Supporting Queer Space

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by Medusa

We went out with a group of friends last night to enjoy some dinner and time at the local Lesbian club.

There is just one Lesbian club in central Arkansas. It's been in business for about 12 years and has been owned by the same person all this time. Its a GREAT club: large, lots of seating space, cheap drinks, friendly folks, and management that really gives a shit.
I took the opportunity to speak with the club owner about our upcoming Reunion party and hammer out some details. She is being pretty generous with us about taking over the club and closing the doors for us and I am pretty grateful that she is willing to support our ButchFemmePlanet space even if it means closing her doors to some of her Friday night regulars.

As I looked around the club, it occurred to me that there were about 40 people in the entire place. After talking with the owner about how to make our contract fair for both of us, I asked her "Hey, are your Friday nights generally slow like this or is it just the time of year that people stay in?"
We then had a long conversation about Queer spaces and how folks often "hook up at the club and never come back out to support it again." She talked at length about the struggle to try new things to get folks in, about how there had been months that she didnt know how she was going to keep the doors open, and about how she had often worked for free.
It was really enlightening to hear this woman talk of her love for her community and her attempts to keep space accessible to folks who needed it. I started thinking about all of the businesses that are Queer-owned or Queer-themed that i have seen struggle to stay in business over the years.
I remember reading about a bookstore in some state ( I think it was northern California?) that had been around for a while but that was in danger of closing and folks were trying to rally around it to keep it open.
I told our club owner that "folks dont know how good they have it" with our particular club in Little Rock and talked about having been to clubs all over the country that were small, had shitty bathrooms, expensive drinks, or were poorly managed. Our club owner then informed me that the famed "Buddies" in Dallas, Texas recently closed. Color me flabbergasted! (some of you might remember Buddies from the B-F bash in Dallas a few years back).
I know that sometimes clubs are mismanaged and folks stop supporting because of it but how about spaces that are well-run where folks just stop coming out because of obligations at home, lack of funds, etc.?

I was wondering if anyone had thoughts about how our community supports queer space. Do you have criteria for supporting queer space? Have any of you had this type of thing happen in your own community with clubs closing down due to lack of support? How about making the choice to support other queer folks who do art, crafts, etc? Do you choose to support Queer space first or do you go where you can get the best bargain?

Let's talk!

My support of queer owned businesses used to be doled out more frequently and with much less basis than it is now. Used to be, if there was a queer owned business, I was there. However, I got (and still get) really sick of being raked over the coals. I'm tired of being expected to pay more money for shittier service, simply because a place is queer-owned.

Buddies was one of these establishments. The drinks were weak and expensive (and ohhhhh, so obviously watered down). The only safe bet was a beer, because you can't water down bottled beer without it being blatantly obvious. Buddies was the only place I could drink six vodka-sodas and still walk...AND drive home. The service was less than stellar, and I would end up spending a fortune, because A) the drinks were pricey and B) I had to buy a ton of them to go home completely sober. Often times, the service was just plain RUDE.

As for queer-owned bookstores. Most times, I can't afford them. The books are priced way higher than other places. We have a lesbian bookstore here, I've TRIED to support, but the service is horrible. I was even in there one time and had to listen to the owner complain about her staff. That's just poor business. One time, when I really really really wanted a book that I couldn't find anywhere, I thought I'd use this bookstores services to get it. I figured since I had to order it, she may as well make some money off of it. I even went into the store to order it, just in case I found something else I wanted. When I spoke to the owner about ordering it, she told me to go to the website and order it from there. Basically, she wanted me to do all the work for her. She wasn't even interested in doing the minimal amount of work to get her mark up. I won't support that type of work ethic, so I can pay MORE money, just because it's a queer bookstore.

Last night, I went to a bar that I frequent fairly often. I'm selling raffle tickets for the non-profit I work for. The folks who started the non-profit I work for are het-queer, supportive of the queer community, and we do quite a few things in the queer community in queer space. When I walked into this bar last night, I asked the manager if I could sell some raffle tickets. I told him what we do. He refused to let me sell raffle tickets. Now, I used to go to this establishment fairly frequently. I probably won't return. I won't support a business that won't help other queers. Chances are, even if not one person had bought a raffle ticket from me, I would have hung out at this bar for a while and spent probably around $30...and that doesn't include the special events we could have done together that would have been mutually beneficial for each of our establishments. But, they chose to think in terms of 'your selling raffle tickets doesn't benefit me at all' (he did say, if we had the event at his establishment, he'd let us sell tickets...screw that. It's just selfish. Aside from the fact that there's no 'event' to be had...it's a raffle for a laptop and a television...it's not an 'event'). So, no I won't be supporting this space anymore.

We ended up going to another bar that DOES support ALL types of queer events. We've used this establishment before for Big Gay Bingo. Others I know have utilized this space for all types of fundraisers. The owner is awesome and has even bought raffle tickets from me. THAT'S the type of queer business I'll support.

But if you're just out to take my money and put ZERO effort into it, I'm not down. If you think you can just take over your neighbor's garage and hang a rainbow flag while charging me a fortune for watered down drinks, I'm not down. And as Lips said, I don't want to hear the same lame-ass DJ every weekend. Change it up. Put some ass into it. DO SOMETHING! Be a part of the community and don't just take take take.


Chatty,
Dylan