HOUSTON, Texas — June is Pride Month, and we’re celebrating some of the amazing people who are blazing trails in the LGBTQ+ community.

Julie Mabry is the owner of Pearl Bar Houston, Houston’s only lesbian bar, and Side Peace Sports Bar, Houston’s first women’s sports bar. She says it was a longtime goal of hers to create a safe space where people can come and be accepted for who they are.

“I opened Pearl because when I was about sixteen, my sister, who is also gay, she had a lot of hardships,” said Mabry. “I don’t think it was so much the coming out, but in the eighties, when she started to find her identity, we went to a gay club in San Antonio, Texas, and I noticed that her whole demeanor changed. She felt safe, and that just resonated with me, and it became a goal, a dream of mine to be able to provide that type of space.”

Mabry first opened Pearl Bar in 2013, hoping to provide Houston’s LGBTQ+ community with a place to connect with others, build friendships and feel at home.

“The experience that I hope people have when they come to Pearl Bar, which is something that I’ve witnessed thousands of times, that there are actually bars that specifically cater to the lesbian-trans community. Most people don’t even realize that we exist, and/or that there’s only two in Texas.”

She opened Side Peace Sports earlier this year next door to Pearl Bar.

“Side Peace Sports is a new concept that we started that is more focused on women’s sports,” said Mabry. “We obviously show all sports. We let everybody in, as long as they’re respectful to our community.”

Click on the video above to see the difference that both spaces are making in the community!