It is with regret that we have decided to cancel this year’s edition of the Broadway Bares Solo Strips fundraiser, which was scheduled for May 10 at the NYC club 42West. We cannot in good conscience hold an event at a venue whose owners have alienated our community, as reflected in an April 23 New York Times story and an April 24 follow-up post.
We do business with and accept fundraising support from a variety of people across a wide spectrum of political and religious affiliations. The rich diversity of our community makes what we do together so special. It is a rare instance where the actions of a donor negatively impacts us as an organization and potentially jeopardizes our relationship with others whose support is integral to our success. But when it does occur, in a way that’s blatantly against all we stand and work for, we can’t pretend it doesn’t come with consequences. Silence is not a neutral position. It is complicit.
This is not about partisan politics or punishment. This is about doing what’s right to ultimately ensure that our commitment to the men, women and children we serve cannot be questioned.”
–Tom Viola, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS‘ Executive Director, in a notice posted on the org’s Facebook page and he encourages you to make a donation to the non-profit here
Dennis C. McGrath
Good
Frank Smekar
Go to their page and make a donation today! http://broadwaycares.org/bares2015solostrips
Jimmy Lee
http://www.edgemedianetwork.com/news/politics/news//176033/return_to_form:_cruz_introduces_2_new_anti-gay_legislations
Alexander R. Rodriguez
So I guess AIDS DOES matter less than hating Republicans. Awesome job guys. Keep up the .. like… “tolerance”
lauraspencer
Huh!??! You cancel a fundraiser for HIV/AIDS because two gay men hosted Cruz in their home?
Making money for HIV/AIDS organizations, charities, etc. is more important. Grow up.
A friend of mine who is Republican and gay has performed in Broadway Bares for years and I have always supported him by making donations. So it is okay for gays to undress for the event and perform and the charity makes money off them, but it is wrong to rent a space from two gays who host a GOP candidate in their home? If Broadway Bares is going to start discriminating then I will do the same with my money.
DarkZephyr
@Alexander R. Rodriguez: I am so very bored with people like you abusing and misusing the word “tolerance”.
jimontp
@Alexander R. Rodriguez: “tolerance?” are you f–king crazy? Ted Cruz is the most rabid anti-gay rightwingnut in the whole Republican can on nut cases. He introduced a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage. So why are two gay men doing anything to aid and abet some politican who has railed against the “sin” of homosexuality? Why? Really I don’t know. Do they save money on their taxes? Why would any self-respecting gay person help someone like Cruz? He doesn’t have an iota of tolerance in his swarmy body.
jimontp
@lauraspencer: You really don’t get it at all do you?
Two gay men hosting Cruz is like two Jews hosting a Nazi. Google Cruz and his comments on gays.
He is not just a “GOP candidate.”
You GROW UP.
cflekken
So, curious, how is this any different than those businesses that refuse to serve homosexuals? Isn’t it essentially the same, but in reverse? This is where the LGBT mission bites itself and why many feel the “gay agenda” is to force people to do things the way the “gay agenda” wants them to be done, and not just for reasons for acceptance. Basically, the message here is, “I want you to serve me and do business with me, despite your disagreeing with who I am and what my beliefs are, but I won’t use your establishment because I don’t agree with what you did/do, your views, or the views of those with whom you socialize”.
Kenneth Gray Kloss
Good job
DGray
@cflekken:
HUGE difference. One party is the client/customer whereas the other is a business/corporation. A customer always has the choice where to take their business (assuming they have the means). I can choose to eat at Chik-Fil-A, McDonalds, or Arby’s. I can choose to fly with American Airlines because they have better mile rewards and because they offer employees same-sex benefits. Because of this decision, I’m rejecting to send my dollars/time/effort using other airlines. This isn’t “discriminating” in the traditional sense because there is no infringement on freedom. I could, after all, change my mind next week because another airline does an even better job at what I value.
Businesses that refuse to serve gays, however, are rejecting money from a willing and able party. That party’s freedom (to spend their money how they choose) is restricted based on orientation.
Here, the customer is just choosing not use this venue for specifics reasons. It’s like saying: “Nope, I won’t contribute to Candidate X because they are hostile to gay interests.” This is HUGE difference gays not being able to eat at a restaurant despite being able to and willing to do so.
Personally, I think the better option would have been to just choose another venue. Perhaps it was too late to the event date, but that would have prevented any potential loss in revenue.
santijose
They so open a GoFundMe page, Broadway Bares for AIDS instead now
cflekken
@DGray: But the premise is still the same.
jorgecruz
Actually this is completely consistent with our actions against intolerance. We don’t support any business that doesn’t treat us as equals or that helps and supports those that would have us take a position that is less than equal in this society. Whether they are owned by a conservative christian or two selfish old queens. If we boycott businesses like chik fila because they support ultra conservative anti gay candidates, why shouldn’t we take the same action with the Pines? They got rich off the backs of the gays and lesbians that they are now selling out. Boycott any business that helps people who are against us.
