A bar in Wyoming that caters to a motorcycle crowd has become the subject of national scrutiny over the sale of homophobic t-shirts. The apparel promotes the murder of gay people as a “cure for AIDS.”
Photos of the shirts, sold at The Eagle’s Nest, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, went viral on the internet for their homophobic and violent language. The shirt in question features a man pointing a gun under the caption “In Wyoming, we have a cure for AIDS. We shoot f*ck’n f*ggots.”
The photos emerged with the LGBTQ rights organization Equality Wyoming, which first declined to name the bar out of fear of a spike in t-shirt sales. Metro Weekly also reports that the group instead called for donations to AIDS-related charities rather than protests at the location.
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“We are sad to say that we failed to convince a local bar to pull these shirts from circulation. We hoped that they would choose to stop selling them when they realized the harm it did to the LGBTQ community and those living with AIDS,” Wyoming Equality said in a Facebook post. “…It is a sad day. Wyoming Equality understands that…this sucks.”
Sara Burlingame, the executive director of Wyoming Equality, also took to Facebook to claim she had lobbied the bar to stop selling the shirts more than once, though the owner refused.
When reached for comment, Eagle’s Nest owner Ray Bereziuk claimed the shirts had sold out, and that the bar would no longer sell them. Bereziuk further told The Cheyanne Post that he is “in the bar business, not the apparel business.”
The blowback over the shirts comes as LGBTQ activists in Wyoming continue to push for stronger protections for queer people against acts of violence. Last month, the state’s Joint Judiciary Committee voted to expand hate crime protections for LGBTQ people. Dale Steenbergen, the president and CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, also claimed that the state is missing out on considerable tourist and business funds because of its perceived hostility to queer individuals.
Cam
I’m guessing that the people buying these shirts are hooking up with men in public restrooms.
Matthewnow
And hooking up in bathrooms, rest stops and Walmart is a bad thing?
Cam
@Matthewnow
When they’re pretending to be straight and buying this shirt to prove it.
whereshouldistart
THE SQUEAKY WHEEL CRAVES THE K-Y.
Charlie in Charge
OK it’s called the Eagle’s Nest meaning it’s an actual Nazi-themed bar – tell me again why that is OK in patriotic Wyoming? And not just in the pejorative “everyone who doesn’t agree with me is a Nazi” sense; the Eagle’s Nest was the name of Hitler’s mountaintop getaway.
Chrisk
Ha. Good catch. You know your history.
I looked at their Yelp reviews. Not surprisingly they had mostly negative reviews calling them things like assholes going back way before this stunt. Just outside people that made the mistake of stopping in.
drmiller
I’m mostly just lol’ing at the parallel between a famous VERY gay bar chain called, “The Eagle” and this “straight” homophobic bar is called, “The Eagle’s Nest.” The irony is hitting like a thousand pound anvil. It’s too good.
Fibre
Why always bring everything to sex? Some guys just seem to ignore that not all homophobes are systematically closeted homosexuals ^^.
Donston
That instinct is basic. I’m not at all comfortable with open “queers” using homo behaviors to shame homophobes. It’s backwards and ironically homophobic. It also reduces everything “gay” into just being about sexual behaviors. However, there’s no doubt that a lot guys who are aggressively male homophobic and who constantly talk about how anti-“gay” they are are themselves within the “queer” spectrum. But people do need to come up with some better shade. Using homo sexual behaviors against homophobia is not the route to go. It’s quite corny and dated.
Cam
Except for the fact that multiple studies have said that the more homophonic somebody is, the more likely that they’re closeted and self hating.
But let me ask you. Why does it upset you more that people are assuming many of these homophobes are closet cases, than the fact that a bar was selling shirts advocating murdering LGBTQ people?
Donston
Prejudice has a lot of different layers and exist for a multitude of reasons. So, you’re undermining just how multi-facilitated this stuff is. While in general, I feel using suspected homo behaviors to shame homophobes is toxic. Yes, a decent percentage of dudes who are unabashedly and aggressively homophobic or anti-“gay” are themselves in the gender, sexual, romantic, affection, emotion, relationship spectrum. However, “more likely” doesn’t equate to “all” or even “most”. I just find the “use gay jokes to shame homophobes” to be toxic and dated and basic.
Cam
@Donston
There was no joke there. I was absolutely serious that some of the people eager to buy these shirts are the same people anonymously hooking up with guys one night, then going out with friends to gay bash the night after. It’s a sick pathology but it is definitely out there.
BaltoSteve
Wonder if visiting here is on Madison Cawthorn’s bucket list as well….
missvamp
my thoughts exactly. i bet he bought up all the shirts to give to his buddies in congress.
woodroad34
Ah…so like aspirin, this t-shirt presents a cure-all to a problem. Hmmm, maybe the solution to republicanism, bigotry, hate, Trumpism, capitalist crime, fascism, and all the other ills of our country can be cured in the same way. Or,maybe, just be better—simpler,and you can practice your Eastern European accent at the same time.
Fahd
Just deplorable. Maybe this kind of threat of violence should not be protected under the First Amendment. The bar should at least lose its liquor license.
Cam
Even though the whole “What if the other side did this” comment is getting old…..just imagine FOX News if democrats were going around wearing a similar shirt saying that murdering anti-vaxx Republicans was a cure for Covid.
It would be a week of coverage.
Cato
This sounds so 1980s. Those of us who survived the bad old days of Reagan and Jesse Helms have heard this crap before, though I must say it’s a pleasant surprise to find out Wyoming is only 40 years behind the rest of the country instead of 100.
JromeGervais09
The only good Wyoming is a dead Wyoming like some political party members.
michaelmt1009
this is the kind of bar that someone should organized a “bar in” and have several thousand gay people show up as customers, repeatedly for several days.
MISTERJETT
just send them some gay pornography. they’ll love it. 1101 W Lincolnway, Cheyenne, WY 82001
Jim
Would shooting someone wearing this shirt be classified as self defense?
MISTERJETT
just send them some gay pornography. they’ll love it. 1101 W Lincolnway, Cheyenne, WY 82001
radiooutmike
@Cato
I was thinking exactly this, they’re only 40 years behind the times. They’ll be surprised to understand, in about 10-15 years in the future; when they find out AIDS can be effectively managed.
FridM
Fire bomb.
Roy Moss
The vast majority of conservatives would love to see us exterminated, this place is up front about it
Doug
Hard to believe Mathew Shephard died 23 years ago and Wyoming hasn’t changed one iota. The bar has a Facebook page, I encourage people posting here to express their disgust!!