Our Dyke Histories

Jack Gieseking with Sinister Wisdom

Come for the history; stay for the revolution, gossip, and desire that built it. 🤌 About Us :: Decade by decade, Our Dyke Histories dives deep into the living, breathing past and present of lesbian, queer, bisexual, trans, & nonbinary communities. Each season traces how we made space for ourselves—sometimes in bars, bookstores, and protests; sometimes in basements, alleyways, and prisons; & always against the odds. Host :: Our Dyke Histories is hosted by historian, geographer, and environmental psychologist Dr. Jack Jen Gieseking, and produced in collaboration with Sinister Wisdom, the oldest lesbian multicultural literary and art journal. Season One :: Our first season traces the history of dyke bars* - yes, with an asterisk - including lesbian bars, queer parties, & trans hangouts. Before Pride marches and hashtags, there were bars, parties, and whispered invitations that built whole worlds. Our Dyke Histories uncovers the stories of the women, trans, and nonbinary people who turned repression into resistance and nightlife into liberation. Join Our Community :: Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us at ourdykehistories@gmail.comDonate 3 :: Subscribe and/or donate to the fabulous, in-print Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary & art journal founded in 1976. Sinister Wisdom recognizes the power of language and art to create radical, empowering, resilient, and joyous sanctuaries that build and sustain vibrant lesbian futures. What Does Our Tarot Reading Say about What's Next? :: In future seasons, we will move decade by decade through other defining places, objects, and ideas in lesbian, bi, queer, and trans history—mapping the worlds we’ve made and the futures we’re still imagining. Funny and fierce, sexy and smart, and full of dyke spirit, this podcast isn’t nostalgia—it’s a survival guide disguised as a love letter.

  1. 1d ago

    206 to 43: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Lesbian Bars

    How many lesbian bars were there in the 1980s? How do we know—and what happens when the numbers challenge the story we’ve been telling? In this episode of Our Dyke Histories, host Jack Gieseking sits down with sociologist Greggor Mattson to explain the history, geography, and changing meanings of queer bars across the United States. Greggor's research grew from comparing old editions of the Damron Guides, a directory that documented LGBTQ+ bars, cruising grounds, and other gathering places, into a wider study drawing on archival materials and interviews with more than 110 bar owners. The guides’ categories—from “Black patrons” and “ladies” to “trans friendly”—offer a fascinating, imperfect record of who gathered where, and how those classifications changed over time. Jack and Greggor talk about the rise of mixed-gender spaces, the decline of cruising and bars serving queer people of color, queer bars' hyperlocality, and the roles of AIDS activism, sobriety, changing social habits, economics, and gentrification. Shockingly, the most dramatic decline in dyke bars happened decades ago, particularly between the late 1980s and early 1990s. Meanwhile, recent counts show a resurgence: the biannual gay bar census counted 43 lesbian bars in spring 2025. The question isn’t simply whether bars are closing or opening. Instead we must ask: what kinds of spaces communities need, how they define them, and whose experiences get counted? Featuring: Jack Gieseking and Greggor Mattson. Books mentioned: Who Needs Gay Bars? by Greggor Mattson, and A Queer New York by Jack Gieseking. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    206 to 43: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Lesbian Bars

  2. Oct 11

    The Bar Is Just the Beginning, 2010s-2020s with Krista Burton, Theo Greene & Greggor Mattson

