Bars have long served as safe places and community centers for the LGBTQ+ community, and Summit Station in Columbus Ohio is a prime example of how important they are in the community. In 1971, Musician Petie Brown got a part-time job at what was then Jacks a-go-go and although it was not specifically a lesbian bar, word got out that a lesbian was tending bar at Jack’s and soon other lesbians started showing up. When the bar came up for sale, Brown bought it, and in 1980 renamed it Summit Station, in part to disguise its identity as a lesbian bar—those who had a need to know, knew, while Summit Station was a neutral-sounding name to give to those who don’t need to know. Summit Station was the first women’s bar in Ohio and, although now closed, became Ohio’s longest-running lesbian-owned and -operated bar, having served as a safe place and community center for lesbians and friends for decades.
Julia Applegate and LuSter P. Singleton’s documentary Free Beer Tomorrow tells the story of Summit Station and the role it played in Ohio’s lesbian community. Anyone who’s lived through that era will recognize patrons’ stories of queer life in the pre-internet, pre-smartphone era when you had to find your community in person or not at all, and in which revealing your identity to the wrong person could have serious negative consequences. One interview subject describes the bar as a portal to another world—outside was homophobia and the need to hide your identity, while inside was acceptance and community and love. Others recall the active hostility of the outside world, including that from so-called public servants like the police, who would come into the bar to harass patrons or ticket them outside for minor infractions like jaywalking.
Free Beer Tomorrow has a friendly, casual feel and is packed full of archival photos and videos and present-day interviews. Overall, patrons communicate an overwhelming mood of joy and gratitude that a place existed where they could feel safe and explore roles while deciding how they fit into the world. For those of us of a similar generation (cough cough) it’s a real stroll down memory lane in the company of some of the nicest people you’re ever likely to meet. For younger people, it offers a window in LGBTQ+ life in a different era than they’ve experienced in person, and the vicarious experience of meeting with a strong community of elders. The soundtrack is packed with women’s music classics (beginning with Meg Christian’s performance of “Leaping Lesbians”) as well as some more recent songs. Be sure to stay through the end credits, which reveal the source of the title.
West Hollywood, California has long been known as a center of gay male life in the United States, with a strip of Santa Monica Blvd still known as Boystown. Queer women are outnumbered about 9 to 1, but they were and are there and having been working for years to shift perception of the community to a place that is also for them. Betsy Kalin’s short documentary “Lesbians in Boystown” (25 min.), which will be shown before Free Beer Tomorrow, documents some of those efforts. It’s loaded with archival footage and contemporary interviews community members, including those involved in organizing the city’s first Dyke March and packs a lot of information and feeling into its short running time.
Filmmakers Betsy Kalin, LuSter Singleton, and Jenrose Fitzgerald will attend the screenings and conduct post film Q&A’s. | Sarah Boslaugh
“Lesbians in Boytown” and Free Beer Tomorrow will screen on June 13 at 1 pm as part of QFest St. Louis at the Hi-Pointe Theatre (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis 63117; 314-644-1100). Individual tickets are $15, or $12 for students and Cinema St.Louis members. More information about QFest is available from the festival web site.
