A vehicle is parked abruptly within a neighborhood gravel driveway. The air outside is dry and dust covers the surrounding cars, leaving a fuzzy, thin layer of light brown on the hoods. There's a faint sound of the Deschutes River mumbling in the distance, and the...

According to ‘The Lesbian Bar Project’ there are currently twenty-seven lesbian bars in the United States. 

One bar was left out of the documentary, and that bar is none other than “Doc Maries” of Portland, Oregon. The bar is owned by siblings Olga Bichko and Dmitri Bichko. 

The bar’s opening was shortly followed by its closing, with a reopening at the end of August 2022. The details of the opening, closing, and reopening of the bar have been covered in grave detail by the Oregonian and other well-acclaimed news sources. Yet few have taken the time to ask why Doc Marie’s opened in the first place. 

Within this article, and an attached in-depth podcast, we aim to answer the question with Olga Bichko about what inspired her to fill the lesbian bar void that was left empty, and her opinion on why there are only twenty-eight lesbian bars within the United States.