Lesbian Resource Center

710 West 22nd Street, Minneapolis, MN

An advertisement for the LRC in the 1974 Twin Cities Pride Guide. Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

“Gay Woman in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area have opened a Lesbian Resource Center in Minneapolis to better serve the needs of lesbians. We have found that other organizations are either too male or straight-oriented, leaving us with a sense of invisibility. We are now coming out completely, affirming we are here…”(1) The Lesbian Resource Center offered this news item in the “New Women’s Survival Catalog” in 1973; the short article effectively commenced the history of Minneapolis’ contemporary lesbian community. In part, the “LRC” opened in 1972 as a counterpart to Gay House nearby—Karen Browne opened the center as an alternative space for women in the days of lesbian separatism.(2) The community center opened in a 1920’s-era commercial building on Lyndale Avenue ½ mile south of Loring Park—at the time, it served a concentration of lesbian women who lived along Garfield Avenue one block to the east.(3)

The LRC was a catalyst of pioneering organizations in Minneapolis; a collection of books from the Brown House commune became Amazon Feminist/True Colors Bookstore at this site, and the Lavender Cellar Theater, a lesbian theater group that formed before At the Foot of the Mountain Theater Company, used the space for their first performances in 1973.(4) A Woman's Coffeehouse also used the space before relocating to the Plymouth Congregational Church.

The collectively-run organization—like others in the young GLBT community—was rife with infighting and controversy. It appealed to a radical and politically active group of (predominantly young) lesbian women; some found the community center “a very depressing place, couches with springs coming out, it just had a terrible feeling…”(5) These negative qualities only dampened the organization slightly. Overwhelmingly, it was a place where many lesbian women discovered their identities and made lasting friendships.

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(1)Grimstad, Kirsten and Rennie, Susan. The New Woman's Survival Catalog. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973. Page 208.

(2)Wolfe, Maxine. "Community Centers" From Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia. edited by Bonnie Zimmerman. New york: Taylor & Francis, 2000. Page 193.

(3)Tretter, Jean-Nickolaus. "The existence of a Gay Ghetto in Minneapolis." St. Paul, MN: Undergraduate paper submitted to the University of Minnesota’s Geography Department, 1976.

(4) Chinoy, Helen Krich. Women in American Theatre. New York: Theater Communications Group, 2007. Page 288.

(5) Enke, Anne. Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2007. Page 226.

Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)