Nine former employees of Micky’s, a popular gay bar and nightlife destination in West Hollywood, are seeking $15M in damages from the club’s owners, alleging management had created a “sexually hostile work environment,” discriminated against heterosexual and black employees, wrongfully terminated them, and above all else, didn’t supply them with state-required meals and 10-minute cigarette breaks. The nerve!
Aside from the overpriced drinks and fabulous outdoor patio, one of the club’s major attractions are its male strippers and go-go boys that entertain patrons on a nightly basis. According to much of the lawsuit’s verbiage, those barely-clothed babes were causing most of the problems.
WeHoville reports that Matthew Krupnick, the labor and employment attorney orchestrating the suit, supplied “photographic evidence” of the lewd conduct in question. Apparently, the photographs show:
“strippers performing in the nude, strippers openly displaying their penises and masturbating in front of patrons, a stripper walking around with semen on his face and chest, a patron using his finger to penetrate a stripper’s butt, a ring toss game involving a man’s penis and employees pouring shots of liquor down a stripper’s back while a patron licked it from the stripper’s butt.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Hey there — that actually sounds like it could be fun! Are they still doing this? Like, if we go this weekend, we can see this? Please?
The complaint also claims that “hardcore gay pornography played on big-screen TVs throughout the club during working hours,” which is something we’ve never personally seen during any trip to Micky’s at any hour.
Furthermore, “one of the plaintiffs alleges that his roommate was featured in a porn video,” which is somehow the fault of the club owners? We’re not sure about that one.
“No one should be required to work in an environment with this going on all around them,” said Krupnick, whose Facebook page hosts numerous photos of himself standing with, touching, and mackin’ on strippers at various other gay bars. “As a gay man who fights for the rights of LGBT people, to see gays in a position of such authority and ability abusing that authority and ability in the way the club is doing is offensive to me. I’m motivated to ensure this never happens again in our town.”
The suit also alleges that heterosexual and black employees — as well as employees exhibiting a “West Hollywood attitude”—were forced out of their jobs because owner Michael Niemeyer “didn’t want them working there” (even though he hired them in the first place). Today, both heterosexual and black employees with West Hollywood attitudes showed up for work at Micky’s, which still employs them.
If successful, the nine former employees (all male, five gay and four straight) would undoubtedly force the mainstay to close. But Micky’s has a slick track record when it comes to lawsuits; In the past 12 years, Micky’s has been sued 11 times, and only once been forced to pay, which turned out to be a measly $1,082 to a promoter.
Judge Elizabeth Allen White will preside over the case once (and if) it finally moves into a courtroom. We just hope the plaintiffs can manage to wash all that semen off of their faces—we googled her, and she doesn’t look like a lady that’s down for those kind of shenanigans.
Photo above by: Chuck on foursquare for iPhone
Dakotahgeo
Unnnngh!!! Only in the gay bar world! And we wonder why the gay community gets the hassle about always thinking about sex!! I wonder HOW the general public got ‘that’ idea??!!
Caleb in SC
I agree. Sounds like a BS lawsuit to me. On the flip side, it seems like a bunch of rogue employees broke the rules, tried to get bigger tips and whored themselves out. Not good.
Teleny
I have to say strippers bore me… I don’t get it: haven’t we all seen naked or semi-naked people? This also applies to any variety of stripper. Gay, straight, Lesbian, Tranz or whatever. All boring and insipid.
Dionte
@Dakotahgeo: People think about sex regardless of sexual orientation, how we get to 7+ billion inhabitants.
tdx3fan
@Teleny: You are perfectly in your right to believe how you want, but obvious strippers keep enough people fascinated that they make money in every single town across the globe.
balehead
The typical funny and sad from the gay community…they’re all obsessed with money in the “Sue.S.A.”….
Miss Understood
I find it comical that employees would complain about strippers and porn in a sleazy bar. Otherwise I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss other complaints. Many nightlife establishments completely ignore labor laws. While I never heard of required meals (a California thing?), if it’s required then they should have meals. When you are just getting by in a service job it can be very humiliating to have your rights ignored.
As for the racism, who knows? It’s not that uncommon.
OK, despite what I just said, the anti-sex angle they are taking is disturbing me so I hope the employees lose this round.
Gigi Gee
@Dakotahgeo: Please. Straight men invented this type of behavior. It’s been around since the beginning of time. They work at a strip club for f#ck’s sake, not the public library. Porn and peens at a strip bar…mon dieu!
Gigi Gee
@balehead: Only The Gays are obsessed with money? Considering most of the 1% d-bags are straight I’d have to respectfully disagree with you.
tdx3fan
@Miss Understood: Required meal breaks is probably more a CA thing. In Ohio, you have the option to take a 15 minute break every 2 hours and a 30 minute break every 4 hours. You do not actually have to take them, but your employer has to offer them. This is only for hourly employees.
tdx3fan
@Gigi Gee: Nah, he meant to imply that only Americans are obsessed with money and that it is particularly sad coming from the gay community. Of course, not every American is obsessed with money, and it is not just Americans that are obsessed with money to begin with.
continuum
Gotta love the writer of this article, and the comments section.
Somehow, they seem to believe because barbacks and bartenders are working in a gay that theky’re not entitled to legally mandated breaks, lunch hours, and other protections.
If this were a straight bar, I wonder if the author and commentators would be singing a different tune.
I don’t find it very difficult to believe that a bar owner (gay or straight) would break the law and ignore working conditions in order to make an extra dime.
Shame on the folks who are degrading the complaints.
