A Rhode Island gay bar has criticized Pete Buttigieg‘s presidential campaign after it canceled a fundraiser at the venue over the presence of a “dancer pole,” aka a stripper pole.
Chasten Buttigieg, Pete’s Twitter-savvy husband, was scheduled to headline the event at the Dark Lady in Providence but backed out the day-of when the club said it would not remove the pole.
“We had sent pictures of the club, they knew exactly what the place looked like,” said Buck Asprinio, owner of the Dark Lady. “We thought the fundraiser was going forward at full force.”
But when Buttigieg campaign staffers arrived at the bar to set up, they requested the pole be removed. The last-minute request was denied.
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“Pete Buttigieg’s husband just canceled his appearance/fundraiser tonight at the Dark Lady because the ’gay bar has a dancer pole!’” someone from the Dark Lady posted to the bar’s Facebook account. “We guess this is what the gay candidate does to the gay community! #downonthepoles #dancersforanyoneelse.”
“It’s been here since we opened and it’s not going anywhere,” Asprinio added. “The dancer pole is part of who we are—if you want to dance on a pole, we’re the place to be.”
Asprinio also voiced his disappointment that the event was relocated to a straight venue. “I would think they would want to show support for their own community.”
“Unfortunately we had to relocate this evening’s event,” said Buttigieg campaign spokesperson Tess Whittlesey, adding: “We are grateful to the enthusiastic and dedicated supporters that joined us tonight in Providence.”
The story was covered on local news station WPRI.
Watch:
rustyiam
Gays going after each other gee what a shocker no one said ever!
cliche guevara
Weird right? I mean straight people never criticize each other or have differing options.
jjose712
cliche guevara: The main difference is straights never target others for the fact of being straight
cliche guevara
Who is attacking who for being gay?
AnthonyS23
Well, this fits with his preppy, good boy image I suppose.
ShowMeGuy
You know full well how this works. He has to be twice as clean as the other candidates in order to be viewed as half as clean.
jayceecook
A Blue dog Dem is sheep’s clothing.
Ronbo
Yes. Identity politicians are highly dependent upon people’s expectations; because of their status of being female, black or gay. I love female, black and gay people who are authentic and honest.
A LOT of things about Pete, other than being gay, just don’t add up. I’m not falling for another progressive identity candidate who turns conservative upon election.
Please, please, please – explain to me what Pete has done to prove he is a progressive. There are a lot of log cabin Republicans. I’d like to hear about Pete’s previous actions, not plans and platitudes.
bowlingbutch
I am disappointed with Mayor Pete. It’s not as if they were going to have dancers performing on the poles during the fundraiser. I think his advisers gave him some bad advice. I understand he has to appeal to everyone but don’t start ignoring your gay supporters.
Joshooeerr
Who wants their candidate speaking from a stage partially obscured by a distracting dance pole?! Or in a venue in which the prevailing vibe is “strip joint”? Any campaign organiser with even half a brain would find somewhere better.
ShowMeGuy
In politics…….. image is everything. Middle America elects presidents and in middle America a stripper pole is found in a strip club THEREFORE what kind of presidential candidate has a fund raiser in a strip club? It is rather basic.
voyy
Hes too Christian (Butt%^&#) for me he wouldn’t get my vote for that…..I don’t trust people who wear Christianity on their sleeve…they are most likely to cheat me…cause they are forgiven.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
This is simply because there was a charity event scheduled at Orange Puppet’s Mar-a-Largo back in July and once that was discovered it was cancelled….
Charlie in Charge
I mean and America that elected a guy who paid porn stars to sleep with him really should be on board with an America where first-spouses can be within ten feet of a stripper pole.
Jared MacBride
Because a stripper pole is offensive to whom?
animatedgifman
Canceling the event was entirely appropriate (and a politically shrewd) move. The opposition party would have welcomed such visuals to cheapen his message and to engage in the worst sort of Tea Baggery throughout the campaign. Smart move, Chasten! Kudos!
richard 14
Gay bars are highly sexualized environments. They’re not for ordinary human discourse.
