Are you a homosexual man looking to ring in the New Year at your local megaclub? Then I hope you’ll be joined by a couple of fag hags, or your favorite lesbian wingwomen, because otherwise you’re going to have a hard time getting past the rope line with another dude.
Club rules apply to everybody. We don’t categorise people on the basis of their sexual preferences. If two men want to enter, they won’t be allowed because they are stags and can create problems. There is no way to distinguish a gay couple from straight men. We don’t mind giving couple entry to two girls.
—Mohit Jain, proprietor of Delhi nightclubs Freeze and Jynxxx in India, whose entry policy will only segregate gay men from the rest of the New Year’s Eve crowd
Our policy clearly states that only male-female couples can enter. Stags are not allowed, with the exception of men who may accompany a group of couples.
—Deepali Narula of F Bar and Lounge agrees
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JD
I was about to get upset about this until I saw that both of these quotes are from club owners in India. Being gay was illegal there until just recently, so this isn’t surprising.
Jon B
I mean, there are annoying door policies… but why quote Indian club owners and make a statement about New York?
DC Steve
First off, “JD” (or whoever at Queerty wrote this “article” and didn’t bother putting their name behind it), this is beyond half-assed journalism, when you can’t even bother identifying the country that the story relates. Please please, for the sake of your audience, try to step up your game a little bit, okay?
That said, I think you’ll find similar policies at a lot of trendy clubs in the US, they just won’t be as forthright about it. At straight clubs all over, male/female ratio has everything to do with the vibe the club sends out, how smoothly things go, and (most importantly) how profitable the night is. It’s how the bar business works.
Hyhybt
@Jon B: Nobody said anything about New York but you 🙂
Jim Hlavac
I’m always leery of making straight clubs accept gay folks — for an odd reason, though simple. Bars & Clubs retain the right to refuse service to anyone — and if we force this issue, then we’ll lose that right to keep heteros out of our bars and clubs. And there’s oh so many more of those folks. They’d be able to bus them in and fill gay clubs to a seething mass of heteros that will curl our hair, and wreck the mood for sure. On the other hand, being the cranky old gay guy I am, I have gone up to straight couples kissing in gay bars and said “Sorry, but that’s not allowed in here, you’ll have to take it outside.” The looks on their faces were priceless, truly. Somethings are better kept separated at this point, which I know is not a popular position. Yet, until the straight world is far more comfortable with us there’s no real way to legislate the acceptance, or make a rule to enforce it, or a policy to keep any anti-gay person from causing trouble anyway. And on a festive night like New Years, far better to avoid the hassle. Some fights just aren’t worth it. This is one of ’em. Let them keep their clubs, and we shall keep ours. But I’m sure within about a decade it’ll just be a non-issue, for our progress has been amazingly swift in gaining that acceptance. Both here, and in India, as elsewhere.
Daez
@Jim Hlavac: I would never ask that a straight couple not come to a gay bar. Doing so is just insane. My partner and I are really good friends with this awesome straight couple. I can’t imagine ever stepping foot in a gay bar again if they barred them from entering based on their sexuality.
bobby
how does this differ from any other night? hahahah… have you ever been to a straight club? in LA? NYC? Vegas? groups of guys stand in line, groups of girls walk right in. groups of 4 guys with 2 girls stand in line as well. They are trying to keep a ratio going. it’s not a anti-gay policy.
disco lives
I agree that bars and clubs should reserve the right to choose who is allowed entry, unless there is some clear and obvious pattern of racial discrimination.
jason
India is a vile and discriminatory place. Do not do business with Indians.
As for the discrmination against two men entering a nightclub, it’s yet another indication of anti-male and anti-male-male prejudice, which women seek to exploit. Don’t underestimate the role of women in all this. Women exploit double standards in order to gain preferential treatment.
jason
The nightclub gender ratio – which is almost always practised against men, not women – is a form of social engineering. As a man, you have a right to bring an anti-discrimination complaint against the club. Anti-discrimination laws are there to protect men too.
As for the notion that the policy is designed to maintain a ratio, what garbage! Have you ever heard of a woman being refused entry to a nightclub in Vegas because there are already too many women in the joint? LOL.
Face it – these clubs are practising a form of anti-male discrimination as well as anti-male-male discrimination. It’s a homophobic policy at heart. Don’t let them get away with it.
