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Very characteristic of these (often referred to as "Old Gay" ) bars was binary heterosexist models of coupling and an enforcement of a (white) butch/femme or (black) stud/femme binary. In the 1950s, bars began to emerge for working-class lesbians, white and black. San Francisco's Mona's 440 Club, opened in 1936, is widely cited as the first lesbian bar in the United States. Her bar, Mali und Igel hosted guests such as Marlene Dietrich. Entrepreneur, Elsa Conrad, ran several venues which catered for a lesbian intellectual elite. Meanwhile, in Weimar Germany, lesbian bars and night clubs were numerous, especially in Berlin. Prohibition's speakeasies allowed women to drink publicly more freely. While women in the USA have historically been barred from public spaces promoting alcohol consumption, women's saloon presence rose in the 1920s. They could, however, also be sites of intense isolation. They have been spaces for intergenerational community building, where women had the opportunity to come out without being " outed", which can result in the loss of jobs, family, and social status. While few lesbian-specific bars exist today, lesbian bars have long been sites of refuge, validation, community, and resistance for women whose sexual orientations are considered "deviant" or non-normative.
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Lesbian bars predate feminist spaces such as bookstores and coffeeshops, and contemporary LGBT services such as community centers and health care centers.