Trixie gay bar
Home / places venues / Trixie gay bar
We want you to know that we did everything we could to keep our doors open for you.”
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
“When I bought in during COVID, every gay bar was doing horribly — every bar, every restaurant, every business,” Mattel on her podcast, The Bald and the Beautiful, after This Is It!
shut down suddenly on March 9.
“And I came in during COVID and it was like, ‘Alright, now we got two people on CPR instead of just one, let’s try to troubleshoot this,” Mattel said of reviving the business with co-owner Schneider, who bought the bar from founders June Brehm and her son Joseph in 2012.
This Is It!, known by locals as Tits, opened in 1968 and was Wisconsin’s long-running gay bar and one of the oldest in the United States.
The bar was a center for fundraising for both the LGBTQ+ community and its Milwaukee neighbors, with beneficiaries like the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the G/L Community Fund.
I’ve done dozens of shows there over the years.”
This Is It! closed despite Mattel’s efforts to raise its profile nationally. pic.twitter.com/reiudURNLw
— Drag Crave (@Drag_Crave) March 10, 2025In an emotional social media post, Schneider detailed the uphill battle the bar faced—pandemic closures, skyrocketing inflation, and a disastrous eight-month construction project that tanked revenue by more than 50%.
However, after years of financial struggle, including the impact of construction projects and pandemic restrictions, Schneider closed its doors for good on March 9. “It has been a gathering place, a safe place, a second home, and the memories made at the bar will stay in our hearts forever. “That’s the bar that I got my first drink at, that’s the bar I met boyfriends at, I met my roommates there, I loved performing there.
With so many historic gay bars shuttering due to financial hardships, the loss of this institution feels particularly heavy. And we would’ve been dragged for asking for help.”
This Is It! wasn’t just a bar—it was a landmark. Despite his efforts to expand and improve the bar, including a significant investment in 2019, the business faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and never fully recovered.
The bar, which has stood since 1968, was co-owned by George Schneider and drag superstar Trixie Mattel. Co-owner George Schneider, who first started bartending at This Is It! in 2010 before taking ownership in 2012, poured everything he had into keeping the bar afloat. A cocktail of financial struggles, post-pandemic fallout, and never-ending construction that crippled business.
He admitted to personally draining his savings to keep This Is It! alive but ultimately concluded, “It would’ve been irresponsible of us to think that throwing more money at the problem would fix it.”
Naturally, the internet went wild with speculation. The news came as a shock to many fans, who didn’t realize the establishment was in danger of shutting down.
The closing of a venue like This Is It! is a painful reminder that queer spaces are not guaranteed—they need community support to survive.
For now, Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ nightlife has lost one of its oldest, most cherished pillars. Trixie Mattel also posted a tribute, sharing her memories of the bar as the first queer space she ever visited.
Happening Out Television Network