Alexander Wang is a name synonymous with high fashion, dressing A-list celebrities from Lady Gaga to Kim Kardashian West. While Wang and his brand are mainstays on fashion week runways and red carpets all over the world, the 37-year-old designer originally from San Francisco is also known for frequenting dance floors and VIP backrooms of the hottest nightspots.
It’s in these types of locations that multiple accusers have alleged that Wang has performed nonconsensual sexual acts on them. Earlier this month, Owen Mooney, a 26-year-old model based in the United Kingdom, shared an explicit story on TikTok, accusing a “really famous fashion designer” of sexually assaulting him on the dance floor of a “packed” nightclub in New York City in 2017.
“I was by myself at one point, and this guy next to me obviously took advantage of the fact that no one could f—ing move, and he just started, like, touching me up. And fully like, up my leg, in my crotch, like it made me freeze completely because I was in so much shock,” Mooney said in the TikTok video. “I looked to my left to see who it was, and it was this really famous fashion designer. Like, I just couldn’t believe that he was doing that to me. It made me go into even more shock.”
After another TikTok user guessed in the comments that Mooney’s allegations were about Wang, in a subsequent video, Mooney named Wang as the designer, saying in part, “It’s so wrong. Now, any time I see his name mentioned … it just reminds me of what he did.”
Wang, via a representative, told TODAY in a statement: “Over the last few days, I have been on the receiving end of baseless and grotesquely false accusations. These claims have been wrongfully amplified by social media accounts infamous for posting defamatory material from undisclosed and/or anonymous sources with zero evidence or any fact checking whatsoever.”
In the days since Mooney shared his allegations on TikTok, anonymous Instagram accounts @DietPrada and @S—ModelMgmt have been sharing unverified allegations of other nonconsensual sexual acts involving Wang. Some share a similar theme where victims allege Wang laced their drinks with MDMA. TODAY reached out to these accounts but has not heard back and was unable to verify the claims.
“Seeing these lies about me being perpetuated as truths has been infuriating,” Wang continued in his statement. “I have never engaged in the atrocious behavior described and would never conduct myself in the manner that’s been alleged. I intend to get to the bottom of this and hold accountable whoever is responsible for originating these claims and viciously spreading them online.”
Designer Alexander Wang walks the runway at the Alexander Wang Fall 2019 show in New York in 2018.Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images file
In an email interview with TODAY, Mooney says that the alleged incident with Wang took place on Jan. 21, 2017, at a party called Holy Mountain at the club Slake in New York City. That night, rapper CupCakKe was scheduled to perform.
“The club was extremely busy, and after losing my friend in the crowd I didn’t attempt to find him as it was near impossible to move around,” Mooney told TODAY. “So, I was stuck in this spot but was just excited to see CupcakKe perform. My next memory was when I was touched up, then realizing it was by Alexander Wang. He would have seen the shock on my face, I didn’t retaliate, all I wanted to do was get out of the situation. I was able to slowly move myself away, and I went closer to the stage to watch of CupcakKe.”
Mooney said that he saw Wang again later in the evening. “Later that night, I was back with my group, we were dancing and then out of nowhere Wang had been pushed into me by one of his friends,” Mooney said. “I kind of brushed it off, but he proceeded to put his arms around me and lean his head on me. I felt extremely awkward, didn’t say anything but ‘hi,’ the situation was very odd but I basically carried on dancing and ignored him until we parted ways.”
Mooney said he never saw Wang again after that night and never filed a police report. Mooney explained, “I know being touched up in a club is very common, it didn’t cross my mind to take it to the police.”
When asked if the touching could have been because the club was so packed, Mooney said: “He took advantage of the fact I was trapped next to him and he touched up my leg and in my crotch. … It was not a case of him accidentally touching me because we were next to each other.”
Mooney told friends about the alleged incident after it occurred, he said, including one named Hannah, who asked that her first name only be used because she’s nervous about the amount of press this story has received. In an email to TODAY, Hannah said Mooney called her “after the night he was at the club, because he needed to tell me what happened and I was completely shocked.”
TODAY has been unable to confirm if Wang attended the Holy Mountain party on Jan. 21, 2017. But the event was hosted by a promoter who goes by Ladyfag, with whom Wang has had a relationship. In a 2014 New York Times article, Wang said: “(Ladyfag’s) parties never feel like a specific scene.”
In the wake of Mooney’s and the anonymous allegations posted on Instagram, Wang has limited the comments on both his personal Instagram and the Instagram account for his fashion label. So far, none of the major figures who’ve been dressed by Wang have addressed the claims.
TODAY reached out to Wang’s representatives a second time regarding the story Mooney told TODAY. A spokesperson for Wang declined to comment further.
The never-ending war by LGBTQ+ creators to protect their accounts against bullies who manipulate the automated fiefdom that is Instagram, has once again claimed another casualty as two gay Instagrammers had their account disabled with no apparent hope of appeal.
