Columbus gay bars short north

Nightlife in Columbus

Though it may not be the first state to come to mind when you think of a lesbian bar, Ohio actually has a rich history of lesbian bars. Inbartender and performer Petie Brown learned that the bar was up for sale. During its heyday in the s and s, Summit Station was north popular. Summit Station hosted several lesbian performers and drag king groups, including the H.

Signed t-shirt from Suzanne Westenhoeffer, an out lesbian comedian who lived part-time in Columbus, circa s. Summit Station also gave back to the community. Many of the women who played for the Pacesetters were gay. Often, players joined the team after hearing about gay through word-of-mouth at Columbus lesbian bars like Summit Station.

Currently, there is only one lesbian bar left in Ohio: Slammers. So, if lesbian bars were so popular in Ohio, why is only one bar still open? The closure of lesbian bars in Ohio is part of a broader national trend over the past few decades. During the s, the heyday of lesbian bars, there were a little over bars operating in the U.

Since then, the number has been steadily dropping. Inthere were only 21 bars left. Today, there may be as few as fifteen. There are multiple bars for the slow death columbus lesbian bars in the United States. One important factor is a shift in how community spaces like bars label themselves.

Bars struggle to pay their overhead because of high rent and supply costs. Communities that kept the bar afloat in the past can no longer afford to live in the area. This image shows four people at the Columbus Gay Pride Parade, circa s. Regulations intended to slow the spread of the virus hit nightlife and short industries, such as bars, particularly hard.

Bars that already operate on a slim profit margin struggled to stay afloat with reduced hours and capacity. Additional waves of the COVID virus caused further economic damage to lesbian bars, as customers chose to stay away from public spaces. Despite widespread closures, the queer community generally agrees that lesbian bars were both important for previous queer communities and vital to the continuation of queer nightlife.

Many queer women, particularly those who identify as lesbians, argue that these bars are worth saving today. On June 3,the Lesbian Bar Project team produced a twenty-minute documentary about the project. Throughout and intothe project has continued to fundraise for lesbian bars across the U.

Though Summit Station and other lesbian bars in Ohio have closed their doors, Ohio still has one of the few remaining lesbian bars in the United States. Slammers is the last surviving lesbian bar in Ohio, and it is one of only fifteen remaining lesbian bars in the United States.