The Gay Bar Issue: Queer establishments in Jacksonville at risk of closure

The Walrus, one of Jacksonville’s few queer-owned establishments, is among the next bars at risk of closing, according to owner Alexander Eli Michael.

According to an Oberlin study, the number of queer bars is declining nationwide, finding that the number of gay bars in the U.S. dropped about 15% between 2019 and spring 2021. This is a large part of a decline of more than 36% between 2007 and 2019, with bars serving LGBTQ+ people of color populations hit hardest, research by Oberlin College professor Greggor Mattson.

“More than a third of gay bars closed in a 12-year period,”  Mattson said in an interview with ABC7. “And yet, in most parts of the country, gay bars are the only public LGBTQ+ place.”

Save the Walrus: Crowdfunding

For UNF students, The Walrus feels permanent. It’s the Tuesday karaoke spot, the venue where campus bands play their first shows, and a place patrons like Quinn Gomez say feels “like home.” 

Behind the karaoke or open mic nights, Michael says the bar is struggling to stay open.

“Every month is like a journey and trying to figure that out,” Michael said.

Michael has run The Walrus for nearly five years, stepping in after the friends who originally opened it struggled to get it off the ground. 

On Sept. 20, The Walrus posted a message to its Instagram followers: “REAL TALK: WE HAVE 48 HOURS TO SAVE THE WALRUS AGAIN :(” The post asked the bar’s 17,000 followers to each chip in a dollar.

Michael wrote that the Walrus’s financial troubles mirrored a national trend.

“Let’s talk about how 98% of small businesses are failing within the first five years in this country,” he wrote, adding that rising rents and costs since the pandemic have hit small, community-run venues especially hard. 

“This isn’t about hard work or better business plans. It’s systemic,” he wrote, arguing that entrepreneurship increasingly requires generational wealth, private equity backing, or luck to survive.

“America is tired, overworked, underpaid and over it, and we all need a space to find the spirit to do it again another day,” Michael wrote.

Less than 48 hours later, the bar had raised more than $11,000 across Venmo, Cash App and in-store cash donations, enough, Michael said, to cover the bar’s past-due rent for a second time. 

Hamburger Mary’s 2.0
On Sept. 20, The Walrus posted to social media for a second time, asking its 17 thousand followers to donate to help the bar make its rent.

Across the street from The Walrus sits the remnants of Hamburger Mary’s 2.0. A giant French fry costume sits behind the semi-covered glass doors, glaring back at those who pass by the venue’s shuttered doors.

Hamburger Mary’s, a drag-themed bar and restaurant, opened in 2012 and closed its original Beach Boulevard location after a 2023 electrical fire, according to Jacksonville Today.

Hamburger Mary’s later reopened in Murray Hill in February 2025 under new owner Jordyn Shepherd, across the street from The Walrus.

Shepherd, a performer who worked at Jacksonville’s original Hamburger Mary’s, told the Florida Times-Union in November 2024 that she “sold my house to make this work.”

Court records show a judge issued an eviction order that month, First Coast News reported.

Shepherd ran two public fundraisers earlier that year, including a $7,000 GoFundMe citing rent, operating costs and a broken air conditioner unit, and denied online allegations that she’d failed to pay staff, according to First Coast News.

The popular drag venue closed for good in July 2026, just eighteen months after it reopened. First Coast News reported a handwritten sign was taped to the door.

Bo’s Coral Reef

Hamburger Mary’s isn’t the only queer establishment to close its doors despite widespread acclaim; the first Jacksonville gay bar, “Bo’s Coral Reef,” closed in 2019.

In 1964, Roverta “Bo” Boen opened the first gay bar in Duval County, a Jacksonville Beach cocktail lounge that grew into Bo’s Coral Reef, according to News4Jax. Known for its drinks, music and drag shows, the bar spent more than five decades as a fixture of the city’s LGBTQ nightlife. 

In January 2019, Bo’s owners announced on social media that they were selling the bar and that it would close for good. 

“Tonight I want to announce that I am selling the bar and we will be closing our doors for the final time on Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 2 a.m.,” the post read, according to News4Jax. “The Bo’s Family will forever be grateful for the gratitude and love shown by every person that has walked through our doors.”

Less than a month later, the bar hosted a “Last Dance” farewell disco party on its last night before closing after 55 years, ending one of the longest runs any LGBTQ+ venue in Jacksonville has had.

“The patina of the place”

Running a bar that doesn’t pressure anyone to drink and funding a vegan-based menu comes at a cost, Michael said. 

“The financial model is for alcohol to exist, and that’s very real,” Michael said of bars like his. Rising food prices make it worse, especially with a fully vegan, made-from-scratch menu. “Food costs are really high, and I don’t know what the answer is in terms of financial stability,” he said.

Still, he’s held the line on turning people away from The Walrus. “No one turned away for lack of funds,” Michael said. “If all you can afford is the free water out of the cooler all night, you can come and hang out here and no one’s gonna bother you about it.” 

That generosity has limits, Michael said, reportedly getting “a little spicy” watching kids bring in drinks bought elsewhere instead of supporting the bar itself.

“Support your local trans person, that’s working their ass off trying to keep this place alive,” Michael said.

Love for The Walrus

Robert Kuropkat, a sophomore English and philosophy major at UNF, plays in the band Strung, formerly Quarter Life Crisis, which performed at The Walrus for a Student for Democratic Society fundraiser.

Most Jacksonville bars are “very cover-oriented,” Kuropkat said, wanting familiar songs over original, heavier material. 

The Walrus was one of the few places built to let a band like his actually experiment, which is part of why its recent financial troubles hit Kuropkat harder than he expected. 

“I was not happy when I saw they might have to shut down, because that was the coolest lighting I’ve seen in a long time,” he said. “The Walrus was a place to experiment with new music. So losing a place to experiment with that is pretty difficult. Pretty big blow.”

Quinn Gomez, a third-year Information Science major at UNF, says the stakes are less about the lighting and more about what the bar offers that most everyday spaces don’t. 

“Non-queer people, there’s not really any designated spaces they can go, because they kind of have the whole world as their oyster,” Gomez said. “Whereas for queer people, it’s kind of harder for us to get around, because we’re often looked at strangely in most everyday spaces.”

“I struggle to keep the doors open,” Michael said. “But I think we can make it.”

In less than 48 hours, The Walrus raised over $11k to pay the building’s rent and fees, according to an Instagram post.

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