The reason is that the social media company, owned by Facebook, is built on a system that makes it nearly impossible to restore an account, have a fair hearing with human interaction, or even receive email communications to dispute the company’s seemingly arbitrary decisions to disable or delete an account.
This allows the anti-LGBTQ+ trolls who target LGBTQ+ people nearly free reign.
There is a long history of the Instagram “systems” targeting LGBTQ people, based on the ability of online trolls to be able to manipulate those systems. In May of 2017, Joe Putignano, the author of the bestseller “Acrobaddict” and a gay man who is also a Cirque du Soleil performing artist, model, and a Broadway performer wrote in the Huffington Post,
“We have learned that Instagram does not investigate pictures or accounts that get removed; it is based on an algorithm and bot from a number of reports that deem the account to be either inappropriate or unfit. Instagram claims to take their harassment and bullying seriously; however in a world where LBGTQ people are still considered “inappropriate” where anything we do is considered “adult content” or “pornographic,” then this raises the question “Is our community actually truly safe from discrimination and harassment?”
He then added, “My own account, @joeputignano, had 264.2K followers and disappeared last week when Instagram decided to delete it without word or warning. I woke up in the morning, and it was gone. I was someone who had been harassed since the inception of my account and had been very public about that harassment because I was trying to get help to stop it. It wasn’t a minor harassment either; it was an army of people with fake accounts using homophobic slurs and remarks to report every photo I posted.”
Like most people caught up in the never-ending vortex of non-communications and auto-response, Putignano, also received no answers. However after a concerted campaign of Facebook posts and publicity the social media company relented and reactivated his account.
For husbands Matthew Olshefski and Paul Castle, not unlike Putignano, they now also face the never-ending battle with the social media giant trying to regain access and reestablish their account disabled due to the anti-LGBTQ forces that bully the community at large and Instagram which makes no allowances to stop this scenario from repeating.
Matthew Olshefski and Paul Castle (Photo courtesy of the couple)
Shortly after Matthew and Paul went on their first date in 2016, they started sharing their stories and talents on the internet.
Paul is an artist with a rare form of blindness, and Matthew is a classical violinist who survived a cult in his childhood years. Bonded by their love of the arts, and a shared understanding of “overcoming the odds”, not only did Matthew and Paul become social media influencers: They fell in love and got married.
Along the way, their combined creative forces garnered 100,000 instagram followers, 150,000 TikTok followers, 200,000 Facebook followers, and over 15 million YouTube views.
Matthew shared his beautiful violin music; Paul shared his paintings and illustrations; and together they shared a love story built on unconditional support and a deep admiration for each other.
When the pandemic forced the world indoors last March, Matthew and Paul started their own podcast called “His and His” which touts itself as a “conversation between husbands.” Each week, Matthew and Paul discuss different topics relating to their experiences as gay men. From coming out, to dealing with homophobia, to getting married.
“We had no idea our podcast would resonate with so many people around the world. We have received countless messages from listeners thanking us for giving them the courage to be themselves,” says Paul. “We were so humbled.”
At the launch of their podcast, Matthew and Paul also started a joint Instagram page simply called “Matthew and Paul” where they shared daily pictures along with essay-style posts about their lives together.
“I was stunned by the reaction to our Instagram page,” says Matthew. “I had no idea our stories would bring hope to so many people. Every day we received hundreds of messages from people around the world, thanking us for being so open about our lives and experiences.”
Within a handful of months, the Instagram page grew to 33,000 followers.
“We’ve been creating social media content for over 4 years. This was the fastest growth we’ve ever seen. Something was really connecting with people,” says Paul. “We were thrilled to be representing a same-sex relationship in such a positive way.”
Matthew and Paul’s social media presence began to shift from hobby, to part-time work, and finally to a full-time job. By May of 2020, social media influencing was their primary source of income.
Then, on the morning of December 20, 2020, Matthew and Paul logged onto their shared Instagram account only to find…nothing.
It was gone.
A single message appeared onscreen informing them that their account was disabled for violating Instagram’s terms of use. A second window revealed the “violation” in question.
“Your account has been disabled for pretending to be someone else.”
Matthew and Paul were stunned. Pretending to be someone else? For the past 4 years, all Matthew and Paul had aimed to do was be their most authentic selves. It was, in fact, the most frequent comment from their fanbase.
“It’s ironic that we were accused of being someone else,” says Paul, “when our fans and followers thank us for being ‘real’ on a daily basis.”
The next window prompted Matthew and Paul to submit photo identification and await an email from Instagram within 24 hours. An email never came.
“While we waited for the email, we did some research online and discovered people in similar situations waited over 2 months to hear back from Instagram” says Matthew, “and others never heard back at all.”
Meanwhile, their many fans were concerned and confused. What happened to the daily pictures and stories of love that had provided them with so much hope?
“We love bringing this kind of content to the world,” says Paul. “But it’s more than just a bunch of pictures and posts; it’s a message of equality and representation in a world where homophobia still thrives.”
