Beaches, the new racist gay bar in WeHo
Last Saturday night I accompanied a few friends to the new bar Beaches in West Hollywood. While I was standing out front I witnessed the following exchange. A sketchy drag queen (which is to say a boy in a dress and a wig and sneakers, not a professional drag queen) walked into the bar without showing any ID. She was followed by a young black man who had obviously had a few drinks, but was still speaking in complete sentences and walking without any swaying or stumbling.
He stopped her by grabbing her on her elbow and explained that he saw her steal his bag with his second phone in it from the bar. She immediately grabbed a bouncer and said she didn't know this person and he was assaulting her. He told the bouncer that she had just stolen his bag and put it in her bag. She had a large camo duffel bag that she was wearing across her chest and he told the bouncer that he saw her take his bag and put it in her bag. I could hear every word from 15 feet away on the sidewalk.
Instead of hearing what the young man of color was saying, the bouncer simply saw a belligerent drunk and began shoving him out of the bar. The kid kept explaining that that drag queen stole his bag with his second phone in it, to which the bouncer replied you have your phone in your hand, your drunk, you need to leave. I watched as this fake drag queen laughed as they physically removed him from the bar. He struggled against the now two bouncers and was still trying to get them to check the drag queens bag, and as he struggled against them, they became steadily more brutal, throwing him to the ground at least three times.
Now, this kid was drunk, and he was fighting back against them, and in so doing, while they had him pinned to the ground he was blindly kicking his legs and one of those kicks landed on the first bouncer to which he responded with 6 full force direct blows to the kids face while the other bouncer held him down. His face was instantly covered in blood and started swelling.
Meanwhile I see the fake drag queen still inside the bar steal an unattended pack of smokes and lighter and side step out of the bar and run down the street away from the commotion while stuffing the smokes into the bag on her chest. Giving a pretty clear indication that the boy being beaten on the street in front of the bar by the bouncers was correct, she was a thief.
Instead of listening to the kid and simply asking her to open her bag when the said she had stolen his phone, they simply took the word of a fake drag queen, who never provided any ID to get into the bar, and they beat the living shit out of the black kid that was already a victim of theft and was just trying to get his belongings back from a thief. "But he was drunk and fighting back" is a pathetic excuse. The bouncers escalated this issue to the physical, not him. They turned violent while he was begging anyone to help him get his things back from the drag queen. This fight went on for about 15 minutes while they held him down and hit him. When he finally stopped struggling against them and went into a protective position they got off of him. He got up and ran into the road begging for anyone to help him. He ran across the street bloodied, shirt ripped, one shoe gone and ran directly into a passing LADP police car. The officer looked at him and continued driving. There was a second police car directly behind the first and he literally stood in front of the police car begging for them to help him, and then they drove around him and left too.
This poor black kid had his stuff stolen, tried to catch the thief and got a severe beating from the bar staff for being the victim of a crime. I wish I could say one of the employees or anyone standing on the street did the right thing, but no one did. Apparently it's better to beat up someone you think is drunk than to catch a thief targeting gay bars. This poor black kid is going to leave West Hollywood feeling invisible, unimportant, insignificant, and ignored in his community. This is how black people are treated in the gay world; suspect, criminal, unwelcome, unheard, disbelieved and disrespected.
I will NEVER step foot in Beaches again. Watching their employees react that way against a black victim was disgusting. They clearly have no standards or training for their employees. The bouncer should had ID'd the queen. He didn't. When accused of theft, he should have had her open her bag. He didn't. Best case scenario, queen proves to the kid she doesn't have his phone, worst case scenario your bouncers caught a pick pocket targeting gay bars. I'll never step foot in that bar again because of this, and I hope their bar fails. If you care about how black people are treated in the gay world, don't patronize Beaches. read more