Update (6/11/19 12:42 p.m. EST) – This article has been updated with a response from Daniel Heredia, the Dallas resident who first posted Facebook videos of his trans friend being kicked out of JR’s.
Last week, Queerty was first LGBTQ news outlet to report on an incident in which JR’s, one of the largest gay bars on Dallas’ gay strip, kicked out a trans female patron for seemingly no reason. Now, after being fired by the bar, the manager who refused to serve and later ejected the trans patron has explained his actions and what has occurred since.
In a public Facebook post, former JR’s manager and bartender Carter Young claimed that the trans patron, Blair Jirousek, had continually presented a fake ID during her visits to the bar over the last three or four years.
Young wrote, “On this latest occasion, I asked for her ID. I inspected it and it appeared fake to me. I asked her for any other ID and she told me that was her only one. I then told her that we would not be able to serve her because the ID seemed fake.”
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Young says he didn’t refuse service to her friends, but asked security to eject Jirousek, believing her to be underage.
“At that point, Blair started screaming and hitting the security guard. The security guard then was protecting himself and pushing her outside the front door. Once outside the door, she continued to scream and fight the officer,” Young writes. He says that after Jirousek called the police, police issued her a criminal trespass citation.
Young added, “The police officer explained that the ID could not be confirmed as real or fake — and that Blair had several IDs from different states. Blair left the scene screaming at me and the security officer.”
The next day, after negative reviews flooded JR’s Facebook page, JRs sent a statement to Queerty stating that Young would be fired, the security agency would be contacted and the bar’s remaining employees would all undergo re-training to ensure that such an incident would never occur again.
Young says that the bar’s corporate owners had decided to fire him before he told his side of the story as “a false narrative had already spread like wildfire online.”
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“I asked Corporate where the support is from the company where I have worked for more than 21 years,” he wrote. “There was no answer.”
Since then, Young writes, “As I sit here, I wonder how one seemingly normal shift at work snowballed into this hell…. People take to social media in bad faith and others trust what gets posted without hearing all sides. And these days, even news media parrot the ‘content’ instead of vetting it, spreading the false information even farther and increasing the damage.”
We reached out to Daniel Heredia, the Dallas resident who posted video of Jirousek being kicked out of JR’s, about Young’s claims. Heredia claims that Jirousek is currently 23 years old and hadn’t been back to the bar since she moved away from Dallas three years ago.
He also claims that Young refused to serve either him, Jirousek or any of their friends, including a friend who entered the bar 15 minutes later, completely unaware of what had transpired.
“[Young] specifically told my friend and I that we could not drink either. He told all three of us that he would NOT serve us and that we were not allowed to get a drink from any of the bartenders which is why we walked away from that bar empty handed,” Heredia tells Queerty.
Heredia adds, “I’ll have you know Blair NEVER hit or touched the security guard. No matter how bad everyone in that club … [and the security guard] was handling her, nobody did a thing. Because we couldn’t. It would have escalated WAY more if we did. It’s scary really. She might have gotten heated but handled herself accordingly despite the situation.”
Ronbo
Multiple state ID’s indicate something is amiss. I live on State Line Road and was born across the road in the other state… but, I don’t carry around both state ID’s. Carrying around ID’s from multiple states is a red-flag. The fact that the police issued a ticket to Jirousek confirms the law.
I don’t like arrogant staff; but, Jirousek put JR’s licensee at risk. I have NO doubt that Jirousek will attempt a sabotage JR’s; she will encourage an underage friend to go to JR’s and she will then call the cops. Mark my words; I work with entitled children and they don’t like it ending with their submission to the law. (They MUST be the exception to the rule)
Being trans does NOT make one entitled to violate the law risking JR’s business license. You can express yourself however you want; but, you must have “clean hands” with regard to the law.
