Credit card debt saved Stonewall, and changed lives

Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, says she went into credit card debt to buy the iconic New York bar in 2006 after hearing it would close—then poured effort into keeping queer history alive while backing queer futures through the Stonewall Inn Gives

Stacy Lentz still remembers the moment she and her co-owners realized they might lose the Stonewall Inn.

In 2006, she and her co-owner Kurt Kelly heard the bar was shutting down. What followed wasn’t a business plan written on a whiteboard—it was a decision that required immediate risk. Lentz says she went into credit card debt to buy the Stonewall Inn. along with two other partners. because preserving the site for their community felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

She had been around queer spaces for years. In her 20s. after moving to New York City. she found “my people” the first time she walked into a gay bar at age 24. Later. she spent a lot of time in LGBTQ+ bars. including a piano bar three buildings down from the Stonewall Inn that she grew to love. There she became a regular and befriended its manager, Kurt Kelly, who has since become like a brother to her.

The Stonewall Inn itself had already left an impression. Lentz said she’d walked into it before in the 90s, when the site wasn’t being treated with historic reverence. In 2006, the threat of closure changed that—pushing her and her partners to act.

Buying a landmark came with a harsh start. Lentz described the first year as difficult, marked by a roof collapse that required major work on the building. The effort paid off commercially in the short term: she says she made her investment back within the first couple of years.

But she stresses that profit wasn’t the goal. “I haven’t made much,” she said, adding that the arrangement is transparent. The bar’s rent is $55,000 a month, and she framed it in everyday terms: that’s a lot of vodka soda to sell.

For Lentz, the obligation is larger than revenue. She sees herself and her co-owners as stewards of a place with responsibilities to both the past and the future. When the group purchased the Stonewall Inn, she said there was nothing about the history of the Stonewall Inn displayed. Today, she points to historic artifacts inside—among them the original “raided property” sign from 1969. Upstairs, she says there’s a community center where they host everything from fundraisers to weddings.

That mission—history with forward motion—became formal in 2017. Lentz says that’s when her co-owners and she started a nonprofit called the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative. The organization provides safe-space training to other establishments and offers support to LGBTQ+ people in places where it is “most difficult to be queer. ” including Mississippi. Uganda. and Kansas. the state where Lentz grew up.

The nonprofit’s budget is small, between $60,000 and $120,000 a year. Lentz acknowledges the limits, but insists the work matters. If the owners relied only on the Inn’s legacy. she said it would become “branding.” That’s why she and her co-owners are determined to do more than honor what the Stonewall Inn represents—pushing it to create a measurable impact on the future of the LGBTQ+ community.

The thread connecting all of these decisions is simple and personal: the idea that saving a historic place doesn’t end with preserving walls. For Lentz. it begins by taking on real financial risk to stop a closure. then keeping that momentum going through training. support. and a community center built into the building itself.

Stonewall Inn Stacy Lentz Kurt Kelly LGBTQ+ community credit card debt nonprofit Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative safe-space training rent New York City Mississippi Uganda Kansas historic artifacts