Over the Rainbow in Lavender

Lavender Magazine has an article about Over the Rainbow's closing. One of the owners, Charmaigne Wood, has a great quote about supporting the community through GLBT owned bars:

We remind all GLBT people to support your home bars: your homo bars. GLBT bars are not a community service—they are businesses, and rely on revenues. Owners of GLBT bars are taking a stand, politically and personally. Support that. No one wants to be in the position of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Gay bars are important socially and politically. They’re where we are most comfortable, most accepted. They’re where we find common cause, politically and emotionally...Until we are accepted in the larger society, until we can marry, until we have adoption rights, until we are not outsiders, we need these gathering places. GLBT bars are where we can be totally who we are. As diverse as the GLBT community is, the one thing we have in common is a need to belong. GLBT bars allow us to belong. Be there!

Also, since Lavender does not archive their articles, I've posted the entire article below.

Related: Over the Rainbow to Close by Month's End

Last Call at Over the Rainbow
Second Local GLBT Bar To Close Recently

by George Holdgrafer

Over the Rainbow (OTR) is celebrating a bittersweet 11th anniversary, as the bar will close permanently on October 29. It’s the second local GLBT bar to go out of business recently, following on the demise of Boom! September 24.

From October 13, 1995, to September 22, 2000, OTR operated at 249 West Seventh Street, St. Paul. The bar then relocated to its present space, 719 North Dale Street, St. Paul, which had opened on December 8, 1999. Jo Lanier and Charmaigne Woods, co-owners of Over the Rainbow, are life partners as well.

Lanier says, “We are closing the bar because it’s the right time to do so, given the current economic picture.

“We absolutely appreciate our many loyal customers and our wonderful staff. They are why we lasted this long in two different locations.”

Over the years, OTR has been the most gender-mixed of Twin Cities GLBT bars.

In Woods’s words, “We have always had the most diverse clientele of any GLBT bar in the Twin Cities—the best mix of women and men of all ages. We envisioned a place where men and women could be together, and where all who were respectful of others were welcomed. OTR has been affectionately called the ‘gay VFW’ and the ‘Cheers for queers.’”

OTR has been known especially for its karaoke, hosted beginning in 1997 by Mia Dorr’s Premier Entertainment, and lately by Ben Applebaum and Brent Ripley‘s Killer B’s Entertainment. The bar also originated the Monday Men’s Night in St. Paul in 2001. As well, OTR’s kitchen served some of the tastiest food in any bar.

Reflecting on OTR’s decade-and-a-year of serving the local GLBT community, Woods remarks, “We are proud to be part of Twin Cities GLBT history. We are proud of GLBT political and social growth. We urge everyone of our ‘family’ to remember how far we’ve come, and yet how far we still have to go. Be together. Be supportive of one another.”

However, Woods sounds a warning: “We remind all GLBT people to support your home bars: your homo bars. GLBT bars are not a community service—they are businesses, and rely on revenues. Owners of GLBT bars are taking a stand, politically and personally. Support that. No one wants to be in the position of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’

“Gay bars are important socially and politically. They’re where we are most comfortable, most accepted. They’re where we find common cause, politically and emotionally.”

Woods continues, “Until we are accepted in the larger society, until we can marry, until we have adoption rights, until we are not outsiders, we need these gathering places. GLBT bars are where we can be totally who we are.

“As diverse as the GLBT community is, the one thing we have in common is a need to belong. GLBT bars allow us to belong. Be there!”

For its final weekend, OTR is offering a cornucopia of events:

• Friday, October 27: Casual Karaoke with Ben and Brent, plus Final Men’s Night with Trent.

• Saturday, October 28: Dr. Farrago’s Burlesque Theatre.

• Sunday, October 29: Mama Jan’s Last Hurrah! (11 AM-6 PM), with the longest-serving bartender sending OTR out in style—doors close for the last time at 8 PM.

Note: The Monday Men’s Night permanently moves to Trikkx from OTR starting October 30.