In fact, I’d appreciate it if contributors to this site could provide a list of such clubs in the USA. Don’t be afraid of taking legal action against them.
jason
This gender ratio nonsense enforced by clubs is simply a cover for the fact that they are homophobic towards men. Don’t let them get away with it.
As the night goes on, they will simply change the rules. For instance, if there are more women than men in the club, they will not suddenly knock prevent more women from entering. In fact, women will continue to be allowed in.
These clubs will always bias in favor of females because their aim is to create an atmosphere that is conducive to the sleazy straight guy fantasy. Don’t let them get away with it.
Jeffree
Jason, please assure me and every Queerty reader that you have removed all objects made in India from your home, so that we know you practice what you preach. I’d sure be unhappy to know that *you* of all people would support the Indian support of the “bisexual double standard” — you know, that subject that you cannot stop thinking about 24/ 7.
You must have been absolutely miserable during your many trips to India!
Bobby
And how is a “sleezy straight guy fantasy” homophobic? Is a gay fantasy of being in a club with a bunch of guys who are attractive heteophobic cause they don let women in?
Guys want to go to clubs where a lot of females are, if a club had a bunch of guys in it and guys know this they will stop going and that club looses money. Since guys are the ones who mostly buy drinks(spend money) stop going. That club will go out of business.
It’s the same as clubs who keep a line outside if it seems exclusive people want to go.
Jim Hlavac
@ Daez — well, it’s not banning straight people from gay bars that I seek — it’s stopping straights from flaunting their behavior in the gay bar. Kills the mood, for too many gays are then afraid to be affectionate because there are straight folks there. Sort of like in “mixed” bars — straights touch, gays stay separate lest it offends. Down in New Orleans, close to me, the bars are open to the street. Straight folks come in — and then, once they realize that they’re in a gay bar, some start displaying their sexuality. And well, they do it to flaunt “we can, and you can’t” — and often they’re vocal about it right there. So I speak up, and chase them out if necessary. Sure, not all straights. Nothing is “all” — which is the problem when talking about gays or straights — “they all” do this or that. Nonsense, of course. But still, gay folks are NEVER allowed to hold hands, or sit close to each other, or tousle each others hair, or peck on the cheek, and such, in any straight bar — and so, in a tit for tat — they shouldn’t do that in our bars. IT’s only fair, for the moment. And if that helps a few of them realize the difficulties we face, well, good, they’ll go tell their friends. It’s a culture war remember, that straights have declared against us — and if some straights are reasonable about us — then it behooves them to spread the word. For their word carries more weight with their fellow straights than mine does. But one reason I go to a gay bar is NOT to see such displays of wanton sexuality by straights — there’s enough of that on TV and the streets and shopping malls, and I am sometimes as heterophobic as any homophobic straight guy. There’s 30 or so gay bars in New Orleans, 2,000 straight bars — let them go hang out with their own kind. What can I say, I’ve got 35 years of dealing with screaming heteros against gay people, I’m cranky. I suppose, perhaps, you never encountered straight guys coming into gay bars to try to pick fights, for that’s a thing of the past I suppose. Me, I saw too much of it, so I’m not so forgiving now in our more liberal times. Let me into their bars, and I would be more accommodating in return. Until then, my message is: don’t flaunt your breeding in ours.
jason
This gender ratio discriminates against men and against the concept of male-male sexuality. Don’t let the bastards get away with it.
Note how these straight club managers never say there’s too many women in the club. They never seem to discrminate against women entering the club, do they? It’s always “too many men”. I call “bullshit”. We’re sick of your bullshit, sleazeballs.
Seth
@jason:
You really don’t seem to get it. This isn’t about being anti-gay, it’s about there being too many straight guys in a bar. That’s a turn off for both straight men and straight women.
Straight men want there to be plenty of women for eye candy and the hope of hooking up. While straight women want the safety of female numbers. Too many men, means a potentially dangerous situation.
Max Campbell
Jason,
cause of bisexual double standards is a suppress of male homoerotism.
And now “straight” porn industry imposes these standards. As result, the female homosexual behavior is free, but male homosexual behavior is not free still. And all are silent. A little more and we will receive a catastrophic segregation. But all are silent. There are special actions are necessary for the resolve gay-guys problems. It is necessary to make more freely their bisexual impulses and then the homophobia will disappear.