Following in the steps of gay men who once boycotted Coors beer and Florida orange juice, local D.C. bars are now shunning Yuengling beer after owner Dick Yuengling endorsed Donald J. Trump for president.
David Perruzza, the manager of JR.’s Bar & Grill, sparked the movement by posting a video of himself literally removing Yuengling’s beer tap.
“So, Richard Yuengling and his company feel they should support Trump,” Perruzza says in the video. “Well, this is a gay bar. And I am a gay bar manager, and we do serve Yuengling, but, from this point on, because Trump has Pence, and Pence is one of the biggest idiots ever, and very anti-gay, probably one of the most anti-gay politicians ever, I am doing this.” He then unscrews the tap head.
“We’re saying ‘bye’ to Yuengling at JR.’s. Just so you know, when people support things that don’t support us, we don’t support them. So, goodbye, Yuengling, you are the weakest link.”
Other area gay bars have since followed suit on social media, including Level One, who wrote “In light of Yuengling’s support of Donald Trump & Mike Pence, whose anti-gay views are in direct contrast to the gay lifestyle, Level One will no longer sell their product,” and The Green Lantern, which notes it has “taken the Yuengling tap off the bar effective immediately.”
Number Nine posted a video to Facebook of one of their bartenders emptying out Yuengling bottles into two large orange buckets, with the caption: “Byeeeeeee.”
Floriana Restaurant’s Dito Sevilla posted the following on Facebook:
Jon Parks, general manager at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets, was torn over whether to pull the lager from his shelves, noting that Dick Yuengling did not say he was endorsing the Trump-Pence ticket because of anti-LGBT views. Still, after consulting owner Alan Carroll, Parks yanked Yuengling from the bar.
“This in some ways brings back that time when I lived in Hollywood, and I did indeed go down Hollywood Boulevard in protest of Anita Bryant’s ridiculousness,” says Parks, referring to the former Florida Citrus Commission spokesmodel who spearheaded a 1977 campaign to rescind an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance in the state. The Yuengling boycott is the first he can remember based on a company’s support of a political candidate, rather than a company’s actions, such as support of an anti-gay ballot initiative. But he doesn’t foresee it setting off wars between liberals and conservatives over which bars they choose to support.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce a policy mandating that U.S. passports list a traveler’s sex as assigned at birth, based on biological characteristics.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would recognize only two sexes, effectively erasing transgender identity. The order, which pledged to uphold "the biological reality of sex," directed the State Department to revise its passport policies to "accurately reflect the holder's sex."
The summer of 1985, I turned 16. In Belgium. While I lived primarily in rural, red Florida, summers sometimes had me staying with Dad's family. At the time, my Army father was assigned to the American embassy in Brussels. With $100 in American Express "travelers' cheques," our go-to global currency of the time, it was a thrilling summer.
In Florida, I would've spent those months mopping floors or working the grill at a mall job. Instead, I had urban mass transit and could drink in bars. Granted, my Euro '80s summer was more Depeche Mode than anything as explicit as Call Me By Your Name. Though virginal, at least I passed for something seedier one afternoon.
Dutch authorities say Veronica Clifford-Carlos failed to prove she faces a "legitimate risk of persecution" or threat of physical harm in the United States.
A Dutch court has upheld a ruling rejecting a U.S. transgender woman's bid for asylum, finding she does not face a substantial enough threat of persecution in her home country.
Veronica Clifford-Carlos, a 28-year-old visual artist from California, said she once believed she’d build a life in the United States, but felt compelled to flee after receiving death threats over her gender identity.
Clifford-Carlos left the United States -- leaving behind friends and her dog -- and flew to the Netherlands with her father. Upon arrival, she applied for asylum, telling authorities about the abuse she endured in the United States, particularly after President Donald Trump’s re-election last fall.
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