LET THERE BE LESBIANS: THE SAPPHIC PARTY SERIES BORN ON THE CENTRAL COAST

What is Let There Be Lesbians (LTBL)?

Let There Be Lesbians, also known as LTBL, is a sapphic-centered queer party series based on the Central Coast of California. Co-created by Renée Periat, Reese Galido, Julie Workman, and Noelle DuBois, Let There Be Lesbians was built to fill a gap that the queer community in San Luis Obispo had felt for years: a party that was intentionally, unapologetically for them.

There's something that happens when you walk into a room and realize it was made for you. Not tolerating you. Not technically including you. Made for you. The music, the crowd, the energy, all of it calibrated to a frequency you've felt your whole life but rarely heard played out loud in public.

That's what Let There Be Lesbians is. And if you've ever been in that room, you already know exactly what we mean.

Let There Be Lesbians didn't start as a grand vision or a formal business plan. It started the way the best things do - with a group of friends, a moment of inspiration, and the stubborn belief that their community deserved something that didn't yet exist. This is the story of how Let There Be Lesbians came together, why it keeps growing, and what it means to build a sapphic space from scratch in a small California city.

A Name Born from a T-Shirt

If you know Androgynous Fox, you might already recognize the phrase. "Let there be lesbians" was one of the slogans printed on an early Androgynous Fox t-shirt, a piece of text that resonated so deeply with the community that it took on a life of its own. When Renée and her co-founders were searching for a name for their new event, it was right there, already printed on a shirt, already beloved. It was the only name that made sense.

That's the thread connecting Let There Her Lesbians to Androgynous Fox, not just a shared founder, but a shared philosophy. Both were built because the market gap was personal. Both said: this should exist, and since it doesn't, we'll make it ourselves.

The Dinah Shore Moment

The origin story of Let There Be Lesbians has a very specific setting: a booth at the Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, the legendary annual event that calls itself the world's largest lesbian weekend pool party. Renée was there promoting Androgynous Fox. Reese was there, taking it all in. And somewhere between the pool and the go-go dancers and the thousands of queer women gathered in one place, the two of them looked at each other and the question was asked:

Why couldn't San Luis Obispo have something like this?

The question wasn't rhetorical. It was a starting gun. Reese described the moment plainly: seeing 6,000 lesbians in a pool and realizing she had never experienced anything like it and that she wanted to bring that feeling home.

From that weekend, a friendship sparked with go-go dancers Jazmine Black and Rachel Helzer, whose energy and ability to fill a room with warmth and magnetism made them an obvious centerpiece for whatever event was going to come next. The pieces were falling into place.

The First LTBL

In 2019, the first Let There Be Lesbians event was held at a dive bar called The Library in San Luis Obispo. Four co-founders made it happen: Renée Periat, Reese Galido, Julie Workman, and Noelle DuBois. Each brought something different to the table and together they built something the Central Coast queer community had been quietly waiting for.

The turnout was, by everyone's account, a shock. Not because the need wasn't obvious to the people organizing it, but because it's one thing to believe a community exists and another to watch it pour through a door all at once. The demand was real. The momentum was immediate. The first Let There Be Lesbians event proved what the co-founders had suspected: the market wasn't missing, just the space. Reese put it clearly: just because there aren't many lesbian bars doesn't mean people don't want to go out, meet each other, and feel that sense of gathering and community. That need is there. It always has been.

When COVID Stopped Everything

And then the pandemic hit.

Let There Be Lesbians came to a full stop along with the rest of communal life. But if anything, the years of isolation clarified just how important events like Let There Be Lesbians actually were. The absence of the thing made the need for it louder. When the world started opening back up, people started asking: when is Let There Be Lesbians coming back?

That question, asked again and again,was its own kind of answer. The community hadn't moved on. They were waiting for more LTBL.

A Queer-Supportive Venue Changes Everything

For years, Bang the Drum Brewery in San Luis Obispo, owned by Let There Be Lesbians co-founder Noelle DuBois, was more than just a venue. It was SLO's unofficial queer space. The kind of place where you could walk in and exhale. Where safety planning, de-escalation training, female security personnel, and a genuine commitment to queer values meant that the room felt held not just rented. For the local queer community, Bang the Drum wasn't a backdrop. It was a home base.

