“Gay-in” Friday night at Adams Morgan bar where Pride flag was burned
Activists will present a new rainbow flag to the owners of Bourbon as part of event kicking off at 8 p.m.
Local LGBT residents are staging a “gay-in” at a predominantly straight bar and restaurant in Adams Morgan after the establishment had its rainbow flag burned on Sunday, sometime during the early morning hours after the bar closed.
James Patrick Woods, the owner of Bourbon, located on 18th Street NW, says he had previously placed the flag outside his establishment to recognize Pride weekend. After finding the flag had been burned, he reported it to the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Hate Crimes Hotline, but heard nothing in return. He said he was unaware of the existence of MPD’s LGBT Liaison Unit, which is whom he should have notified following the incident. But after news of the flag burning was published Thursday, the article went viral, and detectives from MPD showed up at the bar and began combing the crime scene.
“I wish Washington, D.C. police would have responded quickly, but it didn’t really seem like that happened,” Woods says.
On Friday morning, Woods awakened to news that the LGBT community had planned to congregate at his bar later that night. He began speaking with Morgan Tepper, one of the event’s chief organizers, and is welcoming all those who wish to attend the sit-in. Tepper says she organized the event after reading about the flag burning and being shocked both at the fact that it occurred and the lack of press it received for four days.
“I thought ‘We should do a gay sit-in type of thing,'” says Tepper. “We should go into this place that somebody vandalized, to show we’re not afraid, and that they’re not going to scare us away.”
So far, the event has taken off on Facebook, with more than 1400 people invited and at least 93 saying they are definitely attending, with 141 more saying they are interested in attending. Tepper has s also notified MPD about the event, and hopes that a representative or officers from the LGBT Liaison Unit will be at the event tonight.
A spokeswoman for MPD said that officers will be in the area at the time the event is being held, and continues to monitor bar and nightclub areas. That spokeswoman said the event remains under investigation, but that no arrests have been made in connection with the incident.
Tepper and her fellow organizer Legba Carrefour have decided they will present Woods with a new rainbow flag to replace the lost one in a brief ceremony on Friday sometime after 8 p.m. tonight. Following the flag ceremony, various queer DJs will spin their music, sharing the slot with Bourbon’s resident DJ as a symbolic gesture of goodwill and unity.
“We’re going to just be there and show solidarity and strength at a scary time for our community,” says Tepper. “We’re not going to be obnoxious and mean, or disrespectful to any of the other patrons, whether they’re gay or straight. It’s just showing we can coexist together and it’s fine. We shouldn’t let some jerk scare us away from being where we want to be.”
The “Gay-In” at Bourbon will start at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 17 at Bourbon, 2321 18th St. NW. For more information, visit facebook.com or bourbondc.com
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