As You Are — one of two lesbian bars in the District, and just one of a few dozen across the country — raised over $120,000 in mere days this week to keep it from closing. Over 2,000 people have donated to its GoFundMe since Monday, when owners Rach Pike and Jo McDaniel went public with their financial struggles and sought help from supporters. 

The owners need $150,000 to avoid a closure, a goal they’ve nearly met with $134,388 raised by press time. The outpouring of support speaks to the queer locus As You Are has become since opening roughly two years ago on Barracks Row in Southeast D.C.: a place for women, femmes, thems, and, as McDaniel says affectionately, queerdos.

The donations will allow the owners to get out of survival mode, pay off debt, and plan for the future of their bar/café, they say. They rent the space for their establishment now but hope the donated funds will help them qualify for grants that will enable them to purchase a permanent home for As You Are. The daily operations and ethos of As You Are, which is more akin to a community center than bar, make it harder to sustain, but at the same time that’s what makes it unique, needed, and worth the trouble, according to the owners and patrons.

“I am soggy with gratitude. I’m almost limp by it,” McDaniel tells DCist/WAMU of the donations. “But ultimately, what it means is this fight is worth it.” 

McDaniel and Pike, who goes by Coach, are working behind the counter the day we talk. The owners, who have 30 years of hospitality experience between the two of them, tend their own bar sometimes to save money; they also haven’t taken a salary since mid-2021. As You Are was hit particularly hard by a sales slump last year that started in the summer — generally a slow time for the bar and restaurant industry. During these slow months, the partners in life and in business prioritized paying their staff, a crew of 14 plus others hired for events. Then, they prioritized keeping the lights on and food in the kitchen. Consequently, they fell behind on rent and taxes.

“We just couldn’t bounce back,” McDaniel says.

Moving also wasn’t an option, because with a 10-year lease, breaking it would be more expensive than the business just continuing to hobble along, she adds. McDaniel says their landlord refused to renegotiate a lease that is based on sales so overhead could be more manageable. (The landlord did not respond to request for comment.)

Crowdsourcing was the last thing they wanted to do, McDaniel says. They searched for other funding opportunities for six months but found nothing they qualified for. The owners did not want to unexpectedly shut their doors without warning people who’ve come to depend on As You Are. So they asked for help.

The couple were also motivated to pay of their debt after attending a expo hosted by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s team on available retail grants. At that expo Monday, they learned of a grant that helps businesses with down payment assistance if owners want to purchase a property. To qualify, Pike and McDaniel need “clean hands,” meaning they cannot owe more than $100 in fees, fines, or taxes to the city. So after the expo, the couple posted their GoFundMe campaign for an amount that would leave them debt-free to the city and their landlord. The All We’ve Got documentary, which is about property ownership of queer bars, also inspired Pike and McDaniel.

“Capitalism is capitalism,” McDaniel says. “If you own this space, they can’t kick you out,” McDaniel says. “And that’s the long term goal for As You Are — is to find a way to get those grants and and to purchase a property that is ours.”

Lesbian bars struggle to survive because both owners and patrons, who are women and gender nonconforming, don’t have as much disposable income due to the gender wage gap, or access to capital due to entrenched patriarchy in the business world, documentary Lesbian Bar Project explains. Queer owners of queer spaces also face discrimination when they operate their business, per McDaniel.

“We’re taken less seriously by the vendors we work with,” she says. “There are reasons that there are products we don’t carry. There are companies we don’t work with because they don’t take us seriously as a business.”

Opening As You Are Bar proved difficult, requiring lots of back-and-forth with neighbors — some of whom opposed it — before the 2022 debut. But in the years since, As You Are became a cherished space for the  LGBTQIA+ community. While some gay and lesbian bars have failed to reflect growing gender diversity, As You Are succeeded in being as inclusive as it could be, including by hosting trans nights on an ongoing basis.

What sets it apart is not just that As You Are creates a welcoming, safe place for queer people to drink and party — but that it’s been able to be many things for many people. Think drag queen and king nights, corn hole tournaments, and crafting and reading nights where patrons wear name tags that signal whether they want to socialize or not. As You Are is there to enable patrons to forge friendships or casual connections, or simply create comfortable alone time.

“It really feels like they’ve tried to make a space that’s as welcoming to as many people as possible,” says Shiv Sharma, a patron who was working at the café on a recent weekday afternoon.

Sharma loves that you don’t have to drink to have a good time at As You Are. They also appreciate that different rooms of the two-level space have different vibes — there’s a dance floor, but also a room with couches and TVs — to accommodate people of various energy levels.

Sharma read about As You Are before moving to D.C. and knew they wanted to patronize it when they got here due to that range of vibes, as well as the bar’s emphasis on consent. They’ve become a regular, attending various events including Sunday karaoke for their birthday.

Because of their experience at As You Are, they aren’t surprised that the queer community came through and donated when the owners asked for help.

“Knowing how Joe and Coach always show up for the community here, I just knew that the community would show up for them,” Sharma says. “Because of how this space has allowed so many different groups and so many different individuals to be themselves, to do their work, to promote their causes.”

“It’s incredibly vital to the community, that these spaces are open,” says Ashe Hennessy, a tattoo artist with a residency at As You Are on weekdays.

He cried when he learned there was a possibility As You Are could close because of financial struggles. The space has served as a much needed respite from the onslaught of hate the trans community, in particular, has faced in recent times, he says. Other queer bars can be toxic for any queer who is not “HGTV gay friendly,” Hennessy adds.

As You Are gives back in more than one way. Hennessy recalls a recent event, where people paid for tattoos and bowls of soup and all the proceeds went to the local chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement. The owners also always hire ASL interpreters for mic’d events at their own expense, which has totaled at least $20,000 to date, per McDaniel. And they don’t have a cover charge for events, because they don’t want to inadvertently exclude the community they intend to serve. Similarly, As You Are pays all their talent, which is not a given for drag performers and musicians, who often work for tips at bars.

As You Are fans and its owners are optimistic the community will keep the bar off the list of beloved bars and restaurants that have shuttered around D.C. recently. As they get closer to that $150,000 fundraising goal, they can see a future where they own their own building for As You Are, or maybe it’s owned by the community through a public ownership model — to keep it alive for the years to come.

“We’re so grateful and we’re affirmed in the fact that this place matters,” McDaniel says.

WAMU producer Kayla Hewitt contributed reporting.