Sue Ellen’s has endured for over three decades, making it one of the oldest lesbian bars in Texas.
“ I come in Sue Ellen ’s ” glow in pinkish neon lights affixed to a wall of faux shrubbery . It greets you as you take the air into the two - story saloon off Cedar Springs Road in Dallas . It dares you , even . Some might find it raunchy , butSue Ellen’sdidn’t survive three decades , a pandemic , and prejudice both preceding and present by being unruffled or demure . One of the many LGBTQ+ drinking dens in Dallas ’s queer dominion , Oak Lawn , Sue Ellen ’s is the only lesbian bar in Dallas and one of only two sapphic bars in all of Texas . ( Pearl Barin Houston is the other . ) Of that recoil family , Sue Ellen ’s is the oldest sapphic bar in the nation — and plans to stick around for a good while longer .
Kathy Jack has managed Sue Ellen ’s since it opened in 1989 and only recently stepped away from daily operations . “ Nobody contribute me more than five year , ” Jack says of her early days as one of the first women to manage a taproom in Dallas . As the face and pith of a historied sapphic bar , talking to Jack is like getting an overview of fag chronicle for the past 30 year .
Jack call back visit from Belinda Carlisle and Melissa Etheridge , who even performed in the original Sue Ellen ’s blank space — a shotgun stripe , not far from its current space — a twain of times before she hit it big . “ It was a real unlike vibe back then — where almost everybody had a mullet , ” Jack recall . “ It was veryMiami Vice . ” As the 1990s morph into the other nothing , the biotic community in and around Sue Ellen ’s cheered on gay right milestones .
Photo by Bret Redman, courtesy of D Magazine
“ I was there the night that the marriage equality deed passed , ” say Jack . “ I look multitude that I had n’t seen for 20 years and all they want to do was come to Sue Ellen ’s and celebrate . ” The mayor of Dallas came to the neighborhood that day . “ I ’ll never draw a blank [ because ] you finally felt welcome in your metropolis . ”
It was n’t all party , queer icons , and hair of a certain cut , though . Sue Ellen ’s has , in its 35 eld , outlasted the AIDS epidemic , a recession , and the COVID pandemic .
“ Back in the day we were all about , fight for this and fight down for that , and get through HIV / AIDS , ” says Jack . The battle for LGBTQ+ rights has n’t ended though . From ban sex - affirming healthcare to restricting gender identity educational activity in schoolhouse to punish drag show , Texas lawmakers have draw updozens of billsthat will bear on LGBTQ+ Texans .
Targeting pull performing artist especially hits home for Jack , who recollect how crucial they were in fundraising during the tiptop of the AIDS epidemic . “ We could n’t get any Union funding to help , the government was n’t doing anything , and we literally were going to two and three funerals a day , ” she say . “ The only people we could call on to assist us were the pull queens , and that was how we made most of the money to get through , to get people the help they need . ”
It ’s this unfaltering support from the curious community that ’s ensure Sue Ellen ’s longevity . That , and the tenacious mode Jack has protect this legal community from day one . “ So as long as I have breath in my soundbox , this will always be a sapphic bar , ” she says , adding that it always has and will keep to welcome every bar of odd frequenter . Jack come back , when Sue Ellen ’s reopened in 2021 ( in June , just in sentence for Pride ) , “ the first individual that was standing at the threshold … was a trans woman that said , ‘ I have n’t had a place to go since you close . ' "
Mindy Robbins has been working for Jack for 30 - something old age off and on . Now she ’s the Modern general handler of Sue Ellen ’s . It was a castle in Spain of Robbins when she was “ young and dumb , ” but now that she ’s taken the torch from Jack , she ’s “ very passionate about how that stay on to originate and to love and not the other room . ” These day masses love sing karaoke up the stairs a few nights a workweek . retarding force shows on other night of the week .
Photo by Bret Redman, courtesy of D Magazine
Pride 2024 will be bigger this twelvemonth and it ’ll be bigger next year , prognosticate Robbins , who will be fix for the bunch . “ I love this place . I ’ve always loved this place , ” she state . “ I came here and this is where I base crime syndicate . ”
Photography primitively shot by Bret Redman forD Magazine .
