A Trump-supporting gay bar owner announced his bid for Congress. LGBTQ people announced a boycott of his bar.
Mauro Garza wants to unseat LGBTQ ally Joaquin Castro, but his patrons are not amused
LGBTQ people in San Antonio are boycotting a gay bar after its Trump-supporting owner announced his bid for Congress.
Mauro Garza, owner of Pegasus nightclub in San Antonio, will seek the Republican nomination in Congressional District 20 — after previously failing to get elected in a different district in 2018.
Garza, who is gay, a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, and identifies as a conservative, previously campaigned on his support for Trump, wearing a red cap in 2018 that said “Make TX-21 Greater.”
Should Garza succeed in his bid for the nomination, he would face LGBTQ ally Rep. Joaquin Castro in the general election.
But in the wake of boycotts against companies that cater to LGBTQ people while their owners support Donald Trump — whose administration has worked to dilute or rollback LGBTQ rights — the local LGBTQ community of San Antonio is fighting back.
A Twitter account, Protest the Peg, is imploring LGBTQ people to boycott Pegasus, LGBTQ Nation reports.
Protest the Peg slammed Garza for “[escalating] his support for the anti-LGBTQIA+ Republican platform” and for using his social media accounts to “share posts from nationalist media attacking immigrants and the transgender community.”
“We must stand together to ensure that political attacks on our community are denounced,” Protest the Peg said in a statement posted to Twitter. “We must work in unison to curtail monetary support of anti-LGBTQIA+ movements. Every time we spend our hard-earned dollars at Pegasus Nightclub, we are paying to support our oppression.”
On Fri, Aug. 9, @Mauro4Texas announced his @GOP run for @USCongress #TX20. His club, The Pegasus, books drag performers from around the nation, we are calling for a nationwide boycott in an effort to defund his contributions to anti-LGBTQIA+ politicians/platforms. #ProtestThePeg pic.twitter.com/hEoUG0ctmE
— Protest the Peg (@PegProtest) August 12, 2019
The organization’s Twitter account has also been sharing examples of Garza’s social media activity where he supports anti-LGBTQ Sen. Ted Cruz, shares anti-immigrant memes, and seems to endorse Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.
Protest the Peg are demanding that Garza sell Pegasus to ensure that “LGBTQ money no longer goes to supporting xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ ideologies.”
We demand @Mauro4Texas sell Pegasus & the property itself so that #LGBTQ money no longer goes to supporting xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ ideologies.
We will continue the boycott until he’s out of business or sells it all. #ProtestThePeg #SanAntonio pic.twitter.com/EqsIrRU45d
— Protest the Peg (@PegProtest) August 13, 2019
The group also criticized RuPaul’s Drag Race star Kennedy Davenport for performing at Pegasus last month and not publicly supporting the boycott.
“We understand there are many artists who rely on the entertainment industry as their source of income,” they said. “We are fully aware of the limits systemic oppression can impose on us to secure employment and meet our needs. We recognize that our spaces are the safest for LGBTQIA+ talent to work.
“However, the LGBTQIA+ entertainment industry provides different platforms that reach large audiences. We ask that you use those platforms responsibly and refrain from contracting talent to attend or perform at Pegasus Nightclub.”
Read more:
Anti-LGBTQ groups are funding Danica Roem’s homophobic election opponent
Arizona Republican believes gay people die at 42 because homosexuality is “harmful”
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