Strip clubs, gay venu nearby, London landmark buildg to be turned to mosque - India Today

Contents:

• COLORADO SPRGS RECKONS WH PAST AFTER GAY CLUB SHOOTG
• COLORADO SPRGS RECKONS WH PAST AFTER GAY CLUB SHOOTG
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

COLORADO SPRGS RECKONS WH PAST AFTER GAY CLUB SHOOTG

REUTERS/Kev Mohatt/File PhotoNEW YORK, Nov 23 (Rters) - After the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub Florida, the owners of New York Cy gay bar C'mon Everybody hired more secury staff, and the LGBT landmark Stonewall Inn ran active-shooter safety drills wh s bars and other LGBT spac around the untry are aga weighg how to keep their staff and patrons safe after a gunman killed five people and jured 17 more at an LGBT club Colorado Sprgs.

Many worry that physil secury measur n only go so far, and that stnchg a surge of flammatory anti-LGBT rhetoric is a better Club Q attack, which is beg vtigated as a hate crime, has pound the fear and anger of a muny already nontg a wave of Republin legislatn directed at transgenr youth and gay Amerins, and what they say is a related rise threats and vlence agast s members. "It's really tirg for the gay muny that time and time aga we have to e up wh the solutns for problems that other people make, " said Jonathan Hat, executive director of Drag Queen Story Hour, a nonprof group that aniz drag performers readg books to children 45 stat that has been repeatedly targeted and threatened this year. "Jt hours before the attack at Club Q Colorado Sprgs, someone threw a brick through the wdow of gay bar Vers the Hell's Kchen neighborhood of New York Cy for the fourth time this month, acrdg to police.

COLORADO SPRGS RECKONS WH PAST AFTER GAY CLUB SHOOTG

Erik Bottcher, the cy uncil member reprentg Hell's Kchen, has joed other officials over the last week to warn that one or more people are dggg and robbg gay men the rponse to those attacks and the Colorado shootg, the Anti-Vlence Project, a non-prof group found 1980 after a spate of attacks on gay men, plans to hold a safety event at a Hell's Kchen gay bar on Wednday night. Volunteers will talk wh staff and patrons about ways to heighten vigilance bars, on hook-up and datg apps, and wh partners at attack on the Pulse gay nightclub Orlando six years ago, durg which a man shot ad 49 people, forced many bars to review their secury plans.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has said he is tryg to protect children om abe by prohibg many typ of genr-affirmg medil re for Lentz, a -owner of Stonewall Inn, the se of the 1969 rts that talyzed the gay liberatn movement, echoed others the dtry sayg venu are reachg the lims of what physil fens n achieve. A state senator Tennsee has troduced a bill that would crimalize drag performanc the prence of still performs for adults, cludg a drag bgo night he was hostg on Tuday at a Nashville gay bar. Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love.

There are more than 60 untri wh laws that crimalise same-sex sexual acts acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, cludg Sdi Arabia. 'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

There’s a wele faiary to be found the bright lights, sticky floors, and qutnable cisns ma a gay bar. Champng their stat as a backbone of the LGBTQ+ muny, gay bars began their journey hidn away margal areas of the cy, providg a secret and safe space for people wh same sex-orientatns and genr-variant inti to socialise and openly exprs themselv. Even prr to the ronavis lockdowns, has been well documented that gay bars have been closg at an alarmg rate across Europe and North Ameri — London alone lost over half of s LGBTQ+ venu over the last , while San Francis’s last remag lbian bar closed s doors 2015.