    What makes a queer bar last—and what happens when we stop expecting a bar to be just a bar? In this episode of Our Dyke Histories, Jack Gieseking returns with Krista Burton, Greggor Mattson, and Theo Greene to explore the changing worlds of dyke bars*. The conversation asks what these spaces need to survive, who gets to feel welcome, and how queer communities can keep building places to gather. Alcohol is no longer the only draw. The guests discuss sober spaces, cannabis usage, and other sports leagues, and the challenge of balancing a bar’s finances with the care its community requires. They also consider how consent culture has transformed queer nightlife. Trans people's presence and activism increased visibly in dyke bar spaces, making a pointed case for trans inclusion and centering everywhere. But building queer space is not only about keeping a business open. It is also about making room for intergenerational community. The guests talk about queer elders, younger people claiming their right to belong, and the need to create parties, dancing, shared music, and gatherings in places where a dedicated bar may be hours away. The episode closes with favorite bars, astrological signs, tarot, and ideas for bringing people together. Queer community doesn’t happen by accident. We make it—together. Featuring: Jack Gieseking, Krista Burton, Greggor Mattson, and Theo Greene. Books mentioned: Moby Dyke by Krista Burton; Who Needs Gay Bars? by Greggor Mattson; Not in My Gayborhood by Theo Greene; and A Queer New York by Jack Gieseking. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    The Bar Is Just the Beginning, 2010s-2020s with Krista Burton, Theo Greene & Greggor Mattson

  3. Oct 4

    Pulse, Trump, and the Politics of Queer Space, 2010s-2025 with Krista Burton, Theo Greene & Greggor Mattson

    What happens to queer nightlife when the bar is no longer just a place to drink, cruise, or hook up—but one of the places where we figure out how to be together? In this episode of Our Dyke Histories, Jack Gieseking talks with Krista Burton, Greggor Mattson, and Theo Greene about lesbian bars, queer spaces, and the changing social life of the 2010s and 2020s. They begin with the supposed “death” of the lesbian bar and the revival that is still happening, The conversation moves through the Obama years and the Trump era, the Pulse nightclub and Club Q shootings, COVID lockdowns, and the ways political danger can make queer spaces feel newly necessary. They talk about mutual aid, the role bars played during crisis, and what happened when a generation came of age during lockdown without nightlife as part of its route into queer community. Then there are the apps; what happens when we forget how to make small talk? Krista talks about “lesbian bar etiquette,” including the famous art of leaning and staring. Greggor argues that bars work best when they cultivate community rather than simply provide a hookup space. Theo reminds us that dancing, music, and shared activity can be their own kind of icebreaker. And of course, there’s drag bingo, viewing parties, karaoke, Olympic rugby, dildo races, lube wrestling, and the collective effervescence of watching something ridiculous together. Because queer nightlife isn't dead. We just have to remember how to talk to each other. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    Pulse, Trump, and the Politics of Queer Space, 2010s-2025 with Krista Burton, Theo Greene & Greggor Mattson

  4. Sep 20

    The Party on Tuesday: The Space-Time of Black Queer Women, 2000s-2020s with Kemi Adeyemi and Nikki Lane

    What happens when we age out of the club, but don't age out of wanting to party? In part two of this conversation on Black queer women and Black trans folks, Jack Gieseking talks with Nikki Lane and Kemi Adeyemi about house parties, queer nightlife vs/& queer afternoonlife, aging, and the many ways Black queer people continue to make space for themselves. House parties have always been central to Black queer space-making. At home, you get to decide who is there, what music plays, and what can and cannot happen. For trans folks in particular, the house can offer an alternative to navigating transphobia in public nightlife. The conversation connects contemporary house parties to a much longer history of Black queer women throwing salons, house parties, and rent parties. They also talk about drinking and the growing desire for sober or alternative spaces. They dig deep to explore the racialized space-time of queer nightlife—and the remarkable labor of finding one another when the party keeps moving. It is not just the timing of these parties, but their mobility, though sometimes difficult to find, that allowed these parties to flourish. But this is also Black LGBTQ+ people's labor, to stay flexible, constantly track parties, and be mobile enough to get to them. Because while the spaces may change, and the parties may change, Black queer women and trans people will keep finding a way to them. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    The Party on Tuesday: The Space-Time of Black Queer Women, 2000s-2020s with Kemi Adeyemi and Nikki Lane

  5. Sep 13

    Black Queer Women, Parties, and the Right to the City, 2000s-2020s with Kemi Adeyemi and Nikki Lane