When Bang the Drum closed its doors in 2025, it hit the way losing any safe space hits - a reminder of how rare and precious those spaces actually are. In a country with only 27 lesbian bars left, every queer-centered venue that closes is a loss that lands in the body. The community felt it.

But this is exactly why Let There Be Lesbians exists. And exactly why it isn't stopping.

Because the need for a sapphic space on the Central Coast didn't close with those doors. If anything, it grew louder. Let There Be Lesbians found a new home at The Rock in San Luis Obispo, carrying everything it had built: the community, the energy, and the commitment to a safer space in this new chapter. The first event at The Rock has already happened. The next one is May 23rd, 2025. The room will be full. It always is.

Some things are too important to let go quiet.

What Happens in the Room

For those who haven't been: let us paint the picture. The dance floor fills with queer women from all walks of life: cisgender women, trans women, gender non-conforming humans, all of them welcome, all of them there for the same reason. Drag kings take the stage. Burlesque performers light up the room. Go-go dancers draw the crowd in. DJs have the place moving under neon lights and falling rainbow balloons. Reese MCs with the warmth and energy of someone who genuinely can't believe she gets to do this.

It is, by every account, a room that is hard to shake. The kind of party that lives in you for days after.

Visibility and Representation on Stage

From the beginning, the co-founders of Let There Be Lesbians have been intentional about who performs and who is centered in the room. DJ Suzette Lopez, one of the event's performers, has spoken about what it means to play music for a crowd where queer people of color are not just present but celebrated both on stage and on the dance floor.

Representation at Let There Be Lesbians isn't a checkbox. It's a design principle. When people see themselves on the stage, something shifts. The space stops being merely welcoming and starts being theirs.

Lopez described the feeling of looking out into a diverse crowd while spinning tracks that bring in different cultures and communities, watching people who didn't know the words dance anyway. That is what it looks like when a party is built right.

The Bigger Picture: Where Have All the Lesbian Bars Gone?

Let There Be Lesbians exists inside a broader and sobering reality: there are currently only 36* lesbian bars in the entire United States. That number has been in decline since the late 1980s, leaving a gap in sapphic community infrastructure that events like Let There Be Lesbians are imperfectly, joyfully, stubbornly trying to fill.

A recurring party series is not a lesbian bar. But it is a gathering place. It is a reason to show up, to find each other, to remember that the community is larger than any given Tuesday might suggest. And in a city like San Luis Obispo, where queer nightlife has historically been sparse, Let There Be Lesbians has become something close to an institution.

*The number of lesbian bars in the United States is constantly in flux. At the time of publishing there are approximately 36 remaining, though that number changes as bars open, close, and reopen. The Lesbian Bar Project tracks this in real time at lesbianbarproject.com.

Let There Be Lesbians has grown from a one-off library event into something with real momentum, a dedicated community, and a press record that includes coverage from KCBX Public Radio and Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine. The co-founders have talked openly about needing a bigger venue as the events keep outgrowing their current space which is the kind of problem that only happens when you've built something people genuinely love.

The vision has always been clear: bring the energy of Palm Springs' Dinah Shore Weekend to the Central Coast. Not a copy of it, but something native to this place, this community, these people. Something that says: you don't have to travel to find your people. Your people are here.

If you're on the Central Coast, or even if you're not, Let There Be Lesbians is worth the trip. Follow along at @let_there_be_lesbians on Instagram to stay up to date on upcoming events, announcements, and all the sapphic energy the Central Coast has to offer.

And if Let There Be Lesbians is new to you but the feeling it describes isn't, welcome. This community has room for you. You belong in this room.

Join us at our upcoming LTBL event SPRUNG! Happening on May 23rd starting at 7pm at SLO Brew Rock (855 Aerovista Pl, San Luis Obispo, CA). Link to tickets and more details can be found here. Hope to see you there!

Sources & Further Reading

Williams, Megan. "Let There Be Lesbians: The Party You Didn't Know You Needed." Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine, May 26, 2023. https://lasvegaspride.org/2023/05/26/let-there-be-lesbians/

Gabriel, Erick. "In Between: Let There Be Lesbians Creates a Sapphic Space in SLO County." KCBX Public Radio, April 20, 2023. https://www.kcbx.org/culture-and-identity/2023-04-20/in-between-let-there-be-lesbians-creates-a-sapphic-space-in-slo-county