D.C. lost yet another LGBTQ nightlife venue on Tuesday with the announcement that Cobalt, located at 1639 R St. NW, has closed its doors for good.
Owner Eric Little confirmed the closure in a message posted to the club’s Facebook page.
“It’s no secret that the building that housed Cobalt and the adjacent property recently sold,” Little wrote. “With the combination of the sale of the buildings, the start of demolition, costly infrastructure repairs and upgrades that we would need to shoulder to remain open for the short remainder of our lease (without an opportunity to extend the lease) along with a slow decline in sales we decided it was the right time to close the business to focus on our other businesses and some personal family needs.”
Even prior to Little’s announcement, speculation about the club’s fate had swirled for weeks, and hit fever-pitch after a photo was posted to Facebook showing the club’s main entrance door with a sign reading “CLOSED FOR WATER PROLBEMS” (sic) posted on the glass.
In the Facebook post, Little thanked the customers and staff who contributed to the club during its two-decade run, saying he was proud of Cobalt’s legacy.
“The gay bar industry has been changing over the past few years with the popularity of dating apps, changing social norms, and pop-up parties/events at non-gay venues and we applaud these evolutions as positive progress,” Little wrote. “And it is our hope that patrons will encourage these businesses to support the greater LGBT community to continue the good work and social change that Cobalt and all of the many other gay bars, restaurants, and businesses (past and present) have worked so hard to achieve.
“We understand the property will be redeveloped into residential use and we wish the new building owners and future residents the best of success and hope that the buildings will bring them all as much joy and happiness as it has brought the entire Cobalt family.”
The Montana Supreme Court upheld a lower court order blocking the state from enforcing policies that prevent transgender people from obtaining identity documents that reflect their gender identity.
In 2021, Montana lawmakers passed a law restricting transgender people from obtaining birth certificates that reflect their gender identity unless they provide a court order showing they have undergone gender confirmation surgery. Two transgender people challenged the law, and a district judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking its enforcement.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a new rule that would allow federally funded shelters and temporary housing providers to discriminate based on gender.
Under the proposal, homeless shelters and other housing providers could bar transgender people from single-sex facilities that do not match their assigned sex at birth.
The rule removes all references to "gender" and "gender identity" from HUD regulations, replacing them with "sex," as defined by an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year. The order states that federal agencies will recognize only a person's assigned sex at birth on government-issued documents and for purposes of accessing government services or housing options.
Under Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican is continuing a friendlier approach to LGBTQ Catholics adopted during Pope Francis's papacy.
While the Church has no intention of changing its doctrine on marriage -- recognizing only unions between a man and a woman -- the Vatican has signaled that it intends to continue Francis's outreach to gay and lesbian Catholics rather than adopt a more condemnatory tone.
Catholic LGBTQ advocates were elated last week after a Vatican working group -- comprised of theologians, bishops, priests, a sister, and a layperson -- released a report featuring testimony from two gay married Catholics who spoke about their sexuality, faith, and the harm caused by the Church's negative teachings on homosexuality.
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