All in all, I think it’s wrong for any bar to refuse entry to anyone on the basis of sexual orientation. Same applies to gay bars.

Simply put, I think the bar managers and their enablers are looking for excuses.

I’m inclined to think our first foray into GGB was more than mildly mismanaged and the response was much more enthusiastic than anticipated; thank you very much viral marketing. The organizers chose a smallish location and there was a hugeish group of the GLBT community and their admirers all set for the imbibement of mass quantities at a new location. We Houston gays are always desperate for something New/Now/Fresh (c’mon! we don’t even have an H&M or a Trader Joe’s or a Nordstrom Rack, but at least they do serve free vodka drinks at 2pm on a wednesday if you shop at the upscale boutiques while trying on $400 jeans; we crave sport for sport is rare!).

While we all love the idea of spontaneity it takes a lot more planning. The owners of Union bar were uncharacteristically forewarned of the immanent descent of thirsty pink patrons and were reported to have been welcoming of the idea; just not so darn many! I think we here in Houston need to catch our breath and figure out how to do this again and not so harshly judge Union Bar with such celerity. I wonder if that will happen; we of the Houston Gay Rights Caucus are infamously fickle.

I don’t want the rest of the world thinking that Houston is as backwards socially as many would have us limned. Our very broadly popular mayor marches in our annual Pride parade, our city controller of 6 years is openly gay and making a bid for mayor next cycle (Annise Parker for Mayor!!) and we have and have had openly gay city council members regularly. As our nation’s 4th largest city would be expected to behave, Houston is mostly quite inclusive.

Safety is of course a concern for bar owners and Texas has some unusual laws on public drunkenness (it’s technically illegal to be drunk in public, including bars / nightclubs) and fire safety codes etc. blah blah blah … I think mistakes were made on all sides but it’s possibly more fun to be judgmental and dramatic. We’ll see; there were rumors about the management’s behavior at Union and most of these comments could have been taken out of context. Only time will tell but will we Houstonites even be interested in trying it again? *shrug* The pool party season starts up shortly and we all have some cute trunks to debut … and the whole issue might be forgotten.

That being said, they should have forseen that there were going to be more than 114 gays in the fourth-largest city in the nation (Disclaimer: Houston is my previous home before Boston.) This was a flub on both parties count. But there are growing pains to everything, and I’m sure they’ll work the kinks out.

I think the idea of the “other” changing the tone and tenor of a bar in an invasive way could lead to security problems. Under those circumstances, any bar-owner could be taking unnecessary risks by allowing admittance. If a fight breaks out and can’t be controlled, the owner risks his liquor license and insurance.

This may not have been an issue of discrimination – it may have been an issue of public safety.