Photo by Marie Schneider, Wild Elegance Photography
Milwaukee made the national news again earlier this month. No, it wasn’t the exasperating report about the Wisconsin State Assembly’s Republican death cult undoing Governor Evers’ mask mandate. Rather, it was good news for a change—a business headline announcing a new commercial partnership between internationally renowned drag queen Trixie Mattel (Brian Firkus when in mufti) and George Schneider, owner of This Is It, Wisconsin’s oldest gay bar and one of the oldest in the country. The arrangement ensures the venerable Milwaukee venue of continued success and longevity.
This Is It had been hanging in there despite the rigors of conducting business during a pandemic. Given the thousands of patron-dependent food and beverage enterprises throughout the country that have closed due to the negative economic impact of the pandemic, This Is It’s survival is something of an accomplishment. In fact, the health regulations put in place to fight the pandemic spread have been a major hurdle for most businesses to overcome. However, at the outset of COVID-19, This Is It was a leader in compliance with measures intended to protect the public from the spread of the virus. It also was the first of Cream City’s LGBTQ bars to initiate a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to both pay staff and remain viable. This Is It had just renovated and expanded its space with all the costs that that entailed with an expectation of a windfall 2020 summer. In addition to the annual frenzy of festivals and street life, the Democratic National Convention would take place right down the road. All those expectations of income collapsed with the arrival of the corona virus. But the debt remained. In its effort to keep not only the business open but also support its coterie of employees and performers, beyond the GoFUndMe campaign, This Is It contrived some very creative, safe alternatives to live performances, like streamed virtual drag shows during which audience members could still tip the cast by using online payment apps. In response to the cancellation of PrideFest, its Pride weekend drag extravaganza provided a traditional but virtual entertainment line-up. Now, as fate would have it, with a fresh partnership that brings not only a financial investment but also its celebrity brand, name recognition, fame and cachet to the table, all those strategies have paid off with a brighter post-COVID future in the offing.
To be fair, This Is It is not the only LGBTQ to have weathered the pandemic with sensible strategies to protect its customers and staff. The city’s LGBTQ bar scene’s early compliance with the realities of COVID-19 allowed them enough income to survive. Hamburger Mary’s staged its famous drag shows in its parking lot, with performers wearing face shields and patrons watching from their cars. Other venues installed safety features like Plexiglas to separate bartenders from their clientele.
Meanwhile, today, the social media page Milwaukee Gay Nightlife lists bar events as before the pandemic’s first months of near apocalyptic panic. The only noticeable difference is the well-publicized requirement for patrons to wear masks. Of course, bars enforce social distancing and limit occupancy according to city regulations.
This Is It’s good fortune in Trixie Mattel’s partnership will certainly be a boon to Milwaukee’s LGBTQ quality of bar life after the pandemic. Still, thanks to our bars’ history of conscientious response to the pandemic (they’re well practiced, after all) and with vaccinations now slowly but surely reaching the general population, it appears as though the city’s LGBTQ entertainment scene will return to its former vibrancy. It may be the Roaring Twenties, part II.
