscious about it.
- [08:45]
B
Oh, no, I have it. I can hear it.
- [08:46]
A
Yeah, I still can't hear it. This is like talking to a genuinely crazy person.
- [08:49]
B
Can you.
- [08:50]
A
Is the lisp in the room with right now?
- [08:52]
B
Look in the. Look at your c. At your computer for a second. Can you see my Invisalign?
- [08:55]
A
No, I think your teeth just look a little shinier than usual.
- [08:58]
B
It's invisible.
- [08:58]
A
It's. It isn't they don't call it Visaline.
- [09:00]
B
They sure don't. Okay, Jesse, today we've got a show all about dyke drama. There have been a bevy of reports on the genocide of our nation's queer bars, all of which have been taken down from the inside. And we have done many shows on queer bookstores, on anarchist cafes, anti zionist, fast fashion, whatever, you know, these progressive establishments that fail to thrive in part because of drama and infighting. Before we get to the new stories, we have a very past due update on a story that we did all the way back in 2022. Jesse, do you remember Doc Marie's?
- [09:35]
A
No.
- [09:36]
B
Nothing?
- [09:36]
A
No. Usually when you ask me if I remembered something we did, there's like a faint tingling in the. In my brain. I got nothing.
- [09:44]
B
So Doc Marie's was a lesbian bar in Portland. And I know Portland seems like the type of place that could support a lesbian or even multiple lesbian bars, but after the Egyptian room closed in 2010, Portland has had pop ups and lesbian dance night, or queer dance nights. They wouldn't call it lesbian. An event like event, like one off events, regular events. But the city was really without a dedicated lesbian bar for over a decade until Doc Marie's opened in 2022. And Portland is a very lesbian city. So there was a lot of anticipation for this place, that this place was filling in need. So it was open for all of one night before there was a staff revolt over allegations of racism, sexual harassment, manip transphobia, other sins. And the staff formed a collective. That means a group chat. And they demanded that the owners immediately transfer ownership of the bar to the staff. Is this ringing any bells now?
- [10:35]
A
I remember because it was like day two. It's pretty funny, but one like you work there one day and then you're like, give it, give it, give it to me, I want it.
- [10:45]
B
Yeah, but what?
- [10:47]
A
Wait, so what? So what what? But what happened with Doc Priest?
- [10:50]
B
So the bar did close temporarily after the revolt. There were some issues, like there was like water leaking and stuff. They were having some infrastructure issues. So they did close down. They fixed some shit. Some shit. And you will be shocked to hear that the owners did not in fact hand their business over to their employees. Capitalist pigs. They actually lasted for three whole years until announcing their. Their closure in October last year. So honestly, pretty good run for dike bar.
- [11:14]
A
Is the, is the scene for gay men still alive and well in Portland?
- [11:19]
B
Okay, so there are zero lesbian bars in Portland. There are six gay man bars in Portland, if that tells you anything. And this Isn't to say that gay men. Bars don't have drama. They do. There's some drama happening at a gay bar in Seattle right now over allegations of sexual assault on the part of a party promoter. But gay men, I mean, that's like, that's not drama.
- [11:38]
A
It's not drama. That's an alleged crime and you're lumping it in with like.
- [11:42]
B
But it's playing out over. It's playing out over TikTok. So I, I consider that drama.
- [11:46]
A
I think you're being homophobic, but I can't quite put it down, you know, you know, that silly gay man drama just rape. Okay, continue, Katie.
- [11:55]
B
But gay. My point is gay man drama doesn't tend to result in bars literally shutting down as often as it does dike bars. And a lot of dike bars have shut down in recent years. Not just because of infighting, of course. Like, I don't want to pretend that every one of these establishments is failing because their employees and. Or owners and or clientele are psychotic. Doc Maurice didn't close because of the failed couple. They failed for the reasons most bars and restaurants closed. They didn't have enough money. It's a tough business to be in. And despite the fact that the population of lesbians or queer women has grown, the demand for dyke bars has not. And there are many reasons for this. You know, apps make it easier to meet people, so you don't necessarily need to go to the bar to get laid. Plus, just the general acceptance of gay people has meant that these bars are just less necessary. Like you can take, if you can take your day to any bar in the city, you just have more options. And I, you know, I've spent quite a bit of time in dike bars in my day and it's, it's rare to find one that's genuinely good. The Lex in San Francisco is good, but most are not because A, lesbians have terrible style as a rule, no exceptions. And B, they don't have to be good. Like they had a built in clientele who would go there every weekend even if the lighting was bad and the drinks were weak and the bartenders were mean and the DJ played pink on repeat, but was more social acceptance. There's just more competition.
