Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood… boycott

It’s not a big secret, I’m gay yes, so I write about gay things every now and then. Right. moving on. Last Friday night was Guerrilla Gay Bar. GGB is a group of guys, gay guys, some gay girls, some straight girls, a few stray straight guys, who once a month select a target (a bar, a straight bar) and take it over for one evening. Meaning a target is announced, and then 150-300 gay guys all show up at once and boom, you have Guerrilla Gay Bar. It’s a national thing. There are these groups in cities all around the country.

I’ve been to a few… they are fun. But last Friday night wasn’t so fun. Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood was announced as the target and when everyone showed up, the bouncer didn’t let people in. Here’s a e-mail the group sent out this morning:

GUERRILLA GAY BAR COMMUNIQUE No. 25

Guerrillas,

It was bound to happen sooner or later.  For the first time in our short history, things didn’t go quite as we’d planned.  By 10:15 on Friday night, there was a line of over 75 people waiting to get into the target bar, and the doormen were refusing to let anyone in. 

We’ve heard some scattered reports that the bar employees made homophobic reports, and we know for sure they approached some of the female attendees near the back of the line, thinking they were straight girls, to “explain the situation,” (surprise!  the ladies were with us!)  Our operatives on the inside said the bar was not at capacity.

In the business of planning unannounced takeovers, it’s wise to have a contingency plan, and we did: we made announcements both inside and outside the bar, rallying the troops to march a few blocks east to the marvelous Cafe Formosa, where we were greeted enthusiastically by a lone, friendly (also, hot) bartender who was very happy for our business.

At least a hundred guerrillas – and our first drag queen - followed us to Cafe Formosa.  We had a great time, but we want to apologize to anyone who didn’t make it.  We appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing you every month.  We’re working on better ways to notify everyone on the rare occasion when we have to make a quick switch.

Here at headquarters, we’re still considering how (and if) we should respond to Bar Lubitsch’s snub.  To that end, we would like to hear specifics of what you saw and heard when you were in line with the bar.   Particularly, we are curious whether anyone witnessed anything overtly homophobic, or whether the problem was just bad management.  If you’ve got a second, and you saw or heard something, please send us an email at hq@guerrillagaybar.com. 

Regardless of the cause, it’s safe to say that Bar Lubitsch lost thousands of dollars of business on Friday night and a lot of potential customers. 

And, it’s safe to say that the revolution will continue next month (March 9, anyone?).  We hope to see you there!

Viva la revolution!
 
PS: After we led the initial charge, word kept spreading; people who didn’t make it to the original target until well past 10PM said they got the word from some mystery men in red.  If you were one of the mystery folks who helped spread the word at Bar Lubistch after we had already taken off, we’d like to express our thanks for helping us redirect people on the fly!
 
GUERRILLA GAY BAR HQ – SPECIAL OPS
 
END GUERRILLA GAY BAR COMMUNIQUE No. 25

Bottom line a bar in West Hollywood wouldn’t let a bunch of fags in. When I drove by there were at least 100 guys in a line wrapped around the corner and it wasn’t moving. Yet reports from the inside say the bar was no where near capacity.

Hint… boycott the lame homophobes at Bar Lubitsch. Too bad because I was really wanting to start to go to it regularly as I love vodka bars.

Bar Lubitsch
7702 Santa Monica Blvd (Cross Street: Stanley Avenue)
West Hollywood, CA 90046
(323) 654-1234

Give them a call and let them know what you think.

Check out GGB’s website: http://guerrillagaybar.com/