Brian
How would the police even know she had multiple state IDs? I don’t think they have the legal right to go through her wallet without cause, and I can’t imagine a scam artist would willingly hand it over to be searched.
smartguyd
Also no ticket was issued, if you read the article the manager was throwing a fit trying to get them arrested so the police told him they would issue a ticket to shut the manager up and then just asked them to leave with a warning.
IWantAFullBeard
Brian – The police have access to a federal database.
Jared MacBride
So the bar allowed itself to be bullied by whiners on social media . . . that’s a good business model.
Cam
Sounds like there will be a lawsuit either way.
If the bartender is telling the truth, then he has a defamation suit against the customer and against the bar for firing him for doing his job.
If the Bartender is lying, the customer has a case against him defaming her on social media.
Will be interesting to see how this turns out.
BornTo
Who didn’t see this coming raise your hands? The radical mob rule strikes again! These radicals are hurting their and our causes but they are too ignorant and filled with hate to see the damage their doing and that they are pushing people to the right!
Cam
Translation: The anti-LGBTQ account ( I think this one is a sockpuppet for iamru2) is always going to assume that the farther from the norm person is lying.
Funny, so far I didn’t see any police report etc… backing up either side. And the business fired him, knowing if they fired him for a bogus reason they opened themselves up to a lawsuit.
But none of that matters to the anti-LGBTQ accounts.
Brian
(Says DCGuy’s sockpuppet)
wiredpup
Hey Cam… grow the hell up.
Hdtex
Piss off bigot
rand503
It would be a simple matter to determine whether she is underage or not. If she is, then he bar should issue an apology as he just saved them their license to operate and a host of other legal issues. And they should have their other bartenders undergo training on how to spot fake IDs.
And she should be arrested for carrying a false ID and intentionally trying to commit a crime of drinking underage. Other states could probably bring criminal charges for their fake IDs as well.
And if the ID was indeed real and she was of age, then the bartender should just show why he thought the ID fake. This happens all the time and bouncers are not fired but indeed praised by responsible bar owners because they know what is at stake.
Either way, someone should see this to the end to get to the truth of the matter. And either way, the bartender should not have been fired for doing his job.
JED08
Agreed. Until someone comes out with the proof that she was of age, then what Carter said was true, and he would be justified to not serve the friends as well because they can just slip drinks to the underage person who should not even be inside the establishment. I used to work for the company that owns the strip, they are a very fine organization that I’ve never known to discriminate against anyone. They’ve had trans patrons and employees since the beginning. Firing Carter sounds like a hasty, knee-jerk reaction that should be re-thought. He’s worked for them for 21 years?? Blair, the entitled, underaged twat sounds like the problem to me.
Sturzl1967
Was she underage? Great reporting…
RIP
Well what can one say. In general I’ve been finding transvestism as a source of problems lately.
Most of them have indeed a degree on how to bully and on how to destroy others.
I’ve seen them asking for security to be removed from permisses, because security told them to conduct their business else where.
Guess what, I am using a cCTV with audio recording and those heavy battery to be able to record and save all up in the cloud.
It is a funny thing to do, review all those talks and and attitudes.
In general people not just trans community are become rude, selfish, arrogant, most time blantant liers.
Worst social media, promotes them, other ignorant people follow them and trust them, when not even their mothers could, with all the love they feel for their child.
I still have to go to defend myself from the non sense.
But I stay, why would someone that was so unfairly treated return to the same place? Sadism?
CurtisIsTheOne
Say WHAT, cornflake?
Brian
Didn’t the original story say that the police confirmed that the ID was valid?
I am more sceptical than most when it comes to these kind of stories, but this guy sounds more like he’s spinning things to make himself look better than anything else.
Brian
Also, I find it hard to believe that the police didn’t have the capability to determine whether the ID was fake or not.
Maleko50
The bartender worked at the company for 21 years….he must be doing something right.
Cam
No, the original story said the police couldn’t confirm.
lcandela123
maybe, but spin or not, the story has been entirely one-sided up until now. Always gotta hear both sides.