They have been left wondering: Was the takedown an act of discrimination?
“We want answers,” adds Matthew, “but more importantly, we want to get back to what we were doing, being our most authentic selves.”
This is not an issue that occurs in isolated circumstances either it is widespread on the Instagram platform. Adding to the frustrations of LGBTQ users who have lost access to their accounts is the fact that like most of the IT/Internet companies in the San Francisco Bay area which have gone remote as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and its continuing grip on California and elsewhere, Instagram is not staffed except remotely.
A source knowledgeable of the company’s operations but not authorized to speak to the media told the Blade that almost complete reliance on the automated systems and next to no human oversight as a result of the remote virtual work environment has developed into a backlog of disputed decisions on accounts that have been disabled- as a direct result of the algorithms being tripped by repeated so-called ‘complaints’ over content in particular.
The Los Angeles Blade has reached out to Instagram for comment but has not received a response.
More than 40 groups that vehemently oppose LGBT+ rights are fundraising on Amazon, despite the online shopping giant’s pledges to support equality.
An investigation by openDemocracy found that the US AmazonSmile platform – that lets Amazon customers donate to charities as they shop online – has hosted groups that have intervened in court cases opposing equal marriage, described COVID-19 as “the consequential wrath of God” and punishment for sins including society’s “proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality”, and attacked TV shows for increasing “social acceptance of homosexuality”.
Among the anti-LGBT+ group hosted on AmazonSmile are Focus on the Family, American Family Association and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Amazon has made record profits this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, with profits 50 per cent up on last year. It is unclear how much money the groups have raised using AmazonSmile, but Amazon says the programme has facilitated $215 million in such donations since its launch in 2013.
Human rights activists are now calling on Amazon to immediately take down the anti-LGBT+ groups.
Evelyne Paradis, executive director of the LGBT+ advocacy group ILGA-Europe, told openDemocracy: “Companies, if they really walk the talk, shouldn’t be giving their platform to organisations that are working to limit the rights of other people.”
It’s good that Amazon has a diversity of groups on its platform, she said, but “they shouldn’t be giving space to any organisation […] that is actively fuelling hatred and/or working against the rights of other people”.
“It’s disappointing to see organisations that campaign against LGBT equality platformed on AmazonSmile,” said Robbie de Santos, associate director of campaigns and communications at Stonewall. “We have raised our concerns with Amazon and will continue our work until every LGBT+ person is free to be themselves worldwide.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Charitable organisations must meet the requirements outlined in our participation agreement to be eligible for AmazonSmile. Organisations that engage in, support, encourage, or promote intolerance, hate, terrorism, violence, money laundering, or other illegal activities are not eligible.
“If at any point an organisation violates this agreement, its eligibility will be revoked.”
As pro-Trump supporters descended on D.C. for the second MAGA march Saturday, some men wearing Proud Boys gear were seen sporting yellow kilts…to the shock of the kilts’ maker.
The owner of Verillas in Fredericksburg, Allister Greenbrier, said his business produced the yellow kilts seen in the photo snapped by NPR reporter Hannah Allam.
Other videos have circulated social media showing the same men mooning the crowd, with the words “Fuck Antifa” written on their butts in sharpie markers.
Allister Greenbrier, the owner of Verillas, tells Yahoo Life that when the team saw a photo of the men wearing the kilts, “we thought we were doomed.”
“Our voice is small, and even a business as large as Fred Perry [a British clothing label whose polos were adopted by the Proud Boys earlier this year] has said little about this kind of thing,” Greenbrier says.
“But when we donated the proceeds, and then some, from this unfortunate sale, the support pouring in behind our message has been tremendous.”
The company later confirmed it has now pulled the yellow kilts from sale and is offering a free color exchange for anyone who has previously purchased one but does not want to be inadvertently associated with the far-right group. The Proud Boys appear to have chosen the kilts to match their uniform of black and yellow polo shirts.
It took just one day for Target to pull a screening U-turn Friday (13 November) after it removed a transphobic book off its digital shelves, prompting anti-trans users to pelt the American retail giant into submission.
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughter, which is currently rated just two-and-a-half stars on Target’s website, has been fiercely upbraided by LGBT+ rights activists since its July 2020 release.×
Penned by renowned anti-trans journalist Abigail Shrier, a firebrand Wall Street Journal writer who has obsessively written about vastly debunked anti-trans theories, the book trumpets that being trans is a “contagion”, a “craze” and an “epidemic”.
While Target initially said it would remove the text, a torrent of anti-trans Twitter accounts, including Shrier, criticised the company for doing so, promoting Target to walk back and relist the book.
Twitter users sought to sound the alarm as to why Target was stocking a book that rails against a so-called “transgender epidemic sweeping the country”. The company, amid backlash, tweeted on Thursday (12 November): “Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.
“We have removed this book from our assortment.”
Author Shrier quickly took aim at Target, tweeting that the company had made her “book disappear”, igniting countless anti-trans users to send incensed tweets and emails to Target.
