MA lesbian bar under fire by disabled queer community after canceling mask mandate, owner escapes to clown college

A Lesbian bar in Western Massachusetts has come under fire from those within the queer community for its decision to have one mask-optional night per week. Despite COVID-era mask mandates fading away in the years after the pandemic, the bar still requires guests to wear masks. 

On August 31, the Last Ditch issued a post to its Instagram outlining policy changes. Amid the changes was one that read: “It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional to try out typical club night with themes/hosts/DJs/full capacity.”

As the Boston Globe reported, the move by the Greenfield bar was met with outrage. One commenter wrote, “Just say you’re being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with.” 

Another wrote, “People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience.” Another commenter said they hoped the bar “gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists.” The Boston Globe noted that Greenfield has not had any reported cases of COVID in over two months.

Following the outrage, the bar issued an apology: “We are sorry for our passive and dismissive tone of our change to the norms and schedule impacting the most intersectional of us. We understand everyone faces different intersections and we are always working to consider all needs fully.”

The apology itself also drew backlash after the post failed to include alt-text, a feature meant for those visually disabled. One user wrote, “This is not an accessible post. It indicates the lack of care or interest in Disability intersectionality.”

Last Ditch was opened in 2025 by three housemates: Asa Rosario, a drag performer who uses it/its pronouns, Jackie Matellian, who uses she/they pronouns, and Sage. Matellian is the sole remaining owner, telling the outlet that the other two left due to health issues and other “pressures,” and that one had left to enroll in clown school. Matellian has lived in her truck for six months and worked four different jobs as she attempts to pay back the $50,000 loan the owners took out to start the bar.

Among the venue’s “house rules” is that all guests must wear “a well-fitted KN-95 respirator mask (or better.” The rules state, “Anyone who simply refuses without engaging in a good faith conversation to reach an accommodation will be asked to leave the space if necessary and provided with an opportunity to engage in an accountability process if deemed appropriate.”

The bar vowed that no one would be turned away due to a lack of funds, saying that “poor and unhoused people are welcome in the space.” While the bar started off well, the owners quickly fell behind on bills, unable to pay themselves or workers. Visitors increasingly said they were unable to pay the cover fee and were let in anyway. 

At the bar’s monthly community meeting on September 11, the one-night removal of the mask policy was addressed. In attendance were Matellian, bar patrons, volunteers, and two mediators. Additional people attended virtually through Zoom. The meeting went on for nearly four hours. 

One person who attended virtually was a performer who was identified by the Boston Globe only by their stage name, Soe Noire, and has been one of the most vocal critics of the bar. Noire is the head of a “queer COVID-conscious collective in Western Massachusetts,” the outlet reported. 

Noire, who is black, wrote in the chat at one point during the meeting, “A lot of people are calling for an acknowledgment of harm and I’m hearing a WHITE therapist ... center[ing] the feelings of a majority white and white adjacent staff.”

During Matellian’s time to speak during the meeting, she cried over the state of the business. “I never really wanted to do this,” she said, adding that the bar was not her “passion project,” but instead she wanted to support the other two owners.

Noire wrote in response, “You chose to use your time to spill tears and center your feelings. This is incredibly racist and deflecting behavior.”

Noire, who lives nearly an hour south of Greenfield, told the Boston Globe that the policy change promotes “these ableist ideas that disabled people, immunocompromised people, should either risk their health or just be pushed out of space.”