Massachusetts Lesbian Bar Last Ditch Finally Responds to Its Viral Moment

Last Ditch, the western Massachusetts lesbian bar that was profiled in a viral Boston Globe article after announcing that it would ease its masking mandate one night a week in an attempt to increase business, has responded to the overwhelming attention from all corners of the country. “Our community should expect more details in the future,” a Thursday Instagram post from the bar read, its first communication since the article became a viral hit for the Globe , which was reportedly “on pace to shatter all sorts of Globe records,” per Semafor reporter Max Tani . Rather than going into further details about the state of the bar since being subject to national attention, the post first requested that aid go to Soe Noire, the performer and artist who is quoted throughout the article criticizing Last Ditch’s decision. See on Instagram “Today we need to address the safety of the community itself. Stop harassing Soe Noire,” Last Ditch wrote on Thursday. “It is neither productive, progressive, nor valiant to attack and harass a black patron. He has been a collaborator and performer of Last Ditch for a while, and he deserves to speak his mind about accountability and repair from the bar.” Saying that there were issues with “disorganization” in the Globe ’s article, Last Ditch said that Noire “did not call for a shutdown, nor did he call for the bar to be firebombed.” The post continued, “Further, he did not disparage the owner for being homeless. As a result of this abysmal journalism, Soe has been getting additional threats, slurs, and harassment, and now he is being reported to the police over something he did not do. This is not supporting us at Last Ditch, and it is at its core, anti-blackness hysteria.” While a person quoted in the original article did say in a Zoom chat that they hope that Last Ditch gets firebombed for “robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans,” that quote was not attributed to Noire. In the original Globe article, Noire, a gender-expansive lesbian who uses he/him pronouns, criticized a white therapist brought onto a Zoom mediation session for “center[ing] the feelings of a majority white and white adjacent staff,” and criticized bar owner Jackie Matellian, who was homeless and living out of her truck to support Last Ditch, for “incredibly racist and deflecting behavior.” In a community note appended to Last Ditch’s Instagram post, an Instagram user wrote that it is “unclear how sending money to Soe Noire would benefit Last Ditch.” “Noire is quoted multiple times by the Boston Globe using the language of inclusivity to bully and harass the staff and owners of Last Ditch after the bar relaxed mask mandates for Saturday nights,” the note continues. Last Ditch turned off comments for the Instagram post. In the time since the article was released on Tuesday, Last Ditch has also closed its Google Reviews, per Newsweek . The bar originally announced that it would adopt a mask-optional policy on August 31 on its Instagram page. Aside from a lone update asking for aid for Soe Noire, bar leadership and employees have been mostly silent online since Tuesday. That is likely at least partially due to the overwhelming media attention on a small town, which has stunned not only those involved, but many people in Greenfield, Massachusetts, per the Greenfield Record , a local paper. “I felt so horrible for them,” Elizabeth DeNeeve, owner of an “alternative clothing store” in Greenfield, told the Recorder . “They were being trolled and told that despite all of the hard work they were doing interacting with the community, that it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t the right kind of interaction. … I don’t think you should have to defend yourself on the town’s Facebook group as you’re trying to make your way as a business. People should just be thankful that you’re there.” She also said she hopes the attention “brings them endless business.” “I hope it fills their doors, I hope it brings business to Greenfield,” DeNeeve said. “They’re micro-influencers now.” City Council President Lora Wondolowski, told the Recorder that she is concerned about Last Ditch’s ability to withstand the national attention as a small business. “I worry about their ability to weather this storm,” Wondolowski said. “We’re all trying to navigate a world that’s topsy-turvy.” Matellian told the Globe that, in order to keep the bar open, she has been living out of her truck for six months and that her credit score is “trashed.” She is working four jobs while paying back a $50,000 loan that launched Last Ditch. Many staff, as well as the owners, work on a volunteer basis to keep the business afloat, per the Recorder . In April, Last Ditch opened up an online donation page that originally had asked for $4,000, but has now been upped to $15,000. The Recorder noted in its story, published Thursday, that it had been raised to $12,500, meaning that it may have recently been further raised. The fundraiser has garnered 81% of its goal as of this writing, with donations streaming in from as far afield as London, per comments left on the page. Per the page’s description page, the money will go toward paying back rent, a commercial air purifier, paying staff, facilities maintenance, and structural repairs. Many of the local business owners who spoke to the Recorder praised the bar’s decision to have a one-night mask optional policy, citing the rough economics of operating a small business in 2026. “From a business owner’s standpoint, sometimes you have to make decisions that don’t completely go with what you started with, but to survive and to make it through this,” Danielle Marie, a local business owner, told the Recorder . “These people are trying to make it through the worst time I can think of since I’ve been alive, financially and politically.” Meaghan Cuevas, a manager at the restaurant upstairs from Last Ditch, also told the Recorder that she agrees with the bar’s decision. The frustrating economics of running a small business have often been amplified in LGBTQ+ spaces, as well, with several gay bars that have closed in recent years citing financial difficulties as a reason for shuttering their doors . Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them ’s newsletters .