Metro Weekly

Ian Reisner digs deeper hole, calls gays “cheap” and “entitled”

Foot, meet mouth

“Gays are cheap. They’re frugal; gays are frugal. Let me retract that. Gays are entitled.”

Ian Reisner, Credit - Kalman Sporn / Wikimedia
Ian Reisner, Credit – Kalman Sporn / Wikimedia

–Gay New York businessman Ian Reisner, who last month was condemned by the LGBT community for hosting a reception for anti-gay Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, speaking with New York Magazine.

“You know, it’s so ironic — I wanted to build kind of a community center in the gateway to Hell’s Kitchen, which in 2008–2009 was already a gay place and now it’s even gayer,” he said. “Very close to Broadway. We decided there’d be so many different ways to give back to the community. We show gay artists there. For gay performers, we have let this cabaret club go on for three and a half years.”

“And you don’t make money when you let drag queens in on Tuesday night and 30 people drink at $10 a drink and you have to pay five people to watch over the place,” he continued. “You don’t make money … My only point is, this has not been a profitable venture. Gays are cheap. They’re frugal; gays are frugal. Let me retract that … gays are entitled … Do you know how challenging it is to make a penny off a gay person? I’m gay, I don’t pay cover. I’m gay, where’s my comp drink?”

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