Maher blasts ‘intolerant left’ after Massachusetts lesbian bar faces fury for tweaking COVID-era mask policy
Comedian Bill Maher took aim at his own side of the aisle Friday night, mocking far-left critics who torched a struggling Massachusetts lesbian bar for daring to go mask-optional one night a week.
During Friday’s episode of HBO’s "Real Time," Maher weighed in on the viral story regarding Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue — a lesbian bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts that drew national headlines this week after the Boston Globe reported on a slew of community backlash surrounding the businesses’ decision to lift its COVID-era mask mandate for one night each week.
"Here's what's going on at the Last Ditch Bar," Maher said, adding, "It's a very woke bar, which is fine. Their mission statement [is], ‘For dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers and friends.’"
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"I love the way workers and friends are fourth and fifth on the list," Maher joked.
The comedian went on to delve into the bar's financial struggles. The Boston Globe reported that more patrons had said they could not afford the cover charge, and the bar allowed them in anyway.
"But economically, it wasn't working," Maher said. "Because even though there was a cover charge, if you couldn't pay, they wouldn't make you pay. Homeless, they were welcome in there. Not the cops, but the homeless. But also, it was masked"
Maher later pointed out that ‘because they're losing money, one of the owners was living in her truck."
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In an attempt to keep the doors open, Last Ditch made the decision to lift its strict KN-95 mask mandate one night each week — Saturdays — and allow patrons inside without the COVID-era face coverings, according to the Boston Globe.
"It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional," Last Ditch wrote in an Aug. 31 Instagram post.
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The backlash was swift, with locals flocking to a monthly community meeting on Sept. 11 to air their grievances, the outlet reported.
Virtual attendees were quick to criticize the bar owners for their decision, with the meeting taking another turn when some critics objected to a mediator, a licensed therapist who is White.
"A lot of people are calling for an acknowledgment of harm and I’m hearing a WHITE therapist … center[ing] the feelings of a majority white and white adjacent staff," one person said, the newspaper reported.
Maher took issue with the far-left bar patrons' apparent lack of understanding of the situation and blasted their intolerance toward the business.
"And of course, the tolerant left did what they always do — became very intolerant and left," Maher said.
He went on to point to comments reportedly made by critics of the bar.
"And statements like, ‘People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience,’ and ‘I hope your venue gets firebombed.’ This is what I'm talking about. This level of hatred that is out there."
Maher's criticism of the political left was noted by NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham, who pointed out what he viewed as hypocrisy on both sides.
"This whole story went viral because it's shocking that a mask mandate is still in place at a bar in 2026. I imagine many people can feel more than a hint of the old COVID authoritarianism in the virulent leftist reaction to a single mask-optional night at this establishment," Graham told Fox News Digital. "These same people are probably furious at the Boston Globe for publishing this story. They don't care that the bar was a financial mess."
Graham added that Maher seems to have a pet peeve about liberals who preach tolerance but, in Maher's view, fail to practice it.
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"Bill Maher has a tendency to go against the dominant grain and can be savage about left-wing intolerance even though he was a massive supporter of Barack Obama," Graham said. "He's been very rough on organized religion, and can bring the pain to other strains of fundamentalism."
Fox News Digital reached out to Last Ditch Bar for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