Does it bother anyone that woke activists and spineless corporations now determine what Americans are allowed to read?” she added.
Target later tepidly responded to a tweet by a user with less than 1,000 followers and whose display picture is of a painting by Alex Grey. The user called on Target not to “submit to Stalinist thought policing”.
“We want to offer a broad assortment for our guests and are adding this book back to Target.com. We apologise for any confusion.”
Trans people in the US have themselves been reduced to political targets with increasing temerity by the Trump administration in the last four years, where the president’s officials have peeled back a roster of legal protections across countless federal departments and programs – defence, housing, health and education.
All the while, an actual epidemic – one of violence against trans people – continues to rip across the States, with 2020, monitoring groups warn, being the deadliest year for trans people since records began with 34 trans people murdered at the time of writing.
Racist Grindr users often face “zero consequences whatsoever” on the gay dating app, according to a researcher.
Gene Lim, who is currently completing a PhD at Monash University in Melbourne investigating sexual racism, told ABCthat racism is rampant on the app – and that aggressors often don’t face any repercussions.
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Lim, who is gay and Asian, said: “The first thing you start realising is that a lot of people don’t find Asians attractive, and it directly affects your self-esteem.
“There are a lot of times when people like myself, we just don’t feel like we should be there.
“Your white friends are hooking up left, right and centre. And you’re the only one in your friendship group who hasn’t had a date or even a hookup in months.”
Sexual racism researcher Gene Lim said racism often goes unpunished on Grindr.
Grindr bans racism and discrimination in its community guidelines, but Lim said that such behaviour often goes unpunished.
“I know of instances where after someone has been reported for racism or even other offences, they face zero consequences whatsoever,” he said.
“Grindr is not ever incentivised to crack down on these individuals. They only take immediate action against people trying to use their platform to advertise paid services.”
He praised the app’s “Kindr” campaign in 2018, which was created in an effort to tackle racism and bullying on Grindr.
That campaign “sparked some really good conversations, but then they just stopped it abruptly,” Lim said.
I know of instances where after someone has been reported for racism or even other offences, they face zero consequences whatsoever.
For over 45 years, The Parliament House has called Orange Blossom Trail our home. We have to announce that our home at its current location will be closing Monday, November 2, 2020. We put up a good fight over the last 11 months to secure financing and renovate our existing property.
Unfortunately, that fight ended today with no deal. Our “Last Dance” at 410 N. Orange Blossom Trail will be this Sunday, November 1, 2020.
We have so many memories on “The Trail.” We will never forget New Year’s Eve when Miss P arrived in the courtyard dangling from a helicopter. Our community showed up in thousands to celebrate marriage equality in the United States.
We gathered to mourn the loss of our friends at Pulse Nightclub. We came out for countless concerts, pageants, plays, musicals and events. We celebrated Miss Vickie’s 70th Birthday with one of the biggest shows in our history.
We hosted the Footlight Players reunion shows to commemorate the immeasurable talent that has graced our stage. The list is never ending. Through it all, we’ve remained the Parliament House. It has never been about the building. It’s about the people.
The owners say they are seeking a new location. As longtime readers of this here website thingy may recall, the Parliament House was my first gay bar and back when Orlando was a much smaller city, it was for decades the uncontested epicenter of gay life in central Florida. When my mother finally asked me if I was gay, her second question was whether I went to the Parliament House. I could probably write a book just about my hundreds of nights there.
PHOTOS: Built in the 1960s as part of a small regional hotel chain of the same name, what later became the show bar was first a restaurant called Baron Of Beef. Later the Parliament House billed itself as “the world’s largest all-gay resort.” As far I can tell, it really was.
Today, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates announced the winners of the 2020 Outie Awards. The awards (also known as the “Outies”) recognize individuals and organizations who are leaders in advancing equality for LGBTQ people in workplaces globally.
Outies are awarded at the annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit. This year’s Summit concludes today.
“The slate of winners at this year’s Outies represents showcases some of the best work being done at large companies to create workplaces of belonging where LGBTQ employees can thrive,” said Erin Uritus, CEO of Out & Equal. “This has been a tough year for everybody. These are the companies, and these are the individuals, who are finding a way to step up and make a difference.”
Workplace Excellence, the most prestigious Outie, was awarded to Dow in recognition of their historic and ongoing commitment to pursuing and implementing workplace equality for LGBTQ employees.
“From a pandemic to natural disasters to taking action to more effectively address racism and injustice, we’re all dealing with a lot right now,” said Amy Wilson, Dow’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and Executive Sponsor for the company’s LGBTQ+ and ally employee resource group, GLAD. “But that means inclusion is needed more than ever and we should all take time to celebrate our efforts to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion and equality. This work has changed lives for the better, bringing us closer to a more equal workplace and world where we can best work together to take on these challenges.”
Ally Changemaker was awarded to Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson in recognition of his contributions to advancing LGBTQ workplace equality over the course of his career, including his efforts to uplift the voices of marginalized groups.
