New queer women's club launches for Southern Decadence in New Orleans

The big picture: There are only a few dozen or so lesbian bars left in the U.S., Axios' Annalise Frank has reported, and even those spaces are dwindling.

• LGBTQ bars and other spaces offer safe havens for people in communities that have been targeted by a spiking number of hate crimes.

Zoom in: "Secret societies are just needed right now," Clark tells Axios New Orleans. "Exclusive activity is needed right now."

• Clark, who also works for Black Pride, spent a good part of the summer seeing Pride events in other parts of the country and came home to New Orleans with the resolve to carve out a space more specifically for women and nonbinary people.

What they're saying: "Even in spaces that say they're for everyone in the LGBTQ community ... they're usually still male-centered," Clark says. "They're not really for us."

• "You still want to go out and do all these things, but I also don't want to necessarily be surrounded by men. I love men, and I love their community but that's not why I go out."

So, Clark created Where the Femmes Frolick, a queer women-centered membership club. Its first event is Friday at the Railyard, a new queer-centric, clothing-optional pool club in the Bywater.

• Clark is working to build out the membership benefits to include mental and physical health resources as well as parties and social events.
• "It's a total, well-rounded space for all of us to come together and actually be where we need to be with each other in the days and times we're in," she says.

If you go: Tickets for the Where The Femmes Frolick pool party are $50 and include two drinks and Friday access at the Railyard.

• Southern Decadence has a full list of its related events here.
• That celebration culminates in a Sunday parade, which starts at 5pm this year. Route.