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.”
Gina Ortiz Jones was elected mayor of San Antonio in a runoff election on June 7.
The victory was historic, as Jones is not only San Antonio's first out LGBTQ mayor but the first Asian-American female mayor of a major city in Texas and the first female mayor in Texas to have served in a war.
(She's a former Air Force officer and Iraq War veteran who previously served as Under Secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration.)
Jones is also the first mayor since 2005 to not have previously served on the city council and will serve a four-year term.
A transgender man in South Carolina claims he was accosted in a bar by staff, called anti-trans slurs, and arrested by police for using the women's restroom -- the very restroom that conservatives would typically argue he should use due to being assigned female at birth.
Luca Strobel, who posts on TikTok as @FulltimeCowboy, recently posted a pair of videos in which he recounted going to the Sand Dollar Social Club in Folly Beach on Friday, May 16, as a designated driver for a friend, Caroline Frady, who was at the bar.
The New York City chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans -- the nation’s largest LGBTQ conservative group -- will host a Pride Month event at Trump Tower later this month, despite former President Donald Trump’s refusal to officially recognize June as Pride Month during his administration.
The "Pride Right" party promises a night of "patriotism and Pride," with a list of yet-to-be-announced guest speakers.
Scheduled for Saturday, June 28, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., the soirée will feature an open bar, hors d’oeuvres, and a chance to socialize or network with other LGBTQ conservatives. Tickets cost $175 per person, or $150 for "dues-paying members" of the group.
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.