“Marriott, like Out & Equal, is committed to creating a culture of belonging for all,” said Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International. “I am honored to accept this recognition on behalf of thousands of people around the world who wear a Marriott name badge – we are focused on welcoming all and putting people first to help create a world of inclusion for all.”
Belonging During COVID was awarded to John Deere in recognition of the steps they took to care for their employees and maintain a culture of belonging in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“John Deere and our Rainbow Employee Resource Group are humbled to receive Out & Equal’s Belonging During COVID award,” said Roberto Leone, Audit Manager, Information Systems, Internal Audit at John Deere. “While the challenges posed by COVID-19 are daunting, we know that by finding innovative ways to be together, no matter where we are and despite what separates us, we can overcome anything.”
Employee Resource Group of the Year was awarded to HP’s Global Pride Business Impact Network in recognition of their track record of elevating best practices, implementing intersectional and collaborative programming with other ERGs, and advocating for LGBTQ equality in their workplace.
“Diversity and inclusion initiatives are part of the foundation on which HP was built and essential for us to innovate as a brand,” said Beth MillerGlobal Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager. This work is embedded into our culture and includes a long-standing commitment to workplace equality for the LGBTQ+ community. We are proud of this recognition and acknowledgment of our Global Pride Business Impact Network’s efforts to enhance inclusion around the world.”
LGBTQ Corporate Advocate of the Year was awarded to Nikki Gibson in recognition of her work to push for the adoption of policies and practices that benefited LGBTQ employees and advanced her organization’s standing as a true leader in this work.
“I am so honored to be receiving the LGBTQ Corporate Advocate of the Year award from Out & Equal Workplace Advocates,” said Nikki Gibson, North American Lead for Dell Pride ERG at Dell Technologies. This year I celebrate my 21st anniversary at Dell Technologies and from the beginning, I have always been encouraged to bring my full self to work. Being part of the Dell Technologies family has given me a platform to use my voice and advocate on behalf of my community. I appreciate that I get to work for a company that has a workplace culture that embraces individuality and champions team members to get involved. Thank you Out & Equal for this award and for empowering individuals like me to be their very best, to stay educated and remain focused on what is needed to advocate for equality and to continue to create workplaces of belonging.”
LGBTQ Marketing of the Year was awarded to Procter & Gamble in recognition of their Can’t Cancel Pride campaign. This was an innovative and effective effort by this company to show the resilience and diversity of the LGBTQ community in their external marketing efforts.
“It’s important now, as ever, to continue to use our voice and creativity to be a force for good, a force for growth and a force for change,” said Brent Miller, P&G Global LGBTQ+ Equality Program Leader and Co-Founder of Can’t Cancel Pride. “P&G is humbled and honored to be recognized as Out and Equal’s LGBTQ+ Marketer of the Year. This strengthens our commitment to accurate and authentically represent the LGBTQ+ community and be a champion for visibility that creates positive conversation and moves communities forward.”
Global Workplace Excellence was awarded to Northern Trust in recognition of their demonstrated commitment to pursuing workplace equality for LGBTQ employees in India.
New ERG Chapter of the Year was awarded to JP Morgan Chase Poland in recognition of their impressive work to create a thriving ERG chapter in a country with a challenging political context.
Out & Equal is the premier organization working exclusively on LGBTQ workplace equality. Through our worldwide programs, Fortune 500 partnerships and our annual Workplace Summit conference, we help LGBTQ people thrive and support organizations creating a culture of belonging for all.
Feminuity released a groundbreaking new resource: A Guide to LGBTQ2+ Inclusion for HR, People, & DEI LeadersThe publication serves to center the needs and experiences of LGBTQ2+ employees, keeping companies at the cutting-edge of inclusion and better-equipping organizations to promote a sense of fairness and belonging in their future workforce.
Keith Plummer, a partner of Feminuity, certified Human Resources professional, and author of the guide, summarized its significance with the following remarks:
“In this resource, we set out to create a guide for HR, People, and DEI leaders to adapt to the sexual and gender fluidity that increasingly characterizes our contemporary world. From policies to benefits to workplace culture, this publication provides a first-of-its-kind exploration of leading practices that will revolutionize workplaces across the globe by putting LGBTQ2+ considerations front and center.”
Workplace conversations around sexual and gender diversity are complicated as some still believe that these dimensions of the human experience should be kept private and divorced from professional life. However, Keith challenges this thinking:
“We communicate our sexuality and gender in subtle ways everyday no matter the context. Too often sexual and gender diversity is relegated to the shadows of office initiatives due to unjust politicization and sensationalism. Our sexual and gender identities are fundamental parts of who we are—company policies and procedures should be designed not only to accommodate but to celebrate them.”
Dr. Sarah Saska, CEO and Co-Founder of Feminuity, expressed her enthusiasm and support for her consultancy’s latest open-source output:
“Feminuity is proud to support what we consider a paradigm-shifting examination on how to affirm the ever-growing LGBTQ2+ workforce. This collection was informed by extensive research and an unwavering passion to integrate queer perspectives into the ways companies do business.”
