<
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-pearl-bar-drag-texas-18100109.php>
'Julie Mabry remembers walking with her sister into the Bonham Exchange, San
Antonio's iconic queer bar, for the first time in 1989. "I just saw a
completely different person. She was just happy, she was in a great mood,"
Mabry said.
Mabry had watched her sister struggle for years before that night: "From a very
young age, my sister's identity was more like a boy," Mabry explained. "And we
didn't have these terms, we didn't have this knowledge when we were kids. It's
just how she was born."
After watching her fight through years of isolation and addiction, Mabry says
the memory of her sister's happiness that night in San Antonio inspired her to
open Pearl Bar, the only remaining lesbian-specific bar in Houston.
"It became something I was obsessed with. The idea was to provide an
environment for people like my sister so she could have something to do so she
wasn't [using drugs], or going through things where she hated herself, because
people on the outside didn't see her as normal. That was the purpose of Pearl
Bar," said Mabry.
Ten years after launching what has become a pillar of queer nightlife in
Houston, Mabry says the ongoing push by conservative lawmakers to restrict
LGBTQ rights in Texas has jeopardized her business: for the first time since
its doors opened in 2013, Pearl Bar was denied an insurance policy it needs to
continue operations earlier this year, specifically because it hosts drag
shows.'
Via Janet Logan.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
