West Hollywood's Only Lesbian Bar, The Palms, Will Celebrate One Last Pride

After almost a half-century serving the lesbian community in the LGBT-filled West Hollywood neighborhood, The Palms will close up shop Sunday, June 9, after celebrating one last Pride weekend, reportsWeHoVille.

The beloved dive bar, which has been an institution in WeHo's lesbian scene for more than 40 years, announced last month that it will vacate its current residence at 8572 Santa Monica Blvd, as the building is being demolished and redeveloped. While general Shawne White hopes to find a new home for The Palms, she told WeHoVille that location has yet to be discovered. And although White knew the property was slated for eventual destruction, she's still saddened to see an institution fall. 

“We’ve been waiting for 10 years for the certified letter telling us to get out in 30 days," White told WeHoVille. "Even though we knew it would eventually come, it was still a shock when it came… This bar was the only safe haven at one point for women to come and be around other women. It’s just a huge part of history. It’s really sad to see it go."

The Palms will host a formal closing party on Sunday, June 2, according to WeHoVille. In the meantime, a WeHo resident and filmmaker named Kate Eggert has launched a documentary to capture the memories made at The Palms before the venerable institution is no more. 

"It is imperative to document the stories of this place and these women before the epicenter that is the Palms bar disappears forever," Eggert told WeHoVille. "The documentary is a work in progress. It’s about how this building became a lesbian bar. And as a lesbian bar, how its existence influenced and shaped the lives of the women who went there, which will illuminate what it was like to be a lesbian in Los Angeles throughout the last several decades."

Through its long and storied history, The Palms was proud to call itself a gay celebrity watering hole, touting on its own website that the bar was a favorite haunt of Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres, and even Jim Morrison. Rumor has it that a young Jodi Foster was kicked out of the bar for trying to drink underage. 

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