“We’ve been fortunate to hang on this long, whereas others have not, but we’re just as vulnerable as everyone else.
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While Matula successfully applied for a Small Business Administration loan and was approved through the Payroll Protection Program, he said the government funding was only designed to help the bar subsist “two to maybe four months.” Even with the steady rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Eagle L.A. Charlie Matula, who has co-owned the seminal leather bar since 2005, noted that the business has lost up to $20,000 every month it has been shut down.
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restaurant after the national drag burger chain’s Chicago outpost closed in November.Īmong the most ambitious goals is the Eagle L.A., which has set a crowdfunding goal of $240,000 after the pandemic forced the bar’s closure in March. Hamburger Mary’s has brought in just over $10,000 to save its L.A. offshoot of Gym Bar, a popular gay sports bar in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, is hoping to raise $50,000 toward a planned new location after permanently shuttering its West Hollywood location in July. The New Jalisco Bar, one of the city’s only dedicated spaces for the LGBTQ+ Latinx community, is seeking $80,000 in donations after reportedly owing 10 months in back rent to the bar’s landlord. While Oliver Alpuche notes that he was initially “hesitant” to ask for money at a time when so many are struggling, his bar isn’t the only queer business fighting for survival in L.A. Every time you do something to survive, it gets shut down or taken away," says Alpuche. You can’t do anything to even try to get out. You do get this feeling of ‘When do you throw in the towel?’ because you’re buried and you can't get out. “It’s extremely hard to stay positive when it's been this long. “ As first-generation, immigrant children, we did not come from much, but my brother is a model of what success looks like - passion and love overcoming the odds - and now we will lose a piece of our community if we don’t act soon.” “If you know my brother, he is always willing to do whatever he can for his community,” Dominic Alpuche writes on the campaign page. At the time of publication, the crowdfunding effort is just over a quarter of the way there, sitting at just over $29,000. To ensure that Redline is able to survive the pandemic, Alpuche’s twin brother, Dominic, created a GoFundMe campaign on the bar’s behalf, with a goal set of $100,000. So then you end up now 10 months later, you’ve tried everything you can to stay afloat, and you’re in this sea of rubble with your hands cuffed.”
![the original eagle gay bar the original eagle gay bar](https://manhattan.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20090740/main_rotate_3.jpg)
Every time you do something to survive, it gets shut down or taken away. “You do get this feeling of ‘When do you throw in the towel?’ because you’re buried and you can't get out. “It’s extremely hard to stay positive when it's been this long,” Alpuche said.