As summer in western Massachusetts came to a close, a tiny lesbian bar in a town of fewer than 20,000 people suddenly became the subject of national media attention. This was no accident. The virality around a conflict about Covid-conscious masking between hyperlocal queer community members was instigated by a podcast known for surfacing niche dramas involving progressive politics and LGBTQ people that cast everyone involved in as unflattering of a light as possible.

One sure sign that this small-town Massachusetts lesbian bar story wasn’t brought about with pure intentions is that Harry Potter author-turned-full-time transphobic culture war leader J.K. Rowling was highly invested in it from the start, arguing in random X replies about where the story originated from. Why would a British billionaire care about a few dozen feuding LGBTQ people in western Massachusetts? I wonder if it has something to do with the discriminatory political movement she’s invested her entire life into? 

Despite the fairly obvious agenda behind this story, which no one involved in is making any real attempts to hide, the conflict between the bar owner, some of her patrons, and a few internet outsiders has whipped up a frenzy on all sides of the political spectrum online. Almost everyone seems to be in agreement that it’s fine to mock and bully the antagonists in this story, because they behaved in an antisocial, objectionable, and even cruel manner. The irony that the viral mockery and harassment is also antisocial, objectionable, and cruel on a much larger scale has been lost. 

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Let me explain what actually happened with this lesbian bar first.