The Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue in Greenfield, Massachusetts, has become the centre of a viral story that has sparked intense debate. The saga, reported by the Boston Globe, has been characterised as a case of ridiculous lefty infighting, with many asking whether the drama represents the wider queer community.
Arwa Mahdawi, writing in the Guardian, has addressed the incident with a satirical statement from the "International Office of Homosexual Affairs", insisting that the shenanigans do not represent all lesbians. However, she also acknowledges the need to hold space for those who have not followed every detail of the drama.
The story behind the Last Ditch Bar
The venue opened last year as a place for "dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, and their friends". A key selling point was its requirement for KN-95 masks ("or better") at all times, to accommodate the immunocompromised and the Covid-conscious. The bar also had an open-door policy, stating that nobody would be turned away if they couldn't pay the cover charge, including "unhoused people".
Despite these generous policies, the venue struggled financially. In an attempt to stop losing money and continue paying rent, the bar eventually moved to a mask-optional policy. This decision caused an uproar, with one Instagram commenter saying: "I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists [sic]."
Conflict and accusations
The drama escalated further when an emergency Zoom meeting was declared, lasting over three hours. A performer called Soe Noire accused Jackie Matellian, the last remaining operator of the venue, of shedding "WHITE THEY THEM TEARS". Noire added that the bar was not "a safe environment nor interested in revolutionary praxis".
Matellian, who is working four different jobs to pay off the $50,000 loan for the business, was contrite. "There's conflict, but we just hope that there's more repair than conflict," she told the Globe.
A wider cultural phenomenon
The story has gone viral, fitting into a genre of "moderately ridiculous lefty infighting" that is beloved by sensible centrist authors and the rightwing press. Fox News has covered the drama, and Bari Weiss's Free Press has also picked it up. Newsweek has drawn parallels with a story about a white Jewish Philadelphia teacher who spent years presenting herself as Black and Palestinian, noting that "the stories are different but their respective absurdity rhymes".
Despite the absurdity, Mahdawi stresses that the story is ultimately about a woman who tried to create an inclusive space for some of the most vulnerable people in society. She argues that the world would be better with more people like Matellian, who are kind and well-meaning, even if they sometimes tolerate too much nonsense.
The impact on the Boston Globe
The viral story has been a boon for the Boston Globe, which has seen a surge in subscriptions this week. According to its editor, it is the best performing story of the year and is "on pace to shatter all sorts of Globe records". Mahdawi concludes that the real moral of the story is that if you want to save local news, the secret is pivoting to lesbians.
