A local event organizer focused on creating spaces for lesbians and sapphic people is opening a new office in Over-the-Rhine. Midwestern Lesbian recently moved to 1447 Walnut Street and opened its doors to the public this week.
Co-owners Kelsey Ference and Caitlin Dunkley have filled the space with colorful couches, LGBTQ+ books and bulletin boards. They say they want it to be a comfortable community hub, where people can find resources, socialize and hold club meetings for free.
“We want to provide this space for people to find their community and also serve their community and create community through this space, because there's not a lot of places that can offer that,” Ference said. “We're excited to be able to create that.”
Ference founded Midwestern Lesbian in 2021, when she started creating weekly online calendars of LGBTQ+ events as a resource for the community. Shortly after, Midwestern Lesbian started hosting its own events, from sapphic socials to craft nights.
“There isn't a lesbian bar or a sapphic space, really, in OTR or the Downtown area, where people can go to be around other sapphic people and not be deafened by how loud the music is,” Ference said.
She says the need for LGBTQ+ spaces in the city is growing, pointing to the recent closure of the University of Cincinnati’s LGBTQ Center in response to Ohio’s Senate Bill 1.
“We want to be able to provide the same resources or similar [ones] and listen to our community about what they want and what they want to see us do,” Ference said.
Midwestern Lesbian also plans to host some of its own events in its office. Dunkley says she hopes they can reach more people in the new space, since many Midwestern Lesbian events are currently held at bars.
“With this space, I'm excited to open it up to people of all ages,” Dunkley said. “It fits 20 people comfortably right now. So, we're going to do little craft nights and game nights. I want to do a show-and-tell night where everyone can bring their favorite item and just kind of share it with everyone.”
The office will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week. Midwestern Lesbian says anyone is welcome to stop in and hang out. It will post any schedule changes on its Instagram and Facebook stories.
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