Nellie’s Sports Bar has fired the independent security vendor it had hired to help with crowd control during this past weekend’s Pride festivities, and will remain closed for the remainder of the week.
The popular LGBTQ hangout was fiercely criticized on social media and protested by activists, including members of Black Lives Matter DC, after security guards were videotaped dragging a woman down the stairs by her arms and her hair. Some protesters called for the bar to be permanently shut down, and encouraged their friends and social circles to stop patronizing Nellie’s as a result.
The incident allegedly stemmed from a case of mistaken identity, according to the victim, 22-year-old Keisha Young. She told WUSA9 that she was mistaken for another patron who had brought an open container of alcohol into the bar, and was roughly accosted by security and dragged down the stairs.
In a statement posted to its Facebook page, the management of Nellie’s said it had “terminated, with immediate effect” the independent security vendor and that it would continue its own investigation into what happened.
“Our investigation into the matter is ongoing, and we will cooperate with any law enforcement investigation, however we do not need to wait for the investigation’s conclusion before we take decisive action,” the statement reads. “We offer a heartfelt apology to all who witnessed the horrific events of this past weekend. No matter what behavior occurred prior, nothing warrants mistreating, and disrespecting, one of our guests.
“What we can say is we have heard the concerns of the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities,” the statement continues. “Nellie’s will be closed this week as we evaluate this regrettable situation, though we will continue to pay all non-security staff their normal wages. In the interim, we will use this time to listen and understand what more we can do to create the safe and friendly atmosphere our guests have come to expect from Nellie’s Sports Bar over the past 14 years.”
"I'm mainly exhausted at this point," Bosco says of the political attacks that have been lobbed against members of the transgender community. "It's just never-ending. It's just this deluge of hate that keeps on happening.
"But the thing with a lot of right-wing talking points is they pick a boogeyman or some sort of scapegoat and they change it about every ten years," the trans drag performer adds. "It's been trans people for a while, it's been Mexican people, it's been Black people, it's been any sort of 'other' that they can then manipulate people into being afraid of, and then they can blame all of the problems in the country on that one group of people. And right now trans people are taking the brunt of it."
A gay couple from Chicago who had been living in Mexico City before disappearing in May were found dead in a mass grave alongside two other bodies.
Zafar Padamsee Mawani, 56, a U.S. citizen, and Guillermo Jaffet Hidalgo Ortiz, 56, moved from Chicago to Mexico City in October, settling in the capital's far southern reaches, Ortiz's niece told Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV.
The men were reportedly planning to pick up a chairlift for Mawani's elderly mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, on May 20 when they disappeared without a trace. The sellers had asked the couple to meet at Mawani's mother's home, where the chairlift was being installed, to complete the purchase. Before losing contact, the men shared their real-time location with a friend.
The theme among my friend group is Geminis. So many years have seen epic Gemini parties here in D.C. Years ago, however, when I lived in matriarchal Portland, Ore., we Cancers ruled. Well beyond my own, this is a birthday time of year for me. Aside from friends and family, my birthday particularly reminds me of Stonewall, as I was born the weekend of those riots. Then there's America, that moody Cancer whose semiquincentennial birthday we're all about to mark.
I wish I could say celebrate, but please. The state we're in....
As noted, I was born in 1969, making me 7 during the bicentennial. I don't know much about July 4 of that year, as we were living abroad. My only fireworks celebration that summer was Swiss National Day at my grandfather's house in Ticino. Our crappy fireworks got out of control and torched two of his kindling-dry palm trees. Sorry, Grandpa.
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