    What does it take to make a Black queer space? What happens when the bar isn’t necessarily the "bar"?And what happens when the space you have is temporary, expensive, gentrifying, imperfect—or all four at once? In this episode of Our Dyke Histories, Jack Gieseking brings together two leading scholars of Black queer women’s spaces. Nikki Lane and Kemi Adeyemi research Black queer women and the politics of partying in Washington, D.C. and Chicago. Together, they rethink the relationship between queer parties, lesbian bars, race, racism, music, and the city. From mega clubs and warehouse parties to smaller bar takeovers and itinerant queer parties, Nikki and Kemi unpack gentrification, race, class, sexuality, gender, and the relentless labor required to create a space where people can actually have a good time. They ask why parties can sometimes be more flexible—and more sustainable—than permanent bars, and how the dance floor becomes a place to negotiate a right to the city. Along the way, we talk about homophobia, transphobia, class politics, party organizing, political expectations, and the imperfect realities of queer community. Because sometimes the politics are messy, the venue is terrible, the rent is rising—and we still find a way to party. Black queer women and trans folks keep finding ways to have a great time. They keep making space. And they keep finding ways to party. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    Black Queer Women, Parties, and the Right to the City, 2000s-2020s with Kemi Adeyemi and Nikki Lane

  6. Sep 7

    Did The L Word Kill the Lesbian Bar?: Trish Bendix, Katherine Griffiths, & Mairead Sullivan, 1990s-2000s

    Did The L Word kill the lesbian bar? In the second part of our ’90s and ’00s series, Jack Gieseking is joined by Mairead Sullivan, Katherine Griffiths, and Trish Bendix to discuss this and many other complicated questions. Lesbian bars began declining in the 1990s, but the episode looks beyond the easy story of changing sexuality or television culture. Racism, gentrification, rising rents, restaurant groups, globalization, changing drinking habits, smoking bans, and the growing fragility of nightlife all transformed queer space. Race and gender are central to this story. Trish discusses Chicago’s Black lesbian spaces and the emergence of Nobody’s Darling and Dorothy’s, while Katherine describes the role of Black music and Black women’s organizing in London nightlife—and the racism that could still determine who was allowed through the door. Camp Trans and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival become a major site of conflict and organizing, while more and more trans-centered parties and spaces emerge. The conversation asks what happens when identities and communities don't stay neatly inside the categories we inherited. The question isn't simply where the lesbian bars went. It's what happened to the worlds around them, and what new worlds people built in their place. Because spaces don't just disappear...sometimes they evolve. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    Did The L Word Kill the Lesbian Bar?: Trish Bendix, Katherine Griffiths, & Mairead Sullivan, 1990s-2000s

  7. Aug 30

    Lesbian Chic, Dyke Politics: Trish Bendix, Katherine Griffiths, & Mairead Sullivan, 1990s-2000s

    Welcome to dyke bars* in the 1990s and the 2000s! Jack Gieseking joins Mairead Sullivan, Katherine Griffiths, and Trish Bendix to talk about queer parties, lesbian bars, identity, sex, music, and the changing geography of queer life. From My Sister’s Room in Atlanta and Tease in Chicago to London’s Royal Oak, San Francisco’s Lexington Club, and Boston’s Diesel Cafe, they ask what makes a space a dyke bar—and what makes it feel like home. The conversation moves through women’s nights, DIY parties, bookstores, health centers, dancing, trans inclusion and exclusion, aging, race, and the economics of keeping queer spaces alive. They explore how lesbian bars were represented in indie films including Chasing Amy, Go Fish, Bound, Boys on the Side, and The First Wives Club. The episode digs in to lesbian chic, the 1993 Dyke March on Washington, language, and the biomedicalization of “lesbian.” Through it all, bars emerge as spaces of possibility, projection, connection, and community. ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    Lesbian Chic, Dyke Politics: Trish Bendix, Katherine Griffiths, & Mairead Sullivan, 1990s-2000s

