Peek Inside Kansas City Womontown

Okay, so maybe a long-ago, local, all-lady enclave isn't as sexy as iconic celeb photographs. 

However . . .

That doesn't mean it's not important.

Here's the story and a promo for upcoming documentary that hopes to garner tens of viewers . . .

Some depictions of Womontown describe an idyllic place. It was a community inhabited by “womyn-loving-womyn along with other residents such as elderly single people, young families of color, and hospice patients,” according to one out-of-town visitor in 1995.

Other representations paint a different picture. Some claim Womontown was a lesbian separatist community that rejected all contact with men. One person left Womontown because “I didn’t feel comfortable in a place that didn't consider my son a first-class citizen,” according to a 1994 Kansas City Star feature on the community.

In the documentary, former resident Barbara Lea laughs off such allegations. “The rumor went around … that we were separatists,” says Lea. “I never thought that word was so bad until I started hearing it from these gay men who said we were separatists in the neighborhood. Like, so what, we got this little tiny piece of the world? And we don't like to be around men too much.”

Despite the feeling of community, Womontown’s heyday only lasted several years. Eventually, the duties of running the community became overwhelming.

Spoiler alert . . .

It all ends with a developer cashing in and charging some naive hipster couple $300K to live in a drafty house.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

Womontown: How 12 city blocks in Kansas City became a radical enclave by and for women

Fed up with harassment and housing discrimination, lesbians in 1990s Kansas City dreamed of a place where they could "walk hand in hand, freely down the streets." So they created Womontown. The radical enclave encompassed 12 city blocks and attracted women from all over the U.S.