Denver’s only lesbian bar will soon close after more than a decade as a hotspot for the LGBTQ+ community on Colfax Avenue.
Blush & Blu, which opened in 2012, will celebrate its final night of service on Oct. 5, according to a post on social media. In the closing announcement, owner Jody Bouffard lamented the changes in the gay bar scene: As of 2017, Blush & Blu was the last standing lesbian bar in Denver and by 2021, it was one of just 21 nationwide.
“When I moved to Denver in 1996, there were over 200 lesbian bars across the country, each a beacon of refuge, though not always safe,” the post read in part. “Now, 28 years later, only 20 remain. The world has shifted and so have we.”
Jody Bouffard, owner of Blush & Blu, outside her bar in Denver on June 9, 2021. Blush & Blu is one of only 21 lesbian bars left in the U.S. (Kevin Mohatt, Special to the Denver Post)
Bouffard could not immediately be reached to comment on the circumstances of the closure. The announcement said only, “It is my decision to close this chapter of my life called Blush & Blu.”
In previous interviews with The Denver Post, Bouffard said she had been attending pharmacy school at the University of Colorado when she began working at a local bar called The Elle and caught the hospitality bug. She went on to operate several lesbian bars, including tHERe and Her Bar, which she eventually sold.
In 2012, Bouffard re-acquired the tHERe bar space and changed the name to Blush & Blu. She wanted the brand to be more inclusive – there’s “us” in the word “Blush,” she said.
By 2017, Blush & Blu was the Mile High City’s only remaining lesbian bar. At the time, Bouffard attributed the decline in queer spaces to a confluence of factors, including social media and wider cultural acceptance of the community. LGBTQ+ individuals felt safer going to places not explicitly marked as gay bars.
Still, Bouffard emphasized the importance of having community spaces when interviewed in 2021. That year, Blush & Blu was featured as part of The Lesbian Bar Project, which raised funds to support the couple dozen lesbian bars left in the U.S. during the pandemic.
“A lot of people don’t have family because they’re rejected by their family. So coming into a queer space like I have and the ones that are remaining, you find your new family there,” Bouffard said in 2021.
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In recent years, however, Blush & Blu attracted controversy for some of its business practices. In a 2021 lawsuit, former employees alleged Bouffard routinely failed to pay them minimum wage, stole tips during shifts and discriminated against one of the establishment’s only Black employees, among other things. The parties agreed to settle the claims in 2023.
In the closing note, Bouffard thanked “every promoter, performer, DJ, drag queen, drag king, comedian, poet and artist who has graced our stage.” The post also noted details of its goodbye party would be announced soon.