Denver's only lesbian bar is officially closed following a fundraising controversy

DENVER — The Pearl, Denver’s only lesbian bar, officially closed Tuesday despite an outpouring of community support that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in donations, one of the bar’s owners announced on social media.

The Pearl co-owner, Dom Garcia, wrote in an Instagram story from The Pearl’s account that the initial closure — announced April 11 — happened without their knowledge, so they started the GoFundMe to pay back rent and wages.

The fundraiser was an instant success, exceeding its $80,000 goal in a matter of days. But on Tuesday, several staff members in a separate, 12-page Instagram post wrote that they could not “in good conscience accept the GoFundMe funds with the likely chance of ending up in the exact same position in three months.” The post encouraged people to report the GoFundMe as fraudulent.

Garcia, in response, requested all donations be refunded.

“Staff leads rallied everyone to say the gofundme [sic] was fraudulent. It was not,” they wrote. “It was to save the business for the community.” Nevertheless, Garcia announced the donations would be refunded and that the closure was effective immediately.

Tuesday’s public, social media back-and-forth marked a messy end to a bar that was open for just over a year.

“I am ashamed of what has transpired in the recent week and think that needs to be discussed when we think of The Pearl's memory as well as all the good this space has done for our community,” said Maya Blasingame, a frequent patron of The Pearl. “To those who have tarnished the memory of this location, karma always comes back around and you should do everything you can to apologize to all the many people your actions have hurt.”

The Pearl started as a pop-up called Pearl Divers in December 2024. It opened after the closure of Blush & Blu, the longest-standing lesbian bar in Colorado. At the time, Pearl Divers was one of just 33 lesbian bars in the United States, according to the Lesbian Bar Project. Today, there are 36.

Pearl Divers moved into the historic Mercury Cafe building in March 2025 and officially became The Pearl.

The initial Instagram post announcing the bar’s closure prompted a swift response from the community, with commenters asking how The Pearl managed to create such a financial deficit. Owners cited the inherent cost of operating out of The Mercury Cafe building. 

Staffing the venue with security, bartenders, kitchen and cafe employees, as well as the cost of organizing live music shows, cost The Pearl up to $11,000 per week, according to Westword. Plumbing problems like broken pipes, a broken water heater and broken coolers depleted the bar’s savings.

“We ran it as is for an entire year to see if we could maybe figure out something different that the Mercury team didn’t think of, and try to figure out what was working and what wasn’t,” said co-owner Ashlee Cassity in a statement to Westword.

Attempts to ensure financial stability were in the works prior to the closure announcement. A few weeks ago, Cassity and Garcia announced that a long-standing poetry open mic, typically held Friday nights, would move to Sundays in order to open up Friday nights as an opportunity for ticketed events. Cassity told Westword the change was solely based on the opportunity for more revenue, but the poetry community wasn't happy about the change.  

Garcia, on Instagram, said they heard “disheartening things” about the bar’s other owners after organizing the GoFundMe, but stopped short of naming anyone.

“This isn't the space I created and it’s not fair to my community to keep it going when it’s falling into something so different than I imagined,” Garcia wrote.

The Pearl’s owners did not respond to Rocky Mountain PBS’ request for comment before deadline. The staff, in their Instagram post, asked the community members not to “send any hate” to the owners.

“Trust us when we say this, this is not the end of The Pearl,” the group of employees wrote on Instagram. “We may not be sure what our immediate future looks like but just know that whatever our next movie will be, it will be made with integrity and as a team.” 

It’s unclear how The Pearl’s closure will impact the Denver Pride events scheduled to take place at the bar. Rocky Mountain PBS has reached out to both The Pearl and The Center on Colfax, which organizes Denver Pride, for comment and will update this story as needed.