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Statistics are few, but an analysis of gay travel guides showed the number of LGBTQ bars in the U.S. Although the number of people who identify as LGBTQ is on the rise, the number of spaces dedicated to their communities has fallen. Osorio wasn’t imagining things: Women don’t want to spend money at lesbian bars anymore. “When you’re coupled up you don’t leave the house.” “This is why lesbian bars all close, because everyone is U-hauling!” Valentina Osorio, a queer-identifying woman who lives in Brooklyn exclaimed, alluding to a verb that refers to how quickly lesbian and bisexual women move towards commitment and, often times, the suburbs. Inside the bar, the dance floor was empty. Wearing dark jeans and denim jackets, they stood in small groups, intermittently scanning the room while talking amongst themselves. How LGBT Americans have fared since Trump’s electionĪt a recent newly-launched lesbian party in Brooklyn, women scattered themselves haphazardly throughout the backyard of a gay bar filled mostly with men. Why house prices in gay neighborhoods are soaring To sign up for the Gay City News email newsletter, visit gaycitynews.How America has changed for gay people since ‘Will & Grace’ first aired “None of us would be around or have opportunities to do what we do and to have our businesses if it weren’t for Elaine,” she said. Cannistraci says she will never forget Romagnoli, who she described as a pioneer that gave her - and many others - their first break in the bar scene. Once the Cubby Hole shuttered, Cannistraci bartended at another one of Romagnoli’s popular ventures, Crazy Nanny’s, before starting her own legacy bar Henrietta Hudson.
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The New York Times reports that Romagnoli had a “tumultuous family life,” which prompted her to leave the Garden State for New York City in the 1960s.Īs a multifaceted entrepreneur, Romagnoli also launched the restaurants Bonnie’s by the Bay in Long Island and Sunset Strip, which served Spanish cuisine in the West Village, according to the New York Times.
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Romagnoli is survived by her sister, Nancy Berkowitz, and her brother, David Romagnoli. Romagnoli was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on April 22, 1942, and was raised in Palisades Park in Bergen County. But I didn’t have that we had a pretty cool relationship. “There would be no Henriettas without the Cubby Hole - it would have never happened… I enjoyed working for her, although a lot of people who worked for her were a little fearful of her. really took a liking to me, and she really entrusted me with her space,” Cannistraci told Gay City News in a phone interview.
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“Within a few weeks, I was moved to the busiest shifts. Then 22 years old, Cannistraci recalls Romagnoli as a “savvy businesswoman” who laid the framework for her 40-plus-year career in LGBTQ nightlife. Lisa Cannistraci, the founder of the lesbian bar Henrietta Hudson at 438 Hudson Street in Manhattan’s West Village, was hired on the spot as a bartender at the Cubby Hole on a rainy day in the March of 1985. Romagnoli’s businesses were known to be inclusive of people of all races and genders while also cultivating career opportunities for LGBTQ women in the club scene. Years later, Romagnoli launched the Cubby Hole and Crazy Nannys. “Often women would gather here after meetings at the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse to continue discussions, arguments, or strategy sessions begun earlier in the day,” the post noted.