Supporting Queer Space

[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!