Houston's only lesbian bar denied insurance for hosting drag shows

Julie Mabry remembers walking with her sister into the Bonham Exchange, San Antonio's iconic queer bar, for the first time in 1989. "I just saw a completely different person. She was just happy, she was in a great mood," Mabry said. 

Mabry had watched her sister struggle for years before that night: "From a very young age, my sister's identity was more like a boy," Mabry explained. "And we didn't have these terms, we didn't have this knowledge when we were kids. It's just how she was born." 

After watching her fight through years of isolation and addiction, Mabry says the memory of her sister's happiness that night in San Antonio inspired her to open Pearl Bar, the only remaining lesbian-specific bar in Houston.