Shame on the author for his flippant attitude toward working people.
tdx3fan
@continuum: What you fail to grasp is that if the bar owner is breaking these regulations… where the HELL does 15,000,000 dollars come into play!?! Seriously, it is not about the regulations or the suit it is about the get rich quick scheme. If your boss is breaking regulations then you bring that to the attention of the labor review board and you possibly leave your job. If you leave your job because you were unable to deal with the boss then you sue for back wages. You do not file a suit for $15 million.
Mr. E. Jones
discriminated against heterosexual…employees
See what happens when you hire straight people to work in your gay business? They sue you because your business is too gay, and it grosses them out. Heterosexist arrogance rears its ugly face once again.
continuum
@tdx3fan: If the situation were a straight bar, where the strippers were getting fingered by the patrons, and the girls were walking around with cum on their faces, what would be your response.
If a “Hooters” failed to give the barbacks and bartenders a legally required break, would you still side with management. In every gay bar I’ve ever seen, the bartenders and barbacks are working their asses off. Why should gay employees be treated any differently than straight employees in a “Bennigans” or “Hooters”.
As for the dollar amount, the size is not unusual for a lawsuit. It gets the owner’s attention. Most such lawsuits settle for significantly less.
And, as to going to state regulators for redress. Well, good luck with that. See how responsive your own state’s regulators are when you complain.
Polaro
I don’t understand the case. Now if they said the owner required these men to do these things and they refused and were fired, they have a case. The fact that some of the strippers may have been indecent in their quest to make more money is a different issue, one that does not result in damages for another stripper. And, no, you do not end up with semen on your face unless you were involved in the process. Don’t want to be a stripper? Don’t take a job as a stripper.
Bankrupt on Baltic
What is a “West Hollywood attitude?”
GayTampaCowboy
CLEARLY the plaintiffs have a “bone” to pick with the owner – and the $15 million is just there to force a settlement – but i doubt it will work!
Look, unless these disgruntled former employees were told that they HAD to perform duties NOT part of their terms of employment or face being fired – they have little cause.
And besides “photographic evidence” – all of which has to be validated by an independent expert and the dates, times, place of the photos has to be verified – the plaintiffs have to have DOCUMENTED PROOF they were not given their “breaks” – EVER!
And can you imagine the mile-long list of witnesses for the defense that will say they NEVER saw hard-core porn playing during working hours, or sex acts or “ring toss.”
I’m betting IF any of that happend, it happend AFTER hours – when most of that kind of fun happens (yes, i worked in a few gay bars and once the doors close alot can and does happen at some gay bars!
There was a case like this in my town. We have a well-known (and a bit famous) leather bar, and a nasty, fat, old troll and his buddies brought a case against this bar – lots of trumped up charges – and it all boiled down to the fact that these “gentlemen” were asked to leave and banned from the bar because they were rebuffed by other patrons when they made sexual advances to other customers.
Won’t hold up in court – and should be tossed out before it even gets to court.
lab
as a chef with many employees…the fact that they are asking for “cigarette breaks” tells me they want them more frequently than the law requires…this is based on years of experience. and second don’t take a job in a strip club if it offends you…stay home with teleny and gaytampon
hf2hvit
@Dakotahgeo: What planet are you from? Your head must be from Uranus. Ever heard of HOOTERS and the people who take their little kids there? Ever heard of a TOPLESS bar? You’re either a shill for some homophobic site or your Palin batshit crazy.
rcblue73
@Mr. E. Jones: Agreed, “I am shocked, shocked to find out that homosexuality is going on in here!”
Denvergoatee
In most states that I know of and have worked in in a 8 hour shift you get 2 15 minute breaks and 1/2 hour lunch and that’s it. 2nd …HELLO you are working in a gay bar with strippers ,,, of course things go on that should not go on. 3rd HELLO when you applied for the job you knew where and what you were applying for. I get sick of people getting jobs then complaining about it ( like when you could smoke in a bar ) hello people who go to bars and drink usually smoke so if you don’t smoke or like it don’t work in that type of environment, get a job somewhere else. How do they know it was semen on the strippers face and chest ,, did they taste it???
tdx3fan
@continuum: If this was a straight club and these were girls my response would be exactly the same. I am not arguing that their claim has merit (if the allegations are true), but I am arguing that 15 million is to high of a price tag.
Windsor519
None of these strippers are gay in real life. The gay strippers are almost always 90 pounds and as white as Elmer’s glue. These other not gay strippers are truly financially desperate. They’re doing these things to feed their drug fix, pay child support fast, remain fugitives, pay off gambling debts…when you’re faced with the courts, angry loan sharks or pissed off drug dealers you’ll do anything short of robbing a bank.
This is a sign of how bad its gotten for young straight men with no skills or education besides con artistry and desire to turn a fast buck.
Greg
What do they mean “West Hollywood attitude”?
The five plaintiffs sound like fools. That is so stupid when that guy says, “Nobody should be required to work in that environment”. How horrible, a nightclub/party environment. The plaintiffs had to know what the environment was like when they applied for the job. If they didn’t like it, they were free to look for another job. It also doesn’t make sense that to work there is somehow extreme working conditions, but it’s perfectly enjoyable to be a patron. Their case is dismissed.
Greg
@Dionte: Don’t look at me. I’m gay. I don’t reproduce.
Greg
@Miss Understood: I think the writer meant to say “State required meal breaks” because there are no State required meals. If I remember, if a person works at least 3 hours, they get a 10 minute break. If they work a minute over 6 hours, they get a 10 minute break and a 30 minute meal break, but it’s unpaid. Most people try to clock out before they hit 6 hours so they don’t have to take that break and lose that half hour of pay. If a person works 8 hours, they get two 10 minute breaks and a 30 minute break. 10 minute breaks are paid breaks. 30 minute breaks are not. A person has to clock out for those.