Mikey E
He has nothing to apologize for.
darkanser
I have a feeling they may fired him for something else — not anything justifiable necessarily. I’ve seen employers do this as an excuse to fire someone — there was a complaint!!!
darkanser
It’s a two edged sword – this social media landscape. I’m a hotel industry veteran and I think social media has given a lot of unscrupulous guests forums for treachery and misdeeds — and a lot of additional stress for service workers. And management’s default position always seems to be that NOT ONLY are the clients ALWAYS RIGHT, THEY’RE APPARENTLY ALWAYS 100% TRUTHFUL TOO. I suppose there’s no way to avoid it — except to remove yourself from constant contact with the public or leave the profession.
kramer1
The bartender is arrogant to no end. Some employees are rejoicing quietly over this.
Topman60640
Uh…can you prove this, or is it just more social media slander?
msb810
Carter may be arrogant but, what’s wrong with arrogance. Not a damn thing! The people rejoicing are bitter haters. Furthermore, successful people always have haters.
IWantAFullBeard
Bartender is sexy.
Topman60640
3 questions and a rant…
1. what date did this happen? I’ve googled the tar out of it can can’t find a solid date in gay or mainstream media. Anybody with a valid source or link please post it. Twitter and FB don’t count…
2. People keep claiming that “the bouncer” or “the cops” validated the authenticity of the ID. So far, neither the cops, or the club has given an on the record answer. Just the FB poster, who might be a tiny bit partisan.
3. Let’s say the post is accurate. Where is the patron? Given the storm, one would think there’d at least be a (gay) lawyer or activist (to logically shield the identity) with a statement and *proof* the ID was valid.
We seem to be on an exhausting 24/365 trans diet today. But given that it was a drag show, I’m finding it hard to play the “transphobia” card, since I’m sure that’s a paying portion of their patrons. The bartender has been there for 21 years, if that’s the case, why now?
IMHO the bar canned him to CYA. Nobody wants a bunch of trans people picketing a gay bar, so it’s easier to fire the bar tender than throw down to defend him. Profit wins over loyalty every time.
In closing, every bar I’ve ever been in has a sign that says “we reserve the right to refuse service” They don’t really need a reason. Piss off the manager, make a scene, that’s an express ticket to the exit.
Tombear
Members of the GLBT community love drama. I don’t know what it is with us but my life experiences have shown many gay men are drama queens.
Cam
Your point on this story?
judysdad
More trans drama. Everywhere they go, they create chaos of some sort.
CurtisIsTheOne
Yeah, don’t you just wish they’d recede into the alleys they came from? [hint: sarcasm] /|\
Hdtex
More gay man drama. Everywhere they go, they create chaos of some sort.
Artimusbartimus
Having had a TABC license….You are told you have to comply with several things…..One of those is if you suspect that a drivers license or state id is fake, then by law you are NOT allowed to serve them or sell to anybody in their party. This applies to Gas stations, bars, restaurants, or any where they serve alcohol. Also, if a bartender believes you to be too drunk, they by law, are not allowed to sell or serve you any alcohol. It’s just the way the laws are written. And if you do not follow those laws you can find yourself and the bar with a very hefty fine. I applaud him for not serving.
msb810
I’ve known Carter for 20 years. In that time, he has been a professional in his field. He has never, NOT ONE TIME, in my presence, behaved in manner that could deemed as unkind, unprofessional, intolerant or any other negative word you can think of. He has always treated my self and my trans friends with awesomeness. If Carter were any of these negative things being said about him, i would have seen it somewhere along the way. Caven Enterprises would have seen it also. Soooo….
I’ve been going to the strip since ’94 and let me tell you, in those days, you had to struggle just to walk through the bars because, so many people were there. Now, you have to struggle just to come within 100 feet of someone. Shi”# gone down hill. In my opinion, Caven is losing money hand over fist and was looking for a way to cut a highly paid associate.
I hope Carter sue’s the ship out both Blair and Caven