Queer Women, People Find Community At New Tampa Bay Area Pop-Up Events

Updated: Wednesday, 4:34 p.m.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — At a time when there are few spaces dedicated to queer women and people in the Tampa Bay area and much of Florida, two new organizers have stepped up in recent months to create pop-up events catering to the community.

Both groups are offering upcoming parties kicking off LGBTQ+ pride month in June.

LuvHer Lounge — formerly LickHer Lounge — hosts the LuvHer Pride Party Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m., at Lost & Found in St. Petersburg. It will feature LGBTQ+ entertainers, including a DJ and burlesque and drag performers. General admission tickets are $15 each.

Meanwhile, Dyke Nite St. Pete will host a Queer Joy Dance Party Monday, 7 p.m. to midnight, at Good Intentions in St. Petersburg. The event will feature DJ sets from We’re Sweet Girls and will also feature a photo booth, collage table and vendors.

“I was looking for a classy, edgy fun vibe where queer women could get together and ‘let their hair down’ — though I realize that not all of us have long hair,” Rachel Covello, publisher of OutCoast.com and founder of LuvHer Lounge, told Patch. “I don’t think we have that much in St. Pete or in most of the state.”

The Lady’s Room, a Largo bar, wasn’t open long before closing its doors and the Salty Nun in St. Pete “was never marketed as a lesbian bar, but attracts the lesbian crowd,” she said. “It’s more of an outdoor casual venue and not really an upscale experience. What we’re doing is trying to fill that gap.”

Her first event was held at The Saint, a speakeasy in St. Petersburg, that drew 100 people. She’s also hosted events at Catrina’s Taco & Tequila Bar in Tampa and the Concrete Jungle in St. Pete, and also offers sober get-togethers at Steep Station kava bar.

Nearly 300 people showed up to the Concrete Jungle and Covello had to turn people away at the door.

“I was surprised by the turnout — delighted, but surprised,” she said, noting that the community is seeking an inclusive space. “It’s really just meant for a space where queer women who enjoy the company of other queer women can get together. I just want everybody to have a good time. I don’t want to exclude everyone. Lesbians, nonbinary people, trans women and men, it’s a space for all of them to get together.”

Dyke Nite St. Pete organizers, inspired by similar grassroots events in other communities, agree that "dykes of all genders and sexual identities" in the Tampa Bay area are craving community, Rowan, an organizer who asked not to publish their last name for privacy reasons, told Patch.

“It’s not like a national organization or anything. It’s more that when you see Dyke Nite initiatives, they’re taken up by local people who suddenly are seeing there are no nightlife spaces for queer women,” they said.

They and another co-organizer Lee Robinson attended their first Dyke Nite event in Portland, Oregon, while in town for a wedding last year and they realized it was actually what was missing in the St. Petersburg area.

“It was an incredible experience,” Rowan said. “It was like, these are people who are like us. This is our community. When we came back to St. Pete, it was like, ‘OK, we need to have a Dyke Nite here.’ We’re not the only ones in town who are looking for this. People want it; people will show up.”

The group hosted its first event, a Leather Dyke Picnic, in October. Since then, they’ve hosted two parties, including one as a fundraiser for Queer Expression in St. Petersburg, and organized a beach day.

They focus on working with DIY venues and local performers, as well as creating welcoming spaces, Robinson told Patch. “We want to make sure we are inclusive — across gender, race and the ability to attend. We’re providing spaces for people to come and see themselves in other people and really highlight the creatives that we have in this city. There are just so many people wanting to show off their talents and skills. We want to be a vehicle that drives that.”

Their upcoming Monday night party is a great way to celebrate community and kick off Pride season, they said. “We want people to come out and eat and drink and dance and really celebrate all forms of queer joy and especially queer joy as a form of protest and a form of resistance, especially considering the heated political times that we’re in and how we’re continuing to fight for our rights.”

Rowan added, “Especially during this time where there’s a lot of fear and anger and pressure for people to go back in the closet or leave the communities that they built and live in. We want a public space that is safe for us, that is by our community and for our community, just to party and to be with each other, just to take a rest from what is going on around us.”