HOUSTON, Texas — June is Satisfaction Month, and we’re celebrating a number of the wonderful people who find themselves blazing trails within the LGBTQ+ group.
Julie Mabry is the proprietor of Pearl Bar Houston, Houston’s solely lesbian bar, and Facet Peace Sports activities Bar, Houston’s first girls’s sports activities bar. She says it was a longtime purpose of hers to create a secure area the place folks can come and be accepted for who they’re.
“I opened Pearl as a result of once I was about sixteen, my sister, who can also be homosexual, she had plenty of hardships,” mentioned Mabry. “I do not assume it was a lot the approaching out, however within the eighties, when she began to seek out her id, we went to a homosexual membership in San Antonio, Texas, and I observed that her entire demeanor modified. She felt secure, and that simply resonated with me, and it turned a purpose, a dream of mine to have the ability to present that kind of area.”
Mabry first opened Pearl Bar in 2013, hoping to supply Houston’s LGBTQ+ group with a spot to attach with others, construct friendships and really feel at dwelling.
“The expertise that I hope folks have once they come to Pearl Bar, which is one thing that I’ve witnessed hundreds of instances, that there are literally bars that particularly cater to the lesbian-trans group. Most individuals do not even notice that we exist, and/or that there is solely two in Texas.”
She opened Facet Peace Sports activities earlier this yr subsequent door to Pearl Bar.
“Facet Peace Sports activities is a brand new idea that we began that’s extra centered on girls’s sports activities,” mentioned Mabry. “We clearly present all sports activities. We let everyone in, so long as they’re respectful to our group.”
Click on on the video above to see the distinction that each areas are making in the neighborhood!
