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Blush and Blu: The last lesbian bar standing in Denver

It’s 2017 and Blush and Blu is the last lesbian bar in Denver.

That may sound like the scene-setter for a queer dystopian novel, but take a look 10 years back: Denver had at least five lesbian bars, each with lines out front on Friday and Saturday nights.

Then, poke around nationally and you’ll find landmark lesbian bars closing coast to coast, from San Francisco’s Lexington Club to New York’s Meow Mix. It’s no longer shocking for large cities to lack lesbians bars.

But there’s still Blush and Blu, which has weathered the storm since 2012 at the hands of Jody Bouffard, who recently brought aboard Denver newcomer and experienced lesbian bar owner S.J. Paye.

“The lesbians supported the bars. They were very much hardcore supporters,” Bouffard said of the mid-1990s and 2000s. “But I still feel there’s a need for a place for women to go where they feel safe and they can feel they’re among a tribe. Like, this is still our tribe.”

Bouffard has shoulder-length brown hair, often pulled back when she’s behind the bar, and tattoo sleeves on her arms. Working in the lesbian bar scene since 1996, she is much more than a bar owner. She’s there when the babysitter cancels at the last minute. She’s there when a loved one passes away. She’s there when anyone in “the village” needs her to be.

“My phone always beeps at 1:30 in the morning,” she joked.

Bouffard has witnessed couples fall in love, get married and have “gaybies.” She’s seen relationships fall apart and spurned lovers leave former girlfriends’ possessions behind the bar to be picked up later.

There have been plenty of think pieces exploring the decade-long demise of lesbian bars. Bouffard has her own take: It’s multifaceted.

A cultural shift of greater societal acceptance has undermined LGBTQ-specific bars as people in the community feel more comfortable going anywhere. Then, there’s a demographic shift among young people who don’t identify with the lesbian label, many opting for “queer.”

But the real silver bullet, she says, is social media.

“Come in here on a Friday night at 7 o’clock, you’re going to see half the girls on the bar doing this (she plays with her phone) instead of, ‘Hey, how you doing? How was your week?’ ” Bouffard said. “I saw how your week was online. I think social media has killed the bars, gay and straight.”

Numbers may be dropping but Bouffard insists that lesbian bars still play a critical role in the community, especially for those who are just coming out or for older women who may have lost partners. So she is determined to stick around.

Right now, the bar has a loyal base of customers, but Bouffard has also been taking steps to revamp, starting with bringing on Paye, who ran lesbian bars in other states. Blush and Blu is in the middle of a face-lift that includes new paint and furniture, new products and new programming.

“At the end of the day, we’re all just searching for a family or a sense of belonging,” Bouffard said. “So if that’s not something you find here, may you find it somewhere else out there. But I try to provide that at least. This is my big living room, even if it’s at a bar.”