Just about the last thing you’d expect would happen in a gay bar allegedly happened on this past Sunday. A woman claims she was raped by a man in the upstairs bathroom of the Duplex piano bar in New York’s Village at 12:30am, the early morning on the heels of Pride Sunday. According to DNAinfo, police are investigating the security video to try to identify what happened.
Although the Duplex is ostensibly a gay piano bar, it attracts a mixed clientele with its emphasis on modern and classic rock. It’s unsettling that this happened during Pride, right on Christopher Street where the parade passed by mere hours earlier.
The woman didn’t inform Duplex staff. Tony DeCicco, owner of the famed piano bar and cabaret, declined to comment.
[Photo via Flickr/Creative Commons]
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QJ201
I dunno, 12:30am in the upstairs bathroom? There is usually a line and I’m sure there was a line on gay pride night.
BJohnM
And, uh, she didn’t bother to report it to right then or say anything to anyone in the bar. I don’t know…
Collins
Probably a straight black man that did this.
Kayla
As a lesbian, I had an almost similar tale. We were at a lesbian bar with friends when this friendly looking black male appeared in our group and started talking to us, long story short, I was pushing him off of me with all my might to no avail in the restroom when someone walked in and saved the day. He said “He only wanted to cure me of my disease by giving me some good d-ck. God would have wanted it that way” How horrible and cruel can you get? We obviously reported it. I kept thinking, for a man who SHOULD know what oppression is, he sure didn’t mind making me feel discriminated and worthless that evening.
Clockwork
Terrible. I hope NYPD and you folks take this seriously.
Sadly it can be very easy for these things to occur in a noisy public area.
People mistakenly assume it is part of the celebratory atmosphere.
@BJohnM:
>And, uh, she didn’t bother to report it to right then or say anything to anyone in
>the bar. I don’t know…
Not unusual, fleeing the scene does not indicate falsehood.
A rape victim is in shock and often determined to get away from the area to emotional and physical safety.
Adam
@BJohnM: yes, because if psychology and crime history have shown us anything, it’s that rape victims always have the wherewithal to report immediately following trauma, especially to the staff members of the establishment where s/he they were violated.
Adam
@Collins: straight makes sense. but why would the perpetrator necessarily be black?
KENYCITY
@Collins: A Black man? Do explain your ignorant comment….
Mr. Enemabag Jones
This is what happens when we permit hets to take over our bars. Keep the hets out and this won’t happen.
Kingston
Heard from another article it’s suspected he was a straight man who came there to cause trouble. Heteros need to stay in their own playground. As someoen who works in a gay bar, now for 10 years: The heteros don’t know how to coexist in our social settings. They don’t have any respect.
Danny
Is Collins one of those GOP operatives trying to sow dissent and racism on gay sites?
The Real Mike in Asheville
@Collins: pig!
Chad
@Mr. Enemabag Jones: I agree. They have their own places to go.
RLS
@Kayla: Yes, all straight black men are EEEVIL!!!! Stay AWAY!!! AWAY!!!!
I sometimes can’t believe the human waste that comments on Queerty’s message boards.
RLS
@Danny: Nope, probably just a regular run of the mill gay racist. They’re more common than you think.
Carl 1
@Kingston: I think that that is a gross overstatement – I have a mixed group of friends: gay, straight, bi, transgender and the heterosexuals have always ‘played nicely’ when we’ve hit the scene. It helps no one to over-generalise. I know many straights do struggle to mix with us, but its neither all nor a majority, in my experience.
Shannon1981
@Carl 1: Honestly? Straight people have their own places to go. I can see if its a celebration, someone’s birthday,etc. But I don’t personally go to gay bars to hang with straight people. They often goggle like we are animals in a zoo, or, worse, groups of loud, bachelorette party celebrating straight women bring their drek into a scene meant for people who are not allowed to legally do what they are celebrating. I agree- keep the straight folks in straight environments.
Until there is equality, we need and value our safe space, and this article and many others are an indication that this “all inclusive” stuff does not work in gay bars just yet.
I hope the scum who did this is locked up for life.
hamoboy
@BJohnM: Victim blaming in only the second comment. Queerty is getting efficient.
@Collins: Disgusting.
@Kayla: Yes, because anecdote is the plural of data.
Kate
Carl1 good to see that people are fighting biphobia and rac1sm as there’s tons of it from gay men and lesbians like RA and others here. Here’s a thread that’s full of hypocritical gays and lesbians who are biphobic bigots: http://www.queerty.com/adele-had-her-heart-broken-by-a-bisexual-boyfriend-20120627
Kate
Shannon way to be a complete heterophobe and hypocrite. Mixed crowd bars or all inclusive bars and dance clubs do work.
