Blueberries were splattered across the front entrance of Partners in Oklahoma City – Photo: KFOR.
The owners of a gay club in Oklahoma say their establishment has been targeted by acts of vandalism using food as a weapon on two separate occasions.
The first incident occurred last Tuesday, when staff at Partners, a gay bar in Oklahoma City, found a car in the parking lot that had been vandalized by having soup poured over it.
The following day, someone scattered blueberries on the walkway in front of the bar’s main entrance, with some of the berries creating a splatter pattern on the door and the doorframe.
“It was everywhere,” John McAffrey, the owner of Partners, told Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate KFOR in an interview. “We first thought somebody got sick and then once we got closer, we realized that it was, it looks like blueberries.”
McAffrey said surveillance video caught the culprit in action, but he and his business partner don’t want to share the video until they speak with an attorney. He says the vandal was driving an early 2000s Chevy Silverado.
“They pull up, throw it out the window, slow down for probably like 10 seconds,” he said.
Soup was poured on a car in the parking lot of Partners, a gay bar in Oklahoma City – Photo: KFOR.
It remains unclear as to why the bar was targeted. McAffrey says it could be a form of protest related to COVID-19 restrictions and a local mandate that bars close at 11 p.m., but they have no evidence to confirm that suspicion just yet.
Partners has since placed a security guard in the parking lot to keep an eye out for trouble and prevent future incidents.
“It was completely childish,” McAffrey told KFOR. “There’s better ways to handle something if it is targeted at a certain individual but it’s not going to stop us for continuing and having somewhere safe for everyone in the community to come to.”
Treven Michael Gokey was arrested by Phoenix police on September 17 for allegedly threatening to shoot up Cruisin’ 7th, a popular gay bar near his Arizona apartment. He faces felony charges of making a terroristic threat and using a computer to threaten, after blaming the LGBTQ community for recent acts of violence.
According to court documents, police were called to the 39-year-old's apartment for a welfare check after a crisis hotline reported he had threatened to shoot up the bar, claiming he was “triggered by political events.”
The owners of Pink Pony, a new gay nightclub in Sydney, have apologized and vowed to change the club's name following backlash from the local LGBTQ community.
Kevin Du-Val and Michael Lewis — the owner and manager of the popular gay club Palms — had planned to open their new multi-level venue on Oxford Street, the main drag in Darlinghurst known for its vibrant LGBTQ nightlife, in early December.
But the club's name — which the owners said in a since-deleted social media post was "unashamedly inspired by its namesake song that resonates so profoundly within our community," referring to lesbian singer Chappell Roan's hit "Pink Pony Club" — sparked controversy after they described the type of patrons they hoped to attract, seemingly at the expense of others, according to 9News.
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