Renowned Chicago leather bar Touché is being taken to task for hosting a performance some are calling “minstrelsy and blackface” this week.
The bar’s 45th anniversary event featured ventriloquist Jerry Halliday and his “colorful cast of characters”, including a Black woman puppet called “Sista Girl”. The hosts requested that patrons not record any of the performance, and after clips were posted online, it’s clear as to why.
One audience member compiled a thread of his experience at the event:
Last night @ToucheChicago asked folks not to record during the act they’d hired to celebrate their 45th anniversary, however, shortly after Jerry Halliday was introduced with his featured puppet, Sista Girl, I got my camera out.
— crumb dumpster (@CraftBeardMI) November 2, 2022
The Sista Girl portion of the performance included jokes about “colored people”, revealing an “afro puff” around her genitals, and gathering tips “for her five kids”.
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The thread features a live account of the event, as well as multiple videos. Some feature audience members voicing their displeasure, with Halliday as “Sista Girl” yelling at them to “Shut the f*ck up.” Multiple audiences members stood up and walked out.
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While many folks reacted in shock, a sad amount of commenters seemed more disappointed than surprised.
Figures like activist Dan Savage, former Mr. International Leather Preston “wexx”, and renowned Chicago drag queens voiced their concerns:
This is… not okay. https://t.co/RbTQGuk5kS
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) November 2, 2022
People love to ask me, “do you feel that things have really changed in the community?” and as much as I want to believe it has, I’m shown around every corner not really much has. Not to mention the bars that STILL have me on “no book”/blocked lists because of “my actions in 2020” https://t.co/22HmUCNoAv
— LUCILLE STOOLE (@LucyStoole) November 2, 2022
this is horrific
— ❄️Denali❄️ (@denalifox) November 2, 2022
This sick, casual racism is why I only visit one majority-whyte fetish event and few majority-whyte queer spaces in any given year.
In such spaces this happens constantly and goes unaddressed. For each case caught on video, multiply x1000 for the true number of racist incidents. https://t.co/cJzSpYedvj
— Preston “wexx” Mr. International Rubber XX (MIR20) (@mirubberxx) November 2, 2022
touché is/was the home bar for onyx, a black kinksters club, and the wtnb social which featured many kinksters of color.
once again a venue is showing they only want money from black people and people of color, but won’t even do the bare minimum to make them feel safe.
— Abhi What Is This Behavior? (@bon_abhijeet) November 2, 2022
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Additionally, the leadership behind Mr. International Rubber has removed Touché events from their schedule, as well as removing the bar’s logo from their website:
A statement regarding events at Touche Chicago last evening. pic.twitter.com/dcX4LKQPqd
— MIRubber (@MIRubber) November 2, 2022
The most liked comment on their Instragram post promoting the event reads, “Minstrelsy and blackface right there…Disappointing, yet not surprising. Maybe 45 years is enough if this is the way a queer and supposed ‘safe space’ is going to run itself.”
Queerty reached out to Touché and was referred to their public statement published yesterday evening.
In it, the bar’s ownership apologizes for “not vetting the entertainer” and “not reacting and stopping the show”:
View this post on Instagram
The bar is organizing a forum at the Leather Archives & Museum on November 9 for community members to voice their concerns.
The statement closes with, “We hope that you will allow us the opportunity to prove our resolve in going forward and not permit this one night to overshadow the service Touché has provided to our community for 45 years.”