About Feminuity
Since 2014, Feminuity (pronounce) has supported leaders in embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into the core of their business. Feminuity partners with innovative companies, from start-ups through to Fortune 500s, to build diverse teams, equitable systems, and inclusive products and workplace cultures.
When Charles Hughes and Richard Solomon began making plans in 2018 to open their own gay bar in New York’s historic Harlem neighborhood, they had no idea a pandemic would shut them down before they even opened.
“The first thing we thought was, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’re going to be out of business before we started this business,’” Hughes, 39, told NBC News.
But a global health crisis is not the only headwind their bar, Lambda Lounge, and the few remaining Black-owned gay bars in the United States are facing. Long before anyone had heard of Covid-19, these LGBTQ social spaces were dwindling across the country.
Charles Hughes, left, and Richard Solomon, owners of Lambda Lounge, one of two Black-owned gay bars remaining in NYC.Lemon Brands
For more than two decades, gay bars, especially those owned by people of color, have been disappearing. Historically, these spaces were where the LGBTQ community gathered to find romance, make long-lasting friendships and engage in community activism. Throughout the 1980s, there were more than 1,500 such bars, a number that has declined steeply since the late ‘90s, with fewer than 1,000 existing today, according to a study published last year by Oberlin College and Conservatory professor Greggor Mattson.
The closures have had a disproportionate impact on bars catering to women and people of color: Between 2007 and 2019, LGBTQ bar listings dropped by an estimated 37 percent, and those serving people of color plummeted by almost 60 percent, according to the study. Though the reasons are not entirely clear, experts suspect the overall decline in gay bars is related to decades of skyrocketing rents and gentrification, which have disproportionately impacted small, Black-owned businesses; the emergence of online dating sites and apps; and circuit parties that rotate among venues, which have become increasingly popular among younger crowds.
According to online listings, there are more than 60 LGBTQ bars across the five boroughs of New York City, one of the metropolitan areas hardest hit by the pandemic, and many of these spaces are struggling to stay open. Of the city’s dozens of remaining gay bars, just two — Lambda Lounge and Alibi Lounge, both in Harlem — are known to be Black owned. Club Langston in Brooklyn closed last year after nearly two decades in business.
Since it opened in 2015, Alibi Lounge has become a sanctuary for LGBTQ people of color. In March, under city mandates, owner Alexi Minko was forced to temporarily shutter his bar and soon began to run out of money. A former lawyer who had poured his life savings into his business, Minko frantically applied for emergency aid through the government’s overwhelmed Paycheck Protection Program application, whose website he said continuously crashed.
Owner Alexi Minko in his bar, Alibi Lounge, in Harlem.Courtesy Alibi Lounge
Desperate for assistance, Minko reluctantly set up an online fundraising campaign for his bar. He was on the brink of ending his lease, he said, when donations suddenly surged. In only a matter of weeks, the campaign raised $165,000. While Minko eventually received a small loan through the government’s emergency relief program, he said the donations “absolutely saved my business,” as well as the idea that it’s possible for a Black gay man to open his own bar.
“My fear if Alibi had gone down is to instill in the young mind that, ‘Oh, why bother? We’re Black and gay, it’s just going to fail anyway,’” said Minko, who has since reopened his bar outside at limited capacity in compliance with New York City’s rules.
Earlier this month, Alibi Lounge was one of 10 LGBTQ-owned businesses to be awarded funding through the Queer to Stayprogram, a small business initiative from Showtime and the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group.
Access to ‘mainstream capital’
While the total economic fallout from the pandemic won’t be known for some time, August data from the business listing site Yelp found that more than 2,800 businesses had permanently closed since March in New York City alone, and a report published last month from the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit business group, said as many as a third of the city’s “230,000 small businesses that populate neighborhood commercial corridors may never reopen.”
The national picture is also grim, especially for Black business owners: A report released in August by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found the number of Black-owned businesses declined more than 40 percent across the U.S. between February and April, while white-owned businesses declined 17 percent.
In June, the Small Business Administration released a list of 661,218 organizations that received loans of $150,000 or more. It received racial and ethnic backgrounds from just 94,501 owners. Of those, 1,827 Black-owned businesses received loans.
Most of these business owners rely on personal finance and credit, and often lack relationships with banks, according to Cy Richardson, senior vice president for economics and housing programs at the National Urban League, a nonprofit that advocates for economic and social justice for Black Americans.
“Broadly, the notion of access to mainstream capital, that’s where the racial wealth gap is really exacerbated,” he said.
Those at the intersection of the Black and the LGBTQ communities have been particularly hit hard amid the pandemic, according to asurvey released last month by the Human Rights Campaign, which found Black LGBTQ respondents fared worse than both the overall Black population and the overall LGBTQ population along every economic indicator measured.
