Popular Milwaukee LGBTQ+ bar This Is It! announces permanent closure

Updated: Friday, March 14, at 11:54 a.m.

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- This Is It! shared a GoFundMe for staff members Thursday, organized by a former general manager.

"I could not in good conscience stand by and watch folks donate to other fees while I have staff wondering how they're gonna pay rent next month or where their next paycheck is coming from," it reads in part. 

The fundraiser had a starting goal of $10,000 and as of Friday, more than $19,000 had been raised. 

Updated: Thursday, March 13, at 3:04 p.m.: 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A GoFundMe has been set up for the former owner of This Is It!, the Milwaukee gay bar that closed suddenly last weekend. 

George Schneider has not spoken publicly since the bar closed, but the GoFundMe page says he organized the fund raiser. He explains that he used all his cash, life savings and everything he owned, trying to keep the bar open. But the money ran out, and now he is bankrupt and needs help paying legal fees. 

The goal for the GoFundMe is $7,000. At last check, more than $4,500 was raised. 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Wisconsin's oldest continually operating gay bar has closed.

This Is It! was founded in 1968 in downtown Milwaukee.

It has since been a popular gathering space for the city's LGBTQ+ community.

Patrons and performers tell CBS 58 the bar's sudden closure was a shock.

"I found out just like everyone else. I opened my Facebook app and there it was," said Tempestt Ballenger, who performed at This Is It! as DJ Femme Noir. "I thought it was a joke.

After seeing the news, Ballenger rallied community members together at nearby Cathedral Square Park for a dance party, bidding farewell to the Milwaukee institution.

"This was really that communal space that just kind of gathered people, especially with the ever-changing world that we're currently in," Ballenger said.

Now, outside the bar's shuttered doors are handwritten messages of love, thanks, and sadness.

"I was so shocked. I mean, people were asking if it was an April Fool's joke," said drag host and performer, Roxy Toxin. "It was so out of the blue that no one quite believed it yet."

A post on the bar's social media blames the Covid pandemic and last year's construction on E. Wells Street for loss of revenue.

"I came here Saturday, it was a nice crowd, and then you wake up the next morning and it's gone," said Aaleh Hughes, a show director at This Is It!.

As one of the oldest LGBTQ+ bars in the country, This Is It! had fame outside of Milwaukee.

Celebrity drag queen Trixie Mattel became a co-owner in 2021.

"It's the loss of a gig for hundreds of performers. This Is it! is, I would consider, the main spot for drag performances in Milwaukee," Roxy Toxin explained.

Performers say they wish something could be done to save the historic space.

"I just really hope that other spaces in the community really step up to fill the void that This Is it! is leaving, because it's a huge one," Toxin said.

"Something has to happen, because we have to be back here at This Is It!," Hughes said.

CBS 58 reached out to the bar's owners for a statement on their decision to close. We haven't heard back.

This summer would have marked the 57th year in business for This Is It!.