Puppeteer’s non-apology for offensive “Sista Girl” act completely misses the point

White queer puppeteer Jerry Halliday has offered a non-apology for his performance last week at the Chicago leather bar Touché.

Halliday’s November 1 show — was booked as part of Touche Chicago’s  45th Anniversary Party — featured a Black woman puppet called “Sista Girl.” In Halliday’s hands, the puppet swore (like, a lot), spoke a poor imitation of Black slang, mentioned her “five kids” — Mylanta, Propecia, and Levitra, and the twins, Visine and Murine.” — and pulled up her dress to reveal her “afro puff.”

When audience members openly criticized Halliday during his act, Sista Girl told them to “Shut the f*ck up” and to go “get some more hemorrhoids” in the bar’s backroom.

In a recent statement given to Block Club, Halliday offered a non-apology and his plan to avoid bad press in the future.

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“I have permanently retired the Black puppet, just like the Rolling Stones recently retired their song ‘Brown Sugar’ when they received similar criticism,” he wrote.

In 2021, the aforementioned English rock band announced that they would no longer play “Brown Sugar.” The song had been criticized for decades over its allusions to slavery, interracial sex, and the commodification and objectification of brown bodies.

“I have been doing my show for 20 years for thousands of people of all races to standing ovations and rave reviews in the press, then suddenly a handful of people at Touché attack me while the majority there were enjoying my show,” Halliday’s statement continued. “The one-sided attacks on my act have been greatly exaggerated and with many total fabrications.”

He didn’t mention the exact fabrications or exaggerations he referred to. But his statement downplays the scope of the actual “attacks” on his performance, acting as if they came from just one community, rather than the numerous ones who actually condemned it.

The act offended far more than just the patrons at the show who spoke up and walked out. After clips of Halliday’s show spread online, numerous members of the leather community, people of color, and white allies denounced his performance on social media, including gay sex columnist Dan Savage (a man who enjoys good raunchy jokes and has his own history of offensive past statements), who tweeted, “This is… not okay.”

Mr. Rubber International removed all Touché bar events from its schedule of events for the 26th Mr. International Rubber weekend and called reports of Halliday’s performance ” deeply disturbing.” The bar’s ownership apologized for “not vetting” Halliday and for “not reacting and stopping the show.”

The bar’s owner Chuck Rodocker basically called Halliday’s act dusty, stating, “We thought it would be fun to bring an entertainer from the past to include him with the holiday party, but apparently his material has not changed with the ages.”

The Leather Archives & Museum also recognized the damage and agreed to host a town hall forum for community members to voice their concerns rather than let it all slide.

This type of “misogynoir” is unfortunately common in the gay community. It’s particularly evident in the some men who “worship” Black pop divas like Beyonce, Rhianna, and Lizzo; and who claim to have “a strong Black woman trapped inside” of them; but who actually feel deeply uncomfortable with any Black bodies they can’t control.

When one considers that many Black men and people of color have reported feeling actively rejected by the predominantly white leather community, Halliday’s performance — and the “majority” that “enjoyed” his tired stereotypes — show just how deep racism in the gay community still runs, even with black and brown stripes newly added to the progress Pride flag.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Halliday’s performance was part of Mr. International Rubber’s scheduled events.