“We were lucky that our owners set up as having a restaurant license instead of a tavern license,” adds Spaulding. As the bar had a kitchen, it was able to meet the Washington, D.C., regulations that required people to purchase food when they came in to buy alcohol. Then, on top of that, we shut down from March through about June of 2020.”įacing capacity restrictions and alcohol regulations, A League of Her Own made the temporary change from a bar to a restaurant. “Going from being able to have more than 300 people in our establishment to eight tables was very hard to deal with. “During the quarantine period in Washington, D.C., we had eight tables outside. But it is dealing with many of the same issues.Įven before the impact of COVID-19 restrictions, many LGBTQ+ nightclubs and bars faced challenges, namely increasing rents and falling visitor numbers. At just three years old, A League of Her Own is more than a half-century younger than Darcelle XV Showplace, the famed bar in Portland, Oregon. There are few places where LGBTQ+ people of all ages and backgrounds can mix in a relaxed, social environment. “There’s a really wonderful spectrum of people coming in, from people in their early twenties to sixties,” says Ally Spaulding, the bar’s general manager. On any given night, a diverse range of patrons can be found in A League of Her Own, a Washington, D.C.-based lesbian bar. The dance floor at Sue Ellen’s, Texas’s oldest lesbian bar.