Racked - a Lesbian Sports Bar

The Charlotte Museum is supporting the Rainbow Games being held in Tāmaki Makaurau 4-9 April by celebrating the herstory of lesbian sapphic bars and sports.

We are creating the ultimate lesbian sports bar for three nights only! A fun few nights for lesbian sapphic women, their friends and allies, where we will have pool tables, a bar, and a comfy lounge area with screenings of only women’s sports. The pool tables will be free for your use; there will be food and drink for sale and a $5 door charge (as a fundraiser for the museum).

Players from The NZ Pool Association women's league will be providing some tuition and putting on some exhibition games (to show us how its really done!)

In lesbian sapphic cultural heritage lesbian bars and sports teams played a critical role providing safe havens for our communities to gather, make connections and form communities. And its fair to say in every one of those lesbian bars all over the world there was a pool table! (In fact can it be called a lesbian bar without there being a pool table?!)

The demise of lesbian bars as stand alone spaces is both a positive reflection of the evolution of Rainbow+ communities over recent years and a negative as we grabble with new challenges in the modern era and realise safe space can be hard to come by.

We took inspiration from 'The Lesbian Bar Project' which is a limited streaming series telling the stories behind the remaining 32 lesbian bars across the USA and the communities they serve. https://www.lesbianbarproject.com/
The series focuses on the critical need to support Rainbow+ community and spaces and how important those spaces are to our communities as safe havens and a way to find each.

And we were inspired by “Sports Bra”, a sports bar dedicated to women’s sport in Portland, Oregan USA. https://www.thesportsbrapdx.com/
An American study in 2021 found 95% of TV coverage focused on men’s sports. “Sports Bra” is dedicated to and only plays women’s sports, believing exposure creates visibility and increases support for women’s sport. And its a bar focused on ensuring patrons feel safe and empowered to relax and have fun. (and its been a huge success!)