A struggling Massachusetts lesbian bar made one night a week mask-optional in hopes of attracting more customers. Instead, the change unleashed hundreds of angry comments, boycott calls and even a comment hoping the venue would be firebombed.
Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue in Greenfield had required patrons to wear KN-95 masks or better. On Aug. 31, the bar announced that Saturdays would become mask-optional while keeping the requirement on its other nights.
The decision came as the young business was already struggling to stay afloat. Foot traffic had fallen, its owners had fallen behind on bills, and some customers who could not afford the cover charge were being allowed inside anyway, according to The Boston Globe.
Instead of solving the attendance problem, the Saturday experiment opened another one. The Instagram announcement drew hundreds of responses, including accusations that the change excluded disabled and immunocompromised customers who had regarded Last Ditch as one of the few nightlife spaces built around their needs.
One Night Off
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Last Ditch’s Aug. 31 announcement put the change in unusually affectionate language: “It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional.”
Saturday was the exception. Masks remained required during the rest of the bar’s weekly schedule.
Some people welcomed the chance to attend without one. Others treated the change as a betrayal of what made the venue different.
The Globe counted 442 comments on the announcement. One accused the bar of being “complicit in a mass disabling event.” Another wrote, “People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience.”
One response went considerably further, saying, “I hope your venue gets firebombed” for taking Saturday nights away from immunocompromised patrons.
Last Ditch apologized two days later, saying it was sorry for the “passive and dismissive tone” of the announcement.
That apology created another problem.
The graphic had been posted without alt text for visually impaired users, prompting criticism that a statement intended to address accessibility concerns was itself inaccessible.
Money Underneath
The mask dispute was taking place over a much older problem.
Last Ditch opened in 2025 after three housemates set out to create a queer bar, performance venue and community space. Its house rules included allowing people without money to enter and welcoming poor and unhoused patrons.
Business was initially stronger, but attendance declined. The Globe reported that the owners eventually could not reliably pay themselves or the people working there.
They consulted the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce before deciding to relax the mask rule on Saturdays in an effort to attract more business.
By the time Last Ditch held its monthly community meeting on Sept. 11, two of the three founders had already stepped away from daily operations.
Jackie Matellian was the one left carrying the business.
The meeting drew roughly 10 people in person and another 10 to 15 by Zoom, according to the Globe’s reporter, who attended it. Participants were supposed to discuss both the masking decision and the bar’s financial future.
It lasted about three and a half hours.
No Easy Exit
Matellian became emotional as she explained how she had ended up running the bar.
“It was not my passion project,” she said.
She told the group she had been living in her truck for six months while putting money into the business, working four jobs, and carrying responsibility for the $50,000 loan the founders had taken out to open Last Ditch.
“I never really wanted this,” she said. “I don’t think I’m doing a very good job.”
Some critics remained unmoved.
Soe Noire, who the Globe identified as one of the venue’s most vocal critics and said had visited Last Ditch several times, argued that making Saturdays mask-optional pushed disabled and immunocompromised people out of a space that had previously accommodated them.
The meeting ended without resolving the dispute.
There was also a more immediate number hanging over the discussion: the bar’s landlord wanted $3,900 in back rent.
Saturday Arrives
The policy change at least had a straightforward business theory behind it. If mandatory masking had been discouraging some customers, a mask-optional weekend night might bring them back.
The Globe returned to Last Ditch on Sept. 12, the second Saturday operating under the new policy.
It didn’t find the hoped-for crowd.
A few people were outside smoking. Another small group remained around the bar. The dance floor was empty.
People who had responded online saying they were interested in visiting without masks had not materialized in significant numbers.
Just after midnight, the Globe reported, one patron remained at the bar.
That left Last Ditch in the uncomfortable position of taking heat from people who opposed the policy without seeing much evidence that the customers the change was intended to attract would actually replace them.
A Small Club
Losing another lesbian bar would also shrink an already small category of American nightlife.
The Lesbian Bar Project currently lists just 36 lesbian bars in the United States.
Last Ditch is not simply operating as a nightclub. Inside is a “free store” offering items including food, clothing, Narcan, fentanyl test strips and sexual-health information, according to the Globe. That broader community-center identity helps explain why a change affecting one night produced an argument extending well beyond drink sales.
It also complicates the financial problem. A venue built partly around providing access regardless of someone’s ability to pay still has rent, payroll and debt.
Matellian told the Globe she hopes to convert Last Ditch into a cooperative so the financial responsibility does not rest so heavily on one person.
For now, the bar remains open. Its current schedule lists hours Wednesday through Saturday, including Saturday nights from 7 p.m. to midnight.