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Many bars now call themselves LGBTQ+ bars rather than catering specifically to one queer identity, such as the lesbian community. One important factor is a shift in how community spaces like bars label themselves. There are multiple reasons for the slow death of lesbian bars in the United States. Since then, the number has been steadily dropping. During the 1980s, the heyday of lesbian bars, there were a little over 200 bars operating in the U.S. According to NBC News, almost 200 lesbian bars across the United States have closed their doors since the 1980s. 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. Currently, there is only one lesbian bar left in Ohio: Slammers. Other lesbian bars in Ohio besides Summit Station that have now shuttered include Wall Street Downtown and Blazer’s Pub. In 2007, the Short North Gazette reported that Summit Station was Columbus’s “longest-standing gay and lesbian bar.” Summit Station closed sometime in 2007 or 2008, after nearly forty years as a community space for LGBTQ+ patrons in Columbus. In the early 2000s, Jack Criswell, who owned several LGBTQ+-focused businesses and produced a gay and lesbian publication called Spotlight, purchased Summit Station.
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Summit Station also supported the Stonewall Union (now Stonewall Columbus), an LGBTQ+ community organization and held benefits for organizations such as the Children’s Hospital, the Columbus AIDS Task Force, and CHOICES. Often, players joined the team after hearing about it through word-of-mouth at Columbus lesbian bars like Summit Station.
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Many of the women who played for the Pacesetters were gay. For instance, the bar supported the Pacesetters, the longest-running team in the National Women’s Football League. Summit Station also gave back to the community. Signed t-shirt from Suzanne Westenhoeffer, an out lesbian comedian who lived part-time in Columbus, circa 1990s. Kings’s debut show on September 13, 1996. Summit Station hosted several lesbian performers and drag king groups, including the H.I.S. Several LGBTQ+ publications featured the bar, including Columbus Gay Pride Parade programs and MAGIC bowling tournament programs. ĭuring its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Summit Station was widely popular. Worried about rumors that the bar would “become straight,” Brown purchased Jack’s A Go Go from owners Donald and Cleta Logan and renamed it Summit Station. In 1980, bartender and performer Petie Brown learned that the bar was up for sale. Patrons usually just called the bar “Jack’s” after it became a lesbian bar in 1970. The bar was originally named Jack’s A Go Go and briefly went by the name Logan’s Off Broadway. For instance, Summit Station, originally located at 2210 Summit Street, was “the largest women’s bar in Columbus” according to the 19 Mid America Gay Invitational Classic (MAGIC) bowling tournament programs. 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.