- [13:11]
A
Well, and throughout, like lesbian bars have also been the side of these controversies over like who qualifies as a woman and who's who's welcome there, right?
- [13:21]
B
Yeah, totally. The gender politics have gotten weird. So the word lesbian itself has become. Has. Is now seen by some gender abolitionists and Trans activists and non binary schools as problematic. So you started seeing dyke bars rebrand as Sapphic, which is somehow.
- [13:37]
A
What does Sapphic mean exactly?
- [13:38]
B
It's just like, it's a reference to Sappho, like the po. Like the poet on the Greek island style of Lesbos who was a muff diver. It's like, it means gay. It means lesbian. That's what it means. So it's just. It's like the euphemism treadmill. Like, Sapphic is somehow like women loving, but not. I don't know. And this doesn't happen at gay male spaces. Like they're. They're not rebranding as a Killian, despite the best efforts of some Tumblr users. It just doesn't happen. So there was that. That tension and controversy over who is welcome in lesbian bars, and this has led some bars and menus to just reject the label. So, like, well, and this isn't. This isn't new. This isn't like in the last five years. This goes on way older than that. But, like, when I lived in Durham, North Carolina, I lived there for like five years, and there was a lesbian bar, but my friends and I considered it very stodgy and lame and uncool. And we hung out at the queer bar, which was basically the same, except there were, you know, we drank PBR instead of Michelob and there were men in line for the women's bathroom. So there's that factor too. Like women rejecting the term lesbians, themselves rejecting the term lesbian. And then there's the rise of online social justice movements. This means that any aggrieved employee or former employee or customer can post a call out. And as you'd expect, queer communities often, you know, hear that a bar owner was choose one racist, transphobic, homophobic even, and bam, you've got a boycott on your hands. So that's what we're talking about today. We've got two case studies, one in Philadelphia and one in Denver. Let's start in Philly. This one came to us via a tip from a listener. This is about a women's. A new women's sports bar in Philly. So, Jesse, I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask you to read the top of this email.
- [15:13]
A
Philly is having another reckoning in the queer POC space right now, surrounding a new bar called Marsha's. Parentheses, named after Marsha P. Johnson, with a huge mural of her question mark face on the wall inside.
- [15:23]
B
Okay, let's just stop right here. Why in the world would a woman's sports bar be named after Marsha P. Johnson. Was Marsha P. Johnson a volleyball player?
- [15:33]
A
P. Marsha P. Johnson is a trans woman of color who threw the first brick at Stonewall. And throwing is an athletic act, yes, making her the ideal icon for a lesbian sports bar.
- [15:45]
B
Marsha P. Johnson was, in fact, a gay man whose drag Persona was Marsha P. Johnson. And years after the fact, identity has been retconned by trans activists and turned into a myth. This is like insisting that RuPaul is actually trans. He is not. Marsha P. Johnson was not at Stonewall until after the riot started. And in fact, according to the mostly gay white men who were actually there that night, the riot was sparked by a woman named Stormy de Larveri, who stopped to help a stranger being roughed up by the cops, got clubbed over the head with a baton, got handcuffed and dragged toward a police van, and then shouted to the crowd, why are. Why don't you guys do something? That was the spark, according to witnesses, the people who were actually there at the time. That's what started the riot. Marsha P. Johnson didn't get there until later that night. And yet the drag queen is the face of the movement and this women's bar, not the actual woman who. Who started the riot. Isn't that ironic? And she was black, too. And this is a. This is a black. A black club, too. It's ironic. It's fucked up. What do you think? Ironic or up or neither?
- [16:46]
A
I mean, it's just the. It's been interesting how it's just like, you know the history better than I do, but it's, like, so important to people that a trans woman of color threw the first brick at Stonewall. And it's just sort of like the pinnacle of this bizarre sort of identitarian politics where, like, it's. It's almost like a version of the noble savage thing. Or it's like, it couldn't be that, like, you know, boring gay white men who at the time were living, like, pretty marginal existences and were getting fucking beat up by cops, but because today, in 2026, they're power. Gay white guys are fairly saf. If we have to retcon. It just. It's so. It's dumb and ahistorical.
- [17:28]
B
All right, so continue this email.
- [17:29]
A
Marsha's was open just a few months ago and is a women's sports bar. They have never explicitly labeled themselves a lesbian bar, but before they opened, they were listed on the Lesbian Bar Project website's list of lesbian bars.
