A young queer man walked by the shuttered entrance to the Bistro in downtown Bloomington and said to owner Jan Lancaster, “Hi Mom.” She gets that a lot.
Lancaster has been a confidante and counselor to young LGBTQ people for many years, and an activist pushing for anti-discrimination measures in Bloomington-Normal.
A weekend fundraiser for the Bistro sponsored by the Prairie Pride Coalition highlighted the several decade history of the Bistro as the unofficial social center of the LGBTQ community in Bloomington-Normal.
“It’s where we go when we’re feeling good. It’s where we go when we need support and friendship,” said David Bentlin of the Prairie Pride Coalition.
For a donation, people who approached a table (by ones and twos) took away a mask designed by Meltdown Creative Works and a small vial of hand sanitizer.
“Like a lot of organizations and individuals in the community, we sort of feel helpless as to what we can do to make things better. This is an extraordinary situation that we have not encountered before. We felt like we could get some safety into the community,” said Bentlin. “We also knew that the Bistro, our de facto community center for the LGBTQ community, was closed and suffering through some hard times and we put those two things together.”
The event raised $1,293.
Many bars and taverns closed during this pandemic would not attract the support shown to Lancaster and the Bistro. Lancaster said she has been overwhelmed by the response.
“During this time when we’re all struggling with so many people out of work, for people still to come and want to donate is unbelievable,” she said.
A person in Chicago who used to come to the Bistro started a GoFundMe page, and other patrons have dropped off checks. She said this is "unheard of."
“At first when we were only going to go to the end of April, I thought I could shuffle things around and make it work, but it’s getting pretty tense. So, I really appreciate it,” said Lancaster.
The pandemic, Bentlin said, has made it more difficult for the LGBTQ community to maintain connections. And Bentlin said those ties are more important than ever.
"When they shut down the residence halls and all the students had to go off campus, we received requests from students who didn’t feel comfortable returning to their homes because they didn’t have a level of support from their families. There are some vulnerable populations out there that really need our assistance,” said Bentlin.
He said Prairie Pride has been disseminating health and safety information online and doing check-ins. The Bistro has done charity drag shows online. And Prairie Pride holds weekly Zoom calls with the statewide group Equality Illinois to get more ideas to help those isolated in the time of the coronavirus.
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