philly's queer women's sports bar is done. in august the owner apologized. last week she blamed "lies."

via the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Gay News and 6abc

Last call was set for Sunday. Marsha's, the South Street bar that opened in September 2025 as Philadelphia's first queer women's sports bar, said on Instagram Thursday that it was closing "for good," and that its final shift would be Sunday, Oct. 18, according to Philadelphia Gay News and the Inquirer.

"We have loved serving this community, and still believe that more than ever this city needs more women/queer/BIPOC-owned businesses," the post said. "We sincerely hope that someone is able to step up and fill this void." It gave no reason, 6abc noted.

The owner did, to the Inquirer. "Unfortunately, a former employee was spreading lies about myself and the company," Chivonn Anderson said. "It just really affected our business and how the community saw us, and business just never kind of rebounded from that."

what happened in the spring

That former employee is Olivia Rhodes, a bartender who, after she was fired, accused the bar in a since-deleted video of not being a safe space for Black, trans and queer people, the Inquirer reported. Other former employees and patrons shared similar experiences. In April, Anderson said in a video that the claims "could not be further from the truth." Then, in a virtual listening session in August, Anderson gave what PGN described as an emotional apology and said the bar was reviewing its practices.

Rhodes is not moving. On Thursday she posted to her Instagram story, per the Inquirer: "She'd rather close the bar down than acknowledge and rectify the harm she caused."

So a bar opened for a community that keeps losing its bars (Philly lost Toasted Walnut in the pandemic, PGN points out) is now one more of them. It planned regular hours through that final weekend, with games on. The staff found out before the rest of us and, per the Inquirer, are being helped to find new jobs.