‘Envy of the wider gay community’
Scholars who study LGBTQ nightlife say the loss of Black-owned gay bars would be devastating. Historically, these bars have been havens for people of color, who have experienced discrimination in white-owned bars for generations, according to Eric Gonzaba, an assistant professor of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton, who is writing a book about the history of gay nightlife.
Around the 1960s, gay bars began to sprout in metropolitan areas across the U.S. At the time, closeted white people didn’t want to be seen entering a gay bar where someone they knew might recognize them, so owners had a tendency to open these bars in predominantly Black neighborhoods. They would then often enact racist policies — including unfair carding measures and dress codes — to keep Black people out, according to Gonzaba, who said even up until the 1990s, some white bar owners would require people of color to show three forms of government picture ID to enter.
“These are places that were highly segregated for much of their history and are perfect examples of the inability for the LGBTQ rights movement to have a unified coalition into the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Gonzaba explained. He said even the Stonewall Inn, the once mafia-owned New York City gay bar that has become a symbol of the LGBTQ rights movement, “didn’t let a lot of people of color into the doors” (it has long since operated under new owners who do not engage in such discrimination). Since many gay bars in the ‘80s and ‘90s were where gay activists gathered to educate the community about HIV and AIDS, he said lifesaving information about the virus often didn’t reach the Black community.
Fed up, the Black LGBTQ community began to form its own house parties and unique social clubs in cities with large Black populations. Washington, D.C., alone boasted about 20 bars, nightclubs, coffeehouses and social gatherings that catered to a Black LGBTQ clientele, according to the Rainbow History Project, though it’s unclear if all were Black-owned and operated. Black gay activist groups used these spaces to educate patrons about HIV and AIDs and to organize around issues for racial justice. Perhaps the most epic among them, the The Club House, remained a popular D.C. haunt until it shuttered in 1990.
Unlike most LGBTQ bars at the time, Black-owned bars welcomed a gender diverse crowd, including transgender and gender-nonconforming people, according to Gonzaba. He said these patrons cultivated a unique music subculture in the 1970s composed of early disco and drag, and a “more sexually expressive culture” began to flourish.
“This is music that’s founded by African American and Latinx people in inner cities, parts of Chicago and Philadelphia and Washington, and dancing becomes normalized … and this kind of style of music and this kind of style of dancing that’s highly sexualized becomes the envy of the wider gay community,” Gonzaba said of this early disco era that would later give rise to house and electronic dance music.
“It’s the ability for clubs to be places of refuge and sexual expression and sexual exploration,” he said, that still lead people today to “think of bars and nightlife as a place to not just have a drink but to explore different avenues of one’s sexuality, and that’s hugely borrowed from Black culture.”
Where are all the Black-owned gay bars?
The number of Black-owned gay bars, currently and historically, is unknown, since there is no resource that specifically tracks them, and Gonzaba said many bars frequented by LGBTQ people of color have historically been white-owned. But business listings suggest there may not be many of them left.
In addition to Lambda Lounge and Alibi Lounge in New York, at least three others — Jeffery Pub in Chicago, Metro 2.0 in Jackson, Mississippi, and Jocks PHL in Philadelphia — are still in business.https://www.instagram.com/p/BzWSKlLBq7l/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=8&wp=1116&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com&rp=%2Ffeature%2Fnbc-out%2Fblack-owned-gay-bars-are-dwindling-can-they-survive-covid-n1241100#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A877%2C%22ls%22%3A852%2C%22le%22%3A873%7D
In Chicago, the pandemic is threatening to shut down what might be the country’s oldest Black-owned gay bar. Jeffery Pub opened in the 1960s and has gone through multiple owners, according to the current owner, Jamal Junior. The businessman, who purchased the bar in the mid-2000s, was forced to temporarily close the pub in March under a city ordinance as the pandemic swept through the Midwest. He said the pub has not been able to reopen in compliance with city mandates because it lacks outdoor space.
“I’m just praying and hoping that we can survive,” Junior, 46, told NBC News.
Metro 2.0 owner Temica Morton is currently trying to hold on to what might be the only Black-owned gay bar in the South. Morton, a Jackson-based LGBTQ advocate, acquired the lease to the bar in February just as the pandemic struck the U.S. She invested her entire savings into Metro 2.0, which she said has been a popular venue for LGBTQ people of color of all genders since it opened in the late 1990s. But a seesawing series of shutdown orders from state and city officials left the businesswoman in “panic mode” as she struggled to figure out how to keep the bar alive. The bar temporarily shut down Aug. 5, and reopened in September at limited capacity after the shutdown lifted. Morton, 44, said she’s now “taking it one day at a time.”