Kate
hamoboy good to see that people are fighting biphobia and rac1sm as there’s tons of it from gay men and lesbians like RA and others here. Here’s a thread that’s full of hypocritical gays and lesbians who are biphobic bigots: http://www.queerty.com/adele-had-her-heart-broken-by-a-bisexual-boyfriend-20120627
Brandon
SMH what’s with all of the RAC!ST bullshit here about how it was a black man?
SamIAm
I would imagine well behaved straight people in a gay bar wouldn’t necessarily stand out as straight. So perhaps you’re blaming an entire group on the poor habits of a few.
I’m sorry, I’ll bring my straight friends with me to a gay bar or we’ll take our business somewhere else.
Carl 1
@Shannon1981: I agree regards the bachelorette parties, but I’ve hit Canal Street in a mixed group of two lesbians, one bi guy (me), one trans girl, one straight girl and one straight guy. We all had a blast, because we’re friends. Even in slightly larger groups, we usually hit up straight and gay bars alike, so that all the group feels catered for on a night out. We do the same in Sheffield – straight, gay, gay-friendly establishments: if it’s a decent place, we go there.
SFMatt
Shannon-Let’s not forget about the loud and foul mouthed butch dykes and faggy queens in gay bars who drink too much and don’t know when to STFU.
Try practicing what you preach and stop being such a hypocrite, you want LGBT equality yet you want to ban heterosexuals from LGBT bars and dance clubs.
I’m gay and I am fine with heterosexuals and having them in LGBT spaces.
VoiceofReason
I highly doubt that this actually happened.
If she really had been raped in a bathroom she would have been screaming, yelling, or making noise and other people would have heard her or seen all of this happening.
I also find it very odd that she didn’t tell ANY bar staff or call the police and say how she was raped.
Secondly it’s a public bathroom you’d expect that other people would be in there or go in there, or waiting outside to use it yet nobody else reported seeing a woman being raped in there.
It sounds more like she had sex with some guy in the public bathroom and then later regretted having sex with him and now claims that it was “rape” and there are a lot of women who do this. Or she’s a homophobic woman or man hating dyke and making it all up.
shannon
@Collins: NO………A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN IS USUALLY A SERIAL RAPIST!! ALSO THEY ARE —–ALWAYS—– SERAIL CANNIBALS…CHILD RAPISTS…….NECROPHILIACS…..DEAD BODY HACKERS….SHALL I GO ON???……….LOLOLOLOLOL
Shannon1981
@Kate: I am not a heterophobe, but, bars for oppressed minorities are there for a reason. Until there is true equality- both legal AND social- the reverse discrimination argument just doesn’t work.
Shannon1981
@SFMatt: I am not trying to ban them. I am just saying I understand bars not wanting to dilute or destroy the culture in gay space by having them overrun with straights, and, also, to preserve safe space.
I am all for well behaved straight people in gay space. However, when they come and take over and destroy gay space, the gay bar is no longer a gay bar. See weho for exhibit A.
Shannon1981
All in all, as a rule of thumb, if the environment of a particular gay space seems to be threatened by the presence of more straights than gays, I feel like the bar owners have a right to do what they need to do to preserve that safe space.
SEXXYJAMAICAN
@Collins: Exactly, because it the victim was little boy then of course the perp would be a gay white man.. See how that shit works.
MikeNYC
Kayla-THAT NEVER HAPPENED!
Clockwork
@VoiceofReason:
>If she really had been raped in a bathroom she would have been screaming, yelling, or
>making noise and other people would have heard her or seen all of this happening.
>I also find it very odd that she didn’t tell ANY bar staff or call the police and say how
>she was raped.
Please clear your head of these myths of how rape victims behave, during and after the assault.
Is it possible this event did not happen? Yes?
Is it possible for rape to occur in a public space without screaming, noise, and an immediate report from the victim? Yes, it happens.
EvonCook
First of all this is what happens when you let the heteros in! Secondly, she didn’t report this immediately, loudly, screaming on the spot??? Sounds very suspicious.
Kurt
Way to be a complete heterophobe EvonCook, you’re a hypocrite and an idiot. Yes this does sound made up and it’s very fishy (no pun!) that she didn’t tell anyone at all not even strangers/barstaff, or anyone, and she was being supposedly raped/sexually assaulted yet remained completely silent.