Saint Law
@lauraspencer: Your friend sounds hideous but then that’s to be expected.
Despite our recent gains gay men and women are in a fight for their lives – just look at countries where the likes of Cruz and the many, many, many other Republican vermin are in the ascendant.
Only a child or a moron would not recognise this. So yeah, it’s you who need to grow up.
Saint Law
@Alexander R. Rodriguez: You look the type of boneless feeb who’d ‘tolerate’ a punch in the gob – and even say “Thank you, Sir” afterward.
Avery Alvarez
@cflekken: What a poorly constructed false equivalence.
Do you have any other logical fallacies to explain why homophobia is tolerance or are you just going to start quoting bible verses now?
Robert Young
Thanks!
William Perri
GOOD
andy_d
If one reads the statement carefully, it is made VERY CLEAR that the reason the venue was cancelled was not so much because of who the venue owners invited to their home, but because they do not want to ALIENATE OTHER CONTRIBUTORS. If given the choice between losing the support of one sponsor, versus MANY donors, the most prudent thing would be to lose the support of one to retain the support of many. It is, as the statement says, NOT a matter of politics but of ECONOMICS. It is a stance I support wholeheartedly.
andy_d
And FYI: http://www.edgemedianetwork.com/news/politics/news//176033/return_to_form:_cruz_introduces_2_new_anti-gay_legislations
Ummmm Yeah
Good for them. If you look into this, these two were trying to funnel money from Israel into candidates’ pockets that they think will work in Israel’s favor over America’s. These people aren’t only traitors to other gays, they are traitors to America. Boycott them out of business and back to Israel where they belong.
Celtic
Am I to believe these two presumably gay owners of The Pines REALLY did not know how homo-hating Ted Cruz really is? REALLY? Of course, I can sense these two are narcissistic opportunists just like Cruz. “Birds of a feather”? Their behavior is disgraceful, turncoats against the LGBTQ community. With “friends” like these, gays need no [more] enemies. Frankly, I hope their “show” fails miserably, period.
Theonewhoismany
There are far too many commenters on Queerty who have no basic reasoning skills, and quite frankly cannot fathom what a false equivalency is. Having said that, what disturbs me, is the number of LGBT people who comment on here (I extrapolate that they represent a significant minority of the LGBT population as a whole) who are nothing but collaborators with those who would do us harm. I will not say what logic clearly follows that conclusion.
EvonCook
Human beings, gays included, and their actions and contortions of reason to support ridiculous, illusionary or self defeating actions never cease to amaze me. How anyone who thinks of themselves as truly gay could identify as or support republicans is so beyond intelligent reason or common sense that it defies logic, but I have learned there is no accounting for true stupidity or real evil. People that want to make trade offs or rationalize or benefit from dealing with the hateful are just as bad as the source they solicit. Just keep your distance from them as Broadway Bares is doing and seek to defame, defeat and destroy them at every opportunity so that you can minimize the trouble, damage and carnage that such people engender in the world. And, republicans are by no means the only enemies, most religions are equally if not more so bigoted and destructive. Unfortunately, many people are not as strong or as lucky as I have been, but we have to go beyond our own selves and our comfortable lives to help others who are susceptible to such mind games and the hurt to our brothers that inevitable results.
Bauhaus
@Alexander R. Rodriguez:
Reading the tripe written by mouth-breathers like you, is about all the “tolerance” we can muster for the day.
Bauhaus
@EvonCook:
Exactly.
What you failed to mention, but is obvious, is that the religious right and the Republican Party are in bed together. They create laws and policy, influence, peddle, pander, and worse.
DuMaurier
@andy_d: I agree that economics, not politics, seems to have dictated this move, but as a general rule I don’t find that particularly admirable, since it suggests that someone would jettison any matter of principle for fear of losing a buck. In this specific case that isn’t a problem, but where exactly would the line be drawn? Since your post doesn’t define any limits, then theoretically, if boycotts were threatened over inviting a pro-LGBT guest, cancelling the show in that case would be a “stance” you would “support wholeheartedly”.
ParkerSparks
@Dennis C. McGrath: Only Solo Strips is cancelled.BROADWAY BARES is ON for Sunday, June 21 at 9:30 & midnight at the Hammerstein Ballroom located in the Manhattan Center on West 34th Street!
Chris
@Alexander R. Rodriguez: The reason we have to have put on fund raisers for AIDS care and prevention (year after year after year) is that, since Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has refused to worry about health care in general and the health of gay men in particular. Instead, people like Cruz sponsor legislation that cuts funding for medical care and other social programs that benefit gay men, that allows organizations to discriminate based on their so-called religious beliefs, that prevents us from marrying who love and thereby receiving the benefits that is automatically attached marriage, and that works against us in other ways. … So, when that party tolerates us, then come lecturing us about tolerance. Until then, you don’t know what you are talking/writing about.