Urban Cowgirls Saloon (Jackson Mississippi Lesbian Bar/70's and 80's)

Urban Cowgirls Saloon — Jackson, Mississippi Lesbian Bar Tee

Urban Cowgirls Saloon. Jackson, Mississippi. Where the girls were cowboys, too.

Located at 944 Robinson Road in Jackson, Mississippi, Urban Cowgirls Saloon was part of a particularly wonderful tradition of Southern lesbian nightlife, where cowboy boots, blue jeans, country music, and a little attitude made for a very good night out.

And what a name. Urban Cowgirls perfectly captured the intersection of Southern country culture and lesbian identity. Why should the boys have all the fun with the boots, buckles, and tight-fitting Wranglers?

For generations, lesbian bars provided something essential that was often missing from the wider gay nightlife scene: spaces created specifically for women. They were places to dance, flirt, make friends, fall in love, break up, and occasionally run into the woman you'd broken up with the previous weekend.

In the American South, those spaces carried particular importance. Mississippi wasn't exactly famous for making queer life easy, and establishments like Urban Cowgirls offered an opportunity for women to find community outside the expectations of traditional Southern society.

The country-and-western aesthetic had its own special place in lesbian culture, too. Denim, flannel, leather belts, cowboy hats, and boots weren't simply fashion choices. For many women, they were expressions of independence, masculinity, sexuality, and the freedom to dress exactly as they pleased.

And while the history of gay nightlife tends to focus on famous clubs in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, places like Urban Cowgirls remind us that queer communities were building their own worlds in Mississippi, too.