A lesbian bar in Massachusetts has faced a furious backlash after relaxing its compulsory mask policy for one night a week, with critics accusing its owners of abandoning immunocompromised customers and describing them as “eugenicists”.
The Last Ditch Bar in Greenfield had required customers to wear a well-fitted KN-95 respirator mask at all times, except when taking a sip of a drink or eating. The venue described masks as “safety belts for the face”.
Last month, owner Jackie Matellian announced that Saturday nights would become “mask optional”, saying the change was intended to help the struggling business host club nights with DJs, themes and a full capacity.
In a statement to the bar’s 11,300 Instagram followers, management wrote: “It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as ‘mask optional’.”
The post added: “Our mission is to also make the space work for everyone and everything radical, sometimes that’s being wild!”
The decision prompted hundreds of angry comments, including calls for a boycott and threats of violence. Some critics accused the owners of putting disabled people at risk in pursuit of extra revenue.
One commenter called for the venue to be burnt down, while another accused its management of trying to “kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience”. The remarks were allegations made by protesters, rather than established findings.
The Last Ditch later apologised, writing: “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.”
That apology brought further criticism because it was not accompanied by “alternative text”, a written description intended to make online content more accessible to visually impaired people.
Last Ditch Bar’s strict house rules
The basement venue’s rules state that racism, misogynoir, transmisogyny, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
They also say that nobody may touch another person, including their wheelchair, cane or hearing aid, without express verbal consent. Another rule states that people will not be refused entry because they lack money and that poor and unhoused people are welcome.
Customers who failed to comply with the mask requirement could be asked to leave, although the rules said they might first be offered an opportunity to take part in an “accountability process”.
The controversy comes as the bar struggles financially. It opened last year and was founded by three housemates in their twenties, two of whom have since left. Ms Matellian has said the business was unable to meet its costs and faced the prospect of closure.
During a community meeting held to discuss the row, heavily masked attendees sat in a circle on the floor around a stripper pole and began with a calm breathing exercise.
The three-and-a-half-hour meeting was then disrupted by a black founder of another Covid-conscious collective, who criticised the white therapist leading the session. Participants joining by Zoom reportedly suggested that the therapist was an agent of the state and described her presence as unsafe.
Ms Matellian became tearful after revealing that she was living in her car, owed the landlord nearly £3,000 and was struggling to repay the £38,000 loan taken out to launch the bar. She was nevertheless accused by some attendees of displaying “WHITE THEY/THEM TEARS”.
The dispute has since spread well beyond Greenfield. Thousands of comments appeared online, with many people expressing disbelief that a compulsory mask rule remained in place in 2026 and questioning why its relaxation had caused such outrage.
Jaron Zhou, a former senior executive at the prediction market website Kalshi, wrote: “This legitimately reads like a parody of what people think too woke is like.”
Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz also commented on the dispute, saying: “Wow. I honestly did not know that there was a single place on the planet – in 2026 – that still had an idiotic mask mandate.”
Greenfield is a liberal town in Massachusetts, but the dispute reflects a wider divide among people who continue to regard mask-wearing as a social justice issue and those who believe pandemic restrictions should have ended.
Supporters of the so-called “Covid-conscious” or “Evermasker” movement argue that declining to wear a mask can be discriminatory, while critics say the Last Ditch controversy illustrates how politically charged the issue remains.
For the bar, the change was presented as an attempt to keep the venue open. Instead, it has exposed a bitter dispute among the very community it was set up to serve.
