A gay-owned Virgia rtrant is a dispute wh s neighbors - Washgton Post

Contents:

• CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• GAY PRI CALENDAR

CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

An entreprenr lnched a nned cktail this week lled “Gay Water” that’s aimed at LGBTQ drkers — and said he’s lookg to palize on Bud Light’s mistak. But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay muny has long given to the simple vodka and soda cktail — has been spired by the dtup to bee even bolr about the dience ’s targetg, founr and CEO Spencer Hodson told The Post.

Gay Water — a nned cktail brand that plays on the gay muny’s lloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drk — lnched on Wednday and promis to unrstand s dience better than Bud Light. The 30-year-old Hodson said he is g suggtive — albe playful — msagg and imagery Gay Water’s social media and webse, cludg a provotive nod to the 12-ounce n’s 6.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

“Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson told The Post. “When was the last time you saw the word gay at a rtrant, bar, liquor store, or grocery store? The word ‘gay’ origally was fed as happy, and we’re hopg to remd folks of that by beg prent, ” he add.

Founr Spencer Hodson, a gay man, says the brand is about reclaimg the word “gay” as a word that “jt means happy. Gay Water’s brandg is full of playful, suggtive msagg.

“Part of the pot of lnchg outsi of Pri month is to rerce the msage that Gay Water is here to make the LGBTQ+ muny more visible 365 days a year, not jt a sgle month, ” he said. The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag. (Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple.

GAY PRI CALENDAR

They married 2020, five years after they opened the Front Porch, which quickly beme a statn The Front Porch has been flyg a Pri flag on s pat sce 2016, not long after a gunman killed 49 people a gay bar Orlando. Waybourn was print of the Dallas Gay Alliance when sued Parkland Memorial Hospal for failg to provi readily available medic to AIDS patients. In 1991, he lnched the Gay and Lbian Victory Fund (now the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund) to elect openly gay policians to office.

He served as managg director of the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn, or GLAAD, which he helped turn to a natnal group. He owned gay newspapers Hoton, Atlanta, New York and Washgton. “I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic.

To the activist, feels like a step backward after a lifetime of fightg for gay pack the seats at the Board of Zong Appeals hearg hosted at Grace Epispal Church.