  8. Aug 23

    How to Be an Activist: the 1980s from Auntie Valerie Walker

    In this extra 1980s episode of Our Dyke Histories, Jack Gieseking sits down again with one of his favorite people. activist and artist, legendary Auntie Valerie Walker to talk about bars, dancing, organizing, racism, AIDS, ACT UP, the Lesbian Avengers, and the queer joy that keeps us connected. Valerie remembers Garbo’s, The Duchess, Henrietta’s, Cubbyhole, Nanny’s, and the bars where she danced so hard that they paid her to keep the party going. For her, the bar was never just a place to drink. It was where people met across differences, found one another, shared information, organized, hooked up, and made community. The conversation moves from the racism Valerie experienced inside ACT UP to her work with the Lesbian Avengers, including a delightfully thorough protest involving phone trees, Dyke TV, Hershey’s Kisses, and a whole lot of kissing. And underneath it all is Valerie's call to keep building who all lezbiqueertrans people can call Auntie Yes. She leaves us with mic drop wisdom and love: "Joy is a connector." "We deserve everything." And "the bar scene is its own movement." ** Join Our Community Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us questions and comments at ourdykehistories@gmail.com** Credits Producer, Editor, Host, & Creative Director: Jack Gieseking Co-Producer: Julie Enszer & Sinister Wisdom Co-Producer & Co-Editor: Cade Waldo Assistant Editor: Becca Moses & Sophie McClain Social Media Manager: Audrey Wilkinson Consulting Producer: Rachel Fagen Music: Our theme song: "Like Honey" by Kit Orion https://www.kitorion.com/ CC-BY-NC-ND 2025. Write to us at ourdykehistories@gmail.com for permission to use any of our content.

    How to Be an Activist: the 1980s from Auntie Valerie Walker
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Trailer

5
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

Come for the history; stay for the revolution, gossip, and desire that built it. 🤌 About Us :: Decade by decade, Our Dyke Histories dives deep into the living, breathing past and present of lesbian, queer, bisexual, trans, & nonbinary communities. Each season traces how we made space for ourselves—sometimes in bars, bookstores, and protests; sometimes in basements, alleyways, and prisons; & always against the odds. Host :: Our Dyke Histories is hosted by historian, geographer, and environmental psychologist Dr. Jack Jen Gieseking, and produced in collaboration with Sinister Wisdom, the oldest lesbian multicultural literary and art journal. Season One :: Our first season traces the history of dyke bars* - yes, with an asterisk - including lesbian bars, queer parties, & trans hangouts. Before Pride marches and hashtags, there were bars, parties, and whispered invitations that built whole worlds. Our Dyke Histories uncovers the stories of the women, trans, and nonbinary people who turned repression into resistance and nightlife into liberation. Join Our Community :: Want to be part of our community? We'd love to have you. 😏 Come comment, connect, and get your gayme on! Newsletter to your inbox: Jack's Queer Geographies newsletter with detailed takes on each episode, & more about lezbiqueertrans spaces across timeInstagram for more dyke visuals and stories @ourdykehistoriesRead and follow our co-producer and collaborator, Sinister WisdomEmail us at ourdykehistories@gmail.comDonate 3 :: Subscribe and/or donate to the fabulous, in-print Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary & art journal founded in 1976. Sinister Wisdom recognizes the power of language and art to create radical, empowering, resilient, and joyous sanctuaries that build and sustain vibrant lesbian futures. What Does Our Tarot Reading Say about What's Next? :: In future seasons, we will move decade by decade through other defining places, objects, and ideas in lesbian, bi, queer, and trans history—mapping the worlds we’ve made and the futures we’re still imagining. Funny and fierce, sexy and smart, and full of dyke spirit, this podcast isn’t nostalgia—it’s a survival guide disguised as a love letter.

Information

  • Creator
    Jack Gieseking with Sinister Wisdom
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © CC-BY-NC-ND Jack Gieseking & Sinister Wisdom 2025
  • Show Website
    Our Dyke Histories

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