Jewel Catch One Disco on West Pico Blvd on Sept. 13, 2000 in Los Angeles.Jason Kirk / Newsmakers / Getty Images file
Many Black-owned bars whose clientele was composed largely of people of color have shuttered in the past decade, including several in New York City alone, like Starlite Lounge, No Parking and Club Langston. Perhaps the most famous of the shuttered bars was Jewel’s Catch One, a Los Angeles venue known for its Black disco scene that operated between 1973 and 2015 under the ownership of lesbian Jewel Thais-Williams. And a decade before that, the community lost beloved bar Knob Hill in Washington, D.C., which operated between 1957 and 2004.
In 1990, after dealing with decades of discrimination at gay bars in San Francisco, where he moved in 1969, Rodney Barnette, a Vietnam War veteran, former member of the Black Panther Party and gay rights activist, opened his own bar. The New Eagle Creek Saloon, which operated under the slogan “A friendly place with a funky base for every race,” was forced to shut down after only three years due to rent increases that Barnette said he could not afford. But before it shuttered, he said the saloon served as a refuge for San Francisco’s LGBTQ people of color. Activist groups like Lesbians and Gays of African Descent for Democratic Action (LAGADDA) gathered there to organize against racist carding policies in San Francisco and to educate the Black community about HIV prevention, he said.
Rodney Barnette on The New Eagle Creek Saloon float, San Francisco Pride Parade, 2019.Sadie Barnette
“I call it a community center that served alcohol, that’s the way I describe it,” said Barnette, whose bar has been memorialized by his daughter, artist Sadie Barnette, in an exhibit commissioned by The Lab in San Francisco.
“People felt good,” he said of the saloon’s patrons. “You could walk in the bar, and know there wouldn’t be any discrimination against you, that you were welcome, that everybody was welcome.”
‘Everybody should be treated equal’
By the 1990s, Black LGBTQ activists and allies had successfully fought to end racist carding policies. However, a number of recent incidents indicate that racism still plagues gay nightlife.
In 2016, fury erupted in Philadelphia after a video shared widely on social media showed the owner of a popular gay bar using the N-word. A 2017 report issued by the city’s Commission on Human Rights found that women, minorities and transgender people felt unwelcome and unsafe in Philadelphia’s gay neighborhood for decades. The report recommended establishments and organizations in the so-called gayborhood undergo training for racial bias and hire more diverse staff.
In 2018, a group of Atlanta drag performers, all trans women of color, collectively quit their jobs at a popular gay club, Burkhart’s, after its white owner made racist posts on his Facebook page.
Last year, an email from a manager at Progress Bar, a gay bar in Chicago’s “gayborhood,” ordered DJs to stop playing rap music at the bar. “Anything vulgar, aggressive or considered mumble rap (including certain Cardi B tracks and newer Nicki Minaj) is off limits,” the manager wrote in a leaked message.
In June, activists gathered in front of 941 Saloon, a Pittsburgh gay bar, to protest dress codes they said discriminated against Black people.
In July, a picture circulating on Facebook showed a bartender at Number Nine, a popular gay bar in Washington, D.C., apparently wearing a “black face” Covid-19 mask. The management later posted an apology, claiming the bartender didn’t know the mask was racist.
Over the years, as wealth in the U.S. has become more concentrated, Gonzaba said it is not uncommon for multiple gay bars to be managed under a single owner.
“These bars are owned by wealthy, white men who often have many different establishments in the cities,” he explained.
Some bars, even if they don’t engage in discriminatory practices within their establishment, try to cultivate loyalty among white clientele through their branding, according to Gonzaba. For example, in 2012, a leaked email from a gay bar owner in Washington, D.C., revealed that he had requested an advertisement for the bar, which displayed a Black man, be replaced with “a hot white guy,” stating it was “more our clientele.”
Barnette, who now resides in Los Angeles, said that despite progress made by activists, LGBTQ nightlife still caters predominantly to white men.
“The overall gay white male community has not reformed into making it a point that everybody should be treated equal,” he said.
‘A responsibility to queer people of color’
In New York City, where Covid-19 cases have plummeted, bars and restaurants have been allowed to slowly reopen outdoors at limited capacity. Starting Sept. 30, restaurants will be allowed to reopen their indoor space at 25 percent capacity, though bar service will not be permitted.
In July, Lambda Lounge celebrated its grand opening with a “nice turnout” despite restrictions, according to Hughes and Solomon, 38, who set up their lounge outdoors.
“It was so nice,” Hughes said. “We had to literally stop people coming in so we could be compliant with Covid rules.”
While the couple said they did receive a small loan through the emergency relief program, they are unsure how long they will remain open without more assistance, especially as the weather cools and a possible second wave of Covid-19 could force the city to shut down bars and restaurants later this year. So far, they’ve raised nearly $6,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for their lounge.
Hughes said the ongoing stress is giving him migraines, and Solomon said it has been “hard to find optimism right now.” Their insurance premium has already increased by $1,000 a month due to the pandemic, they said, and they are not currently bringing in enough money to cover their rent and other expenses. Still, the men vow to stay open as long as they can.
“We have a responsibility to queer people of color to make sure that this place lasts, and it’s extremely difficult when we run into obstacles,” Solomon said, “but the glass is half full.”
