Gender Bender

Nightclub protest: Gays accuse nightclub of discrimination
BY JIM MUSTIAN/Odessa American

Dozens of gays gathered Friday in the parking lot of an Odessa nightclub to protest the club’s decision to ban several young women from Graham Central Station and to speak out against what they called a discriminatory dress code policy.

Roger Gearhart, president of Graham Brothers Entertainment, said “four or five young women” were asked to leave and not return one night this week because they were “relentlessly hitting on other women.”

“They just wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Gearhart said, adding the women were invading customers’ personal space. “It’s not a gender rights issue. It’s an individual issue. It had nothing to do with their sexual orientation.”

Lewis Busbe, who operated an electronic megaphone during the peaceful rally in front of the club on 42nd Street, said a number of women he knows have been denied entry to the club in the past week because they were “gender bending” and wearing men’s clothing. Some women complained they had not been allowed in because they had short hair.

“I think it’s pretty sexist,” Busbe said over the chanting. He added it was not fair for heterosexual women to be allowed in wearing “skimpy” clothing.

But Gearhart said it is against club policy to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Though he could not confirm that his doormen had turned away some women, he said it was possible their attire did not conform to the club’s dress code, which forbids baggy clothes and brim hats.

After several minutes of rallying, the demonstrators, who toted colorful cardboard signs bearing phrases such as “Support love” and “No civil rights really bites,” walked about 100 yards from their rallying point in the parking lot to the front of the club. They rejected Gearhart’s invitation to go inside and discuss their complaints. Instead, they asked a television reporter to invite Gearhart outside to address the crowd.

After defending the club’s dress code, Gearhart apologized to the crowd and welcomed all of them back, saying they would start fresh.

“This is a place where you’re supposed to have fun,” Gearhart said. “We don’t want a whole lot of rules.”

Brittany Miles, who identified herself as the president of the gay-straight alliance at UTPB, said she helped organize the rally through social networking sites and mass text messaging.

“We’re here to say that it’s OK to be gay,” Miles said.

Hope Boyer, 18, said she had not been directly affected by the nightclub controversy but came out Friday to combat the intolerance she experiences every day in Odessa.

“It’s really hard to be gay in this town,” Boyer said. “A lot of it is the religious part of it.”

Boyer said many Christians here say she is an abomination.

“I was made in God’s image,” she said.

There was a lot of rush to judgement in this town Friday after some lesbians were asked to leave Graham's Thursday night and it all seemed pretty cut and dry at the time. No it seems like there are two polar opposite views about what happened. Graham's maintains that the women were "relentlessly" hitting on women and the women maintain they were kicked out for "gender bending."

As is with most cases there are probably elements of truth to both stories but Gerheart's conciliatory manner makes me believe there may have been mistakes made by the club. They may say that the don't want Graham's to have many rules but from my limited experiences with the bouncers/cops there, there are nothing but rules in that joint and they're a bit quick to toss someone out on their ear.