Q Club is Qancelled: Popular NYC Gay Bar Sued for Racial Discrimination

July 6, 2022
TOMMY

Yet again, gays residents of a major city have been let down by racist management. In an article published by Queer publication Instinct Magazine, it recently came to light that producer and club promoter Frankie Sharp is suing Alan Picus and Bob Fluet, his former co-owners of The Q Club for racial discrimination, and, from the evidence we've seen, it is not a cute look for The Q.

Sharp alleges that after he joined on to The Q, co-owner Picus started giving him marching orders to the tune of, "Make sure your Latin nights are the good kind of Latins. Not Blatinos.” He also alleges that while interviewing people to potentially be their new bar manager, Picus even told one candidate, “I don’t need to break my back to hire people just because they’re black and trans.”

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What makes this all even more disappointing is that The Q's brand is decidedly one of inclusivity, notably for the BIPOC community. Besides hosting the aforementioned "Latin Nights", the bar also employs a number of Queer BIPOC dancers and bartenders, some of whom are also sex workers. For many - and indeed for NYC - The Q's triumphant rapid success gave us all the impression that even though we lost some of our great gay bars (RIP Barrage), that new ones would fill their shoes; and some, like The Q, would even be fresh faces in new footprints.

The fallout from this lawsuit was quick and unanimous from NYC's Queers. Events immediately pulled out, and the gays were posting all the lashback you'd expect from something like this. Events like SIXish: A Drag Tribute, a drag homage to the smash hit Broadway musical featuring the vocal stylings of pop divas telling the story of Henry VIII. SIXish: A Drag Tribute was a completely sold out event, and had gays around the city (including yours truly) excited for what was sure to be an incredible night. Sold out event be damned, the producers of SIXish did the right thing by cancelling the show and promising to look for a new venue more in line with their core values. The producers of SIXish issued this statement:

"In light of recent developments, the cast and creatives of SIXish: A Drag Tribute, would like to make it clear that we do not condone the abhorrent actions that have taken place at the Q."

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This also isn't the first time NYC gays have had to deal with racist management at their staple gay bars. In September of 2018, club promoter and S11 alumna of RuPaul's Drag Race, Honey Davenport cried afoul when the management of West Village institution The Monster sent them racist text messages regarding the advertisements for upcoming promotional nights. Davenport sent this flyer for bar manager Italo Lopez's sign-off.

As you'll see, the flyer happened to have some non-white models on it (each of them holy-shit-hot btw), and Lopez responded saying he didn't like it. He doubled down saying it needed "a beautiful man" which apparently didn't include the beautiful men in the flyer, and to not seem like they were promoting "a black night."

Two years before that in Philadelphia, video footage surfaced of the owner the gay bar iCandy saying the N word multiple times. You can watch the footage here if you need to, but it's really not worth it. You'll just be hearing a bunch of hate. The Philly gays responded swiftly and began protesting the bar.

The point is, this is not a new issue for patrons of gay bars, and we need to keep calling this bullshit out. Queer people of every race deserve to be treated with respect, and to have a place they can call their home away from home. Our Queer bars are our sacred spaces and these kinds of behaviors are unacceptable.

In their defense, the Q recently released the following statement.