Fang
This was a conservative campaign decision, which is exactly why I take issue with it. The words “conservative” and “Buttigieg” have a strong association. When Pete started out on the campaign trail, he lauded bold, ambitious progressive ideals, but shrank back on those ideals when he failed to win over a progressive voter base. Now, he’s vying for Biden’s voter base. This says to me that Pete’s values are aligned with what will get him in office and that’s a problem.
Pete would do well in the Senate or the House. Let’s see some experience at the state or federal level. And let’s see where his values really lie. The gentrification of downtown South Bend isn’t compelling enough experience to gain access to the Oval Office. Come back in 15 years.
whitakerk861
Good for him. He wants to be President of the United States not Stormy Daniels. Gay bashing him for this is idiotic.
Crystix
EXACTLY
cliche guevara
When was he gay bashed?
Max
if the pole couldn’t be removed, it could have been covered up. but guess those bar folks just weren’t that creative.
and bashing your own is just wrong.
cliche guevara
No, falling in line and keeping your mouth shut because someone is “your own”. would be wrong. Diversity of thought and debate within a community is healthy.
CityguyUSA
First off you don’t support anyone just because they’re gay. You support the person that treats everyone as equals and then you can get to policies.
Personally, it seems strange that any fundraiser would be done in a bar. I’m guessing that only happened because they weren’t being charged a fee for the event like most venues would.
winemaker
And a double bonus, the gay bar would get their 15 minutes of fame or whatever.
Crystix
Its called optics. A photograph of him on or near a stripper pole would be on the front page of every republican national enquirer type site.
Have some effin perspective and stop pretending hes a bad gay for thinking about his image (Next to a stripper pole)
ShowMeGuy
Exactly.
cliche guevara
Please read the article. He was never scheduled to be at the event. So, your handwringing about a picture of him with a dancing pole being used by right wing media is for not.
krandall
To Cliche Guevara: Thanks. You made my exact point! Brava/o!
MCrisp
Good for him! This place sounds like a trash bin. And the owners/managers are petty brats.
Would Biden be bashes for not appearing at a straight bar with a “dancer pole”?
It’s not a good look.
ShowMeGuy
Exactly. The man is running for president of a nation…….. not a frat house.
krandall
Two thumbs up!
krandall
I just love when people begin to spout off and make judgments without knowing the facts, the people involved or any possible extenuating circumstances, from this issue to Kobe Bryant’s horrific accident to the troops in Syria to . . . anyone and anything, really. Frankly, I can’t speak to the issue because I WASN’T THERE! And, really, you’re going to make your decisions and judgements based on a media story?
I worked in DC for 21 years, from a university to The White House to The Library of Congress and one thing I learned for sure: Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see, especially when it has to do with politics. How about everybody take a breath, gather some facts in the long run and think carefully about what you “know” vs. how you “feel”? Remember when Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor and and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court, certain they would be good conservative judges? Look how that worked out. Things/people, aren’t always what they appear to be to the public.
Living in San Francisco and following city and county politics, it fast becomes a joke in the gay “community” to watch one group complain that a candidate isn’t “gay enough” while another group derides the candidate for being “too gay”. I hate to be the Gay Cassandra here, but Pete Buttigieg is more than his sexual orientation, and as a former campaign/public policy advisor at TWH, I’ll wager a thousand dollars that Pete Buttigieg didn’t even know where he was supposed to be that day, let alone whether they had a “pole” in the room. That’s the kind of thing a candidate delegates.
Was O’Connor conservative enough? Too conservative? Too liberal? Too much a feminist? Not at all a feminist? Was Kennedy? How did they each become swing votes on the court and a friend to women and the LGBT community? Who saw that coming? I’m getting vertigo just writing this.
But, then, everybody’s got an opinion and an asshole. I’m keeping both of mine out of the fight. Let’s just take time and think about all the crap being thrown at us from all directions. And then go to the polls. As George Washington said (and was oft quoted) “Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.”