- [17:40]
B
Okay, so the lesbian Bar project is this thing that started a few years ago to document basically the death of lesbian bars. I think at a Low Point in 2020, there were like 16 lesbian bars across the country.
- [17:51]
A
Only 16 lesbian bars in the whole country.
- [17:54]
B
Yeah, yeah. And I mentioned a second ago that lesbian bars don't.
- [17:58]
A
A country built by lesbians like Ben Franklin.
- [18:00]
B
I mentioned a second ago that lesbian bars don't really call themselves lesbian bars anymore. And this includes Marcia. So. So look at this. This post from their own Instagram. Jesse, read this.
- [18:09]
A
Well, it says Marsha's is a queer bar. Marsha's is a queer bar, not exclusively gay or lesbian. Our space is intentionally inclusive of all LGBTQ identities, expressions and experiences. We celebrate sapphic joy, trans excellence, non binary brilliance in the full spectrum of queerness. And there's a lot of flags below that. It'd be funny if they're like, we celebrate lesbian mediocrity.
- [18:30]
B
Yeah. So they've got the progress pride flag, the trans flag, the non binary. I don't recognize the others. I think probably the top flag and the bottom flag, but the bottom flag is just a picture of the pillow. All right, back to the listener email, Jesse.
- [18:43]
A
They play women's sports, but also do show big Philly games like the Eagles and Phillies when they're on, but mostly women's sports. It is owned by a queer black woman and has been a huge hit in the neighborhood. I've been probably a dozen times already and it's great. Has a diverse crowd, but mostly lesbians of all ages and races. They host lots of black events like black girl magic events and black lesbian sports watch parties, lots of that sort of thing. All the times I've been there, I'm white. It is a super diverse crowd. I've even been on some nights where they were hosting specifically black events. And I've always had a good time. They've marketed themselves as a black queer, woman owned business and I'm happy to support.
- [19:14]
B
Okay. So I watched some news footage from the bar's opening back in September. There was a line literally around the block like people were super happy that this place was opening. Tons of support from the community and the bar seemed to be doing well. And then a couple months ago, Marcia's was raided by the local police after an anonymous tip came into 311 claiming that they were serving underage patrons and serving alcohol after hours. Marshes posted video footage. They had surveillance cameras in the. In the bar, or security camera, I guess you call Them security cameras? Not surveillance cameras.
- [19:46]
A
Well, yeah. I mean, they're not surveilling their.
- [19:50]
B
Their patrons. But they are. But they're not. Anyway, there's 20 cops on this call, 10 police cars. They find nothing, and then they leave. The bar was not cited, and this led to even more community support. So here's one headline from Philadelphia Gay news. Police at Marsha Spark concerns recalling decades of harassment and lgbt.
- [20:10]
A
Okay, don't.
- [20:11]
B
Have you heard of Stonewall?
- [20:12]
A
Oh, okay. I'm not trying to be a dick. I don't know what happened. Is it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can we just. In 2020. In 2026. In 2026, the probability that the cops who showed up, half of whom were probably lesbians, that there's any chances. Bore any resemblance to. To. I mean, the shit that ha. I mean, whatever. I don't even know what. To be in the shit that happened to openly gay people. It was like rage, fucking, like people's lives being ruined. This is not. I don't think this recalls decades of harassment, LGBTQ bars. Unless there's something you're not telling me. Anytime people are asked to follow the law.
- [20:56]
B
But to be clear, it does not look like they weren't following the law.
- [20:58]
A
No, I know, I know, I know.
- [20:59]
B
Yeah, but look, anytime there is a.
- [21:02]
A
A.
- [21:02]
B
A trans person or a black person or a queer person is harmed, this recalls decades of violence.
- [21:09]
A
Right? Except in this case, it sounds like the only harm was brief inconvenience.
- [21:12]
B
As brief inconvenience, then they got a bu. Support from the community.
- [21:16]
A
Right? Okay.
- [21:17]
B
All right, let's go back to the email.
- [21:18]
A
A few days ago, a bartender posted a vague TikTok about being fired after racially charged events at the bar between management and staff. She's a black trans woman named Olivia and has been there. That's it, you freeloader. That's all you get. If you want to hear the rest of this tale of meltdowns, that's what it's about. It's about meltdowns. Blockedreporter.org Become a Premium subscriber. Thank you for listening. Hope you enjoyed the preview. Bye.