Remember the Main: The Gay Bar that Started a Movement in the Northland

The untold story of how a generation of LGBTQ Minnesotans found a voice, a purpose, and community in a Twin Ports bar.

When Bob Jansen was fired from his job as a professor at a religious university in Duluth, he didn’t go quietly. The resulting legal settlement provided enough capital for a down payment on a dream. In 1983 he opened the Main Club, which became a hub for LGBTQ social life in the Twin Ports and Iron Range of northern Minnesota. More than just a bar, the Main served as an unof...