LGBTQ people in San Antonio are boycotting a gay bar after its Trump-supporting owner announced his bid for Congress.
Mauro Garza, owner of Pegasus nightclub in San Antonio, will seek the Republican nomination in Congressional District 20 — after previously failing to get elected in a different district in 2018.
Garza, who is gay, a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, and identifies as a conservative, previously campaigned on his support for Trump, wearing a red cap in 2018 that said “Make TX-21 Greater.”
Should Garza succeed in his bid for the nomination, he would face LGBTQ ally Rep. Joaquin Castro in the general election.
But in the wake of boycotts against companies that cater to LGBTQ people while their owners support Donald Trump — whose administration has worked to dilute or rollback LGBTQ rights — the local LGBTQ community of San Antonio is fighting back.
A Twitter account, Protest the Peg, is imploring LGBTQ people to boycott Pegasus, LGBTQ Nation reports.
Protest the Peg slammed Garza for “[escalating] his support for the anti-LGBTQIA+ Republican platform” and for using his social media accounts to “share posts from nationalist media attacking immigrants and the transgender community.”
“We must stand together to ensure that political attacks on our community are denounced,” Protest the Peg said in a statement posted to Twitter. “We must work in unison to curtail monetary support of anti-LGBTQIA+ movements. Every time we spend our hard-earned dollars at Pegasus Nightclub, we are paying to support our oppression.”
On Fri, Aug. 9, @Mauro4Texas announced his @GOP run for @USCongress#TX20. His club, The Pegasus, books drag performers from around the nation, we are calling for a nationwide boycott in an effort to defund his contributions to anti-LGBTQIA+ politicians/platforms. #ProtestThePegpic.twitter.com/hEoUG0ctmE
The organization’s Twitter account has also been sharing examples of Garza’s social media activity where he supports anti-LGBTQ Sen. Ted Cruz, shares anti-immigrant memes, and seems to endorse Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.
Protest the Peg are demanding that Garza sell Pegasus to ensure that “LGBTQ money no longer goes to supporting xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ ideologies.”
We demand @Mauro4Texas sell Pegasus & the property itself so that #LGBTQ money no longer goes to supporting xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ ideologies.
The group also criticized RuPaul’s Drag Race star Kennedy Davenport for performing at Pegasus last month and not publicly supporting the boycott.
“We understand there are many artists who rely on the entertainment industry as their source of income,” they said. “We are fully aware of the limits systemic oppression can impose on us to secure employment and meet our needs. We recognize that our spaces are the safest for LGBTQIA+ talent to work.
“However, the LGBTQIA+ entertainment industry provides different platforms that reach large audiences. We ask that you use those platforms responsibly and refrain from contracting talent to attend or perform at Pegasus Nightclub.”
The School District of Philadelphia announced it will defy President Donald Trump's executive order prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.
This move contrasts with the actions of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body of K-12 sports in the Keystone State.
The PIAA revised its policy to comply with Trump's executive order, replacing references to a student's "gender" with sex. It removed principals' authority to make a final determination regarding a student's sex and allowed a school to determine it (presumably based on the gender marker on school records and birth certificates, although the policy lacks specifics).
Donnell Jetters, of Waco, Texas, was arrested after he fired a gun at a relative who came out as gay.
On March 14, around 9 p.m., police officers were dispatched to a home in the North Lake Waco section of the city in response to a report of a disturbance involving a gun.
The victim in the case called 9-1-1 after escaping from the home but returned to the scene shortly after officers arrived. Investigators discovered that Jetters and the victim, who was a family member, had gotten into an argument after the latter came out as gay.
The family member told police they left the residence after hearing Jetters cocking a pistol. They claimed he later pointed the weapon at them while they were fleeing, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
A federal judge issued a nationwide order blocking a pair of executive orders from President Donald Trump seeking to criminalize the provision of gender-affirming health care to transgender youth.
U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson, of the District of Maryland, granted a preliminary injunction to the families of several transgender young adults and adolescents whose access to gender-affirming care was disrupted by Trump's orders. Those families are joined by the pro-LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG National and GLMA, the country's largest organization of LGBTQ and allied health professionals.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.