Until last week, few people outside this sleepy US city had thought much about its lesbian bar, Last Ditch.
asserted
people → think → bar
Since it opened last year as a space for “dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers and their friends”, it had become popular with the local queer community, hosting drag shows, live-music karaoke, film screenings and other events.
asserted
it → open → shows
That all changed when The Boston Globe published a startling investigation into recent events at the bar that exposed a viper’s nest of woke grievances.
asserted
that → change → grievances
The story went viral across the world, and the Globe reportedly gained more than 1000 new paying subscribers because of it.
uncertain
Globe → go → it
Suddenly, the Last Ditch is the most famous bar in America, a source of global amusement and a cautionary tale about what can happen when a so-called “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) mindset is pursued to an absurd conclusion.
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mindset → happen → conclusion
The trouble began on August 31, when the bar posted an announcement, decorated with rainbows, to its Instagram page.
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bar → begin → page
“It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional,” it said.
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it → inform → mask
Until then the bar had operated a strict mask policy, harking back to the dark days of the pandemic.
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bar → operate → pandemic
It may have only opened in 2025, years after COVID-19 subsided, but the spirit of that time was alive and well.
uncertain
spirit → open → time
All customers and staff were required to wear a well-fitted KN-95 mask “or better”.
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customers → require → mask
But business had slowed.
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business → slow → ?
Of the three founders – Jackie Matellian, Sage Territo and Asa Rosario– only Matellian was left.
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Matellian → leave → founders
With loan repayments mounting, she hoped to increase business by relaxing the rules.
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she → mount → rules
Customers reacted with fury to the relaxation of the rules.
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Customers → react → rules
The post attracted hundreds of comments before they were turned off, most of which were highly critical, accusing Last Ditch of endangering its vulnerable clientele in the hope of attracting business from people who prefer not to wear a surgical mask when they are drinking with friends.
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they → attract → friends
“Just say you’re being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with,” said one.
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one → say → it
“I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists [sic],” said another.
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another → hope → ]
No matter that Greenfield had not had a single reported case of COVID for months.
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Greenfield → have → months
Chastened, the bar issued an apology two days later.
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bar → chasten → apology
“We are sorry for our passive and dismissive tone of our change to the norms and schedule impacting the most intersectional of us,” stated another Instagram post.
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post → impact → us
“We understand everyone faces different intersections and we are always working to consider all needs fully.”
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we → understand → needs
The second statement only made things worse.
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things → make → ?
In that post, Last Ditch had committed a sin against wokeness almost as egregious as dropping the mask requirement – it had posted on social media without adding alternative text, which feeds screen-reader software that describes content aloud to the visually impaired.
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that → commit → impaired
“This is not an accessible post,” someone complained.
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someone → complain → ?
“It indicates the lack of care or interest in disability intersectionality.”
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It → indicate → intersectionality
The furore led to a crisis meeting on September 11, outlined in the Globe’s article.
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furore → lead → article
Ten people – all masked, and including two mediators there to keep the conversations productive – sat on the Last Ditch dance floor.
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all → mask → floor
Another 10 or 15 joined by Zoom.
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10 → join → Zoom
The meeting began with a calming breath exercise.
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meeting → begin → exercise
Almost at once the online participants started a deluge of furious messages.
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participants → start → messages
Trying to calm things down, one of the mediators, a licensed therapist, expressed hope that rather than just meeting online, the participants might get to a stage where they would know each other’s faces.
uncertain
they → try → faces
She was immediately shouted down for “dismissing those attending virtually”, which was “not accessibility”.
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which → shout → those
A Black attendee called Soe Noire, who identifies as a “gender-expansive lesbian” and uses he/him pronouns, criticised the mediator, who was white, for “centring the feelings of a majority white and white adjacent staff”.
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who → call → staff
Another said the mediator’s presence was “wildly unsafe” and wondered if, as a licensed therapist, she was tantamount to a member of the secret police who might have people hospitalised against their will.
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people → say → will
Matellian wept as she shared her struggles as the remaining owner.
asserted
she → weep → owner
She lived in her “truck” while she was trying to make the business work.
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business → live → truck
Now that her co-founders had left the business, she was responsible for the $US50,000 ($72,000) loan they took out to open it.
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they → leave → it
“You chose to use your time to spill tears and centre your feelings,” he wrote in the Zoom chat.
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he → choose → chat
After 3½ hours the meeting ended without any meaningful conclusion.
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meeting → end → conclusion
“I thought it was overblown,” says LeiAnna Hamel, a 33-year-old academic visiting Last Ditch on Saturday night.
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Hamel → think → night
…and 49 more, not listed.
The Aporia
