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Blush & Blu will have its last night of business on Saturday, owner Jody Bouffard recently announced. "The world has shifted and so have we."
The only lesbian bar in Colorado's capital is closing.
Blush & Blu on Colfax Avenue will have its last night of business on Saturday, owner Jody Bouffard recently announced on social media. Bouffard did not give a specific reason for the closure, but noted that the decision was a deeply personal one for her to make.
“When I moved to Denver in 1996, there were over 200 lesbian bars across the country, each a beacon of refuge, though not always safe," she wrote. "Many of us entered through the side door, our hearts guarded and steps careful. Now, 28 years later, only 20 remain. The world has shifted and so have we.”
"After nearly three decades serving this beautiful Denver community, it is my decision to close this chapter of my life called Blush & Blu," Bouffard concluded.
Bouffard told The Advocate in 2021 that when she first moved to Denver in 1996, there were at least six lesbian bars thriving in the city that catered to different queer women's subcultures. She noted even then how her business had changed over the past couple decades.
"Working in these bars, the price of rent has gone up in the last 10 years," she said. "The decline of lesbian bars across the country, even legendary ones like San Francisco's Lexington Club, have to do with neighborhoods being bought and sold."
Bouffard's establishment was one of just under two dozen lesbian bars in the United States in 2021, many of which were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bouffard stated at the time: "If we were to have a third shutdown, I wouldn't make it. During the shutdowns and prior, we never were given aid to small businesses. The city of Denver has been silent."
Post pandemic, several new spaces for queer women have opened across the country. There are now 33 lesbian bars in the United States, according to the Lesbian Bar Project, after accounting for Blush & Blu's closure.
Blush & Blu's closing party will be held Saturday, October 5. The bar's social media post invited patrons to celebrate "the memories, friendships, and love that have filled these walls for years."
"Let’s make these last days together meaningful and full of the good vibes we’ve always shared," it said.
