Two Friday’s ago there was a beautiful event at a certain campus bar to celebrate National Coming Out day. It was one night where gays and lesbians felt safe to come out and dance together and have a great time. It was refreshing to have a different venue to party in, and there were great vibes from the crowd all night. This makes it all the more heartbreaking that the so-called “security” personnel hired for the event were a group of homophobic aggressive assholes. Not only did they give us dirty looks and a hard time getting in, including asking the HOSTESS of the drag show to remove her wig so that she could be ID’d; but the night ended off with one of these guys grabbing a guy in a choke-hold and throwing him out. For one, security guards have no right to man-handle patrons. Second, I seriously question what motivates a 250 pound bouncer to choke-hold the smallest guy around when much less force would have been needed. Big strong dude trying to reaffirm his maleness by picking on a gay boy? Classic story. Let’s keep these fuckers off our scene. And a heads up to educate staff and weed out the homophobes at future events, gay-specific or otherwise.
—No one picks on a queer in my town
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
usually a drunk is a drunk is a drunk,whether gay or not. then again, you have these macho natzies that just want to show off for their buds in uniform. but in realality,these guys are probly closet cases themselves.i have a lot, and i do mean a lot of friends that are gay. does it bother me, noo. but when you have outright assholes throwing their fluff around like these idiots did, then i have no love for any of them. not the gays, the security. yes,welcome to the 18th. century halifax,where time stopped back then. for all manner of things, building, ideas, and even human rights.all i can say is to boycot this company, if that doesn’t work, try the chronicle horrid paper, they just love that kind of story, and the comments would go further than here in the coast,unfortunately.
I was at this event and I didn’t see the scuffle. Unfortunately, the organizers of the event have don’t have any power over who gets hired to provide security for events in the SUB, that would be up to the DSU, so I encourage you to bring up the matter with them. Or, email dalout@dal.ca with yoru concerns and hopefully their representative on the DSU will bring up the issue at the next council meeting.
That being said, I had a lot of fun that night and I’m sorry if your night was ruined by some lame bouncer. This was the 4th time DalOUT held the event and in the past I remember the staff saying that it was the best event all year long and that they looked forward to it and fought over who got to work.
Oh My God!! No way!! Bouncers gave you dirty looks?! I can’t imagine that EVER happening. Myself, I’ve never seen anything but sunshine and smiles from bouncers/event security. They’re ALWAYS so friendly and helpful that I can’t believe that they weren’t your new best friends….
And of course all these problems just HAD to stem from the fact that the show was for/by the gay and lesbian community. Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that it was just another bunch of annoying drunks. They couldn’t have possibly asked the hostess to take the wig off for ANY reason other than the fact that she was a drag queen. It couldn’t possibly have been the fact that it’s the law that a person actually look like the ID they’re presenting. And as for the guy being thrown out, there’s no possible way that he was too drunk or was breaking the rules. It couldn’t be the fact that when he was asked to leave he refused to do so. I mean every time I’ve seen someone kicked out of a bar, they all left without any issue and even tipped the bouncers on the way out. This must be a one time thing, because as we all know, that sort of stuff NEVER happens at Reflections. The bouncers there are always so cordial and polite about tossing people out there.
So yeah, ALL of this just had to be because they were all homophobes. There is absolutely NO WAY that any of this happened for a valid reason. You don’t want to be prejudiced against, but you sure feel it’s ok to be prejudiced yourself. Pot meet Kettle. Kettle meet Pot.
Jennier— the DSU has about much power as a Muslim in a Church on Sunday. Sorry to break it to you. It’ll be brought up and then conveniently swept under the carpet, much like everything else about the DSU. Just my two cents from prior experience. Although I’m quite certain that it’s just an issue of unruly drunkenness, which I’m sure doesn’t happen on Dal’s campus.
Dr. Fever, as someone who has been loosely involved with the DSU in the past, I know that they can and have taken action on such issues in the past. The SUB is the DSU’s territory and council has the perrogative to hire whichever security firm they wish. In all likelihood, in this case the complaint will be noted but any further action will be nil. If there are further complaints, I imagine they would be taken under consideration when it comes time to renew a security contract.
Sorry, I came from the time when the DSU was in the back pocket of the Administration. I’m a little bitter. I’m sure it’s changed.
DSU is still the same! lol
PROTEST! Bring it up to media agents and outlets.
Go public with the security organization’s name.
OB is either not gay and a little uncomfortable with gay people, causing them to feel guilty and compelled to “come to the rescue” of every gay person in Halifax no matter how drunk and unruly they are… no matter how reasonable the offense against them.
or
OB is younger and has just come out and is still stuck in that douchey “just came out at 20 in college” phase. They haven’t yet met enough gay people openly to realize that gay people are every bit as good and bad as the rest of the population.
LMFAO at Fizz.
OB, that’s me right? Original blogger or something?
For the record. I am a gay female. And most of my friends are gay. This guy who got choked is a friend of mine. He wasn’t drunk AT ALL, and definately not unruly. And you know what? I DO feel compelled to “come to the rescue” when I see queer people being picked on. Because I am a loud-mouth, stand up for your rights kinda person. I don’t let people take advantage in general. And coming out and experiencing it first hand has made me very sensitive to the pain my fellow queers experience daily because homophobia is alive and well.
I hope that the irony of this happening at an event to promote COMING OUT is not lost. We are encouraging people to stand up and take that GIANT leap of faith out of the closet. To put themselves at risk of descrimination and even physical harm. This event may very well have been the first gay event for many of the young people in attendance. This may have been their coming out event. What a message to send these people to have the security harrass them all night. There are times when a little sensitivity is needed to make people feel extra safe. This is one of those times.
In this context where the most powerful nation in the world continues to promote hateful, bigotted ideas and deny civil rights to gays and lesbians, we must be very careful indeed to protect and cherish our own freedoms.
OB are you sure the bouncer wasn’t trying to hug your friend? Maybe he thought your buddy was cute and doesn’t know how to flirt.
*Sarcastic*Yah because bouncers just randomly decide they are going to choke someone and throw them out*Sarcastic*. Obviously your friend was doing something to cause him to do that. As much as you want to defend him. You say bouncers have no right to touch them? Are you serious? What is the point of a bouncer than if they can’t do anything… If he asked someone to take off a wig to I.D what is the big deal? If I wore a stupid ass wig to any bar they would probably ask me to take it off when I get I.D as well. Your over thinking this whole situation. Not everyone is out to get the gays/lesbians.. Perhaps they were just doing there job.