‘Bonefish Harry’s’ Restaurant Gets Hate Mail After Hanging Rainbow Flag, Along with Outpouring of Support and Controversy

Bonefish Harry’s, a Massachusetts restaurant with locations in Beverly and Lynn, shared a letter this week it said it received after hanging an LGBTQ Pride flag outside its locations.

Owen Donaldson, the Beverly resident who wrote the letter, said he had eaten at the restaurant several times but would not patronize it any longer “because you have chosen to publically support activity which is immoral.”

Said the restaurant in a Facebook post sharing the letter: “To all of our loyal guests, today we received this letter declaring our restaurant immoral for hanging a Gay Pride flag from our restaurant in support of our fellow humans for Gay Pride Month. We consider this letter an attempt to bully us to remove our flag and to slander our business. We will not stand for this type of behavior and will never give in to these types of unaccepting bigoted people. We will always stand side by side with everyone in our community! We will continue to fly this flag and we are proud to show our support for all of our community members.”

The letter was posted on June 12 and immediately received thousands of shares. But some commenters questioned the authenticity of the letter, accusing the restaurant of faking it.

The Salem News reports: “The Salem News attempted to locate a person by the name of Owen Donaldson living in Beverly or on the North Shore. But a search of public records, including the city clerk’s resident lists for Beverly and several area communities, property records, available phone listings, social media, and a general search of the internet shows no one by that name living in the area.”

The restaurant returned to Facebook on Thursday, defending the authenticity of the letter, writing: “Facebook world, we appreciate the out pouring of support from everyone near and far. We want to make sure the focus of this is on accepting everyone in our community without bias and prejudgement. We are aware that there are people questioning the validity of the letter, the author and whether our restaurant had written this letter. We have no idea who Owen is or if he really exists. We 100% did not write this letter or know who did. What we do know is that we support everyone in our community and welcome everyone in our restaurants. Now lets get back to tacos and maitais!”

They have since announced a benefit for LGBTQ youth as well: “We are proud to announce that we have partnered with North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ Youth and their President Kirsten Freni for a couple of fundraisers for the group this summer. We will be selling rainbow tie die t shirts at both of our restaurants starting next week with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the group. We are also planning a couple of great nights in both Lynn and Beverly to raise money and awareness for this great cause.”

The post ‘Bonefish Harry’s’ Restaurant Gets Hate Mail After Hanging Rainbow Flag, Along with Outpouring of Support and Controversy appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

‘Bonefish Harry’s’ Restaurant Gets Hate Mail After Hanging Rainbow Flag, Along with Outpouring of Support and Controversy

Taylor Swift Performs ‘Shake It Off’ in Surprise Appearance at NYC’s Stonewall Inn: WATCH

Taylor Swift made a surprise appearance at NYC’s Stonewall Inn on Friday night, singing her hit song “Shake It Off” after an introduction from Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who also joined in on a few verses.

The performance came in the wake of the release of Swift’s new single “You Need to Calm Down,” seen by many as an anti-homophobia anthem. The track, which calls out haters and gives a shout-out to GLAAD, prompted a surge in donations to the LGBTQ rights group.

In recent weeks, Swift, lobbied Senator Lamar Alexander for passage of the Equality Act, and made a massive unsolicited $113,000 donation to the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ rights group working to overturn discriminatory legislation in the state.

Wrote Swift in the letter to Alexander: “I personally reject the President’s stance that his administration, ‘supports equal treatment of all,’ but that the Equality Act, ‘in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.’ No. One cannot take the position that one supports a community, while condemning it in the next breath as going against ‘conscience’ or ‘parental rights.’ That statement implies that there is something morally wrong with being anything other than heterosexual and cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful message to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, non-binary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”

The post Taylor Swift Performs ‘Shake It Off’ in Surprise Appearance at NYC’s Stonewall Inn: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Taylor Swift Performs ‘Shake It Off’ in Surprise Appearance at NYC’s Stonewall Inn: WATCH

Matt Bomer Says His New Role Is About Breaking Down Walls

The actor forges new alliances as the friend of a Mexican migrant in Papi Chulo and as a once-closeted superhero in Doom Patrol.

www.advocate.com/film/2019/6/15/matt-bomer-says-his-new-role-about-breaking-down-walls

Samantha Allen Explores the Growing LGBTQ Population in Red States

The author discusses her book, Real Queer America, on the LGBTQ&A podcast.

www.advocate.com/transgender/2019/6/14/samantha-allen-explores-growing-lgbtq-population-red-states

Chick-fil-A owner arrested after admitting she repeatedly molested an underage girl

www.queerty.com/chick-fil-owner-arrested-admitting-repeatedly-molested-underage-girl-20190614?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

HRC Mourns the Loss of Zoe Spears

HRC is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Zoe Spears, a Black transgender woman killed in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on June 13.

She was found lying in the street with signs of trauma near Eastern Avenue in Fairmount Heights, just outside Washington, D.C., and later pronounced dead, according to local reports. Prince George’s County’s homicide department is leading the investigation into her death.

While officials have not yet released her name, transgender advocate Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of Casa Ruby, identified Spears as the victim. The organization is Washington, D.C.’s only bilingual, multicultural LGBTQ community center providing life-saving and affirming services and support to many of the most vulnerable members of the area’s LGBTQ community.

“She was my daughter — very bright and very full of life,” Corado told HRC. “Casa Ruby was her home. Right now, we just want her and her friends and the people who knew her to know that she’s loved.”

In March, Ashanti Carmon, who was also a Black trans woman, was killed in the same area of Fairmount Heights. TransGriot’s Monica Roberts reported that Carmon was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene. Earline Budd, a long time D.C. resident and staff member at HIPS, a community health and advocacy organization, shared with reporters that other transgender people have been assaulted and attacked at this same place in the past.

“It hurts,” Corado said in an emotional Facebook video during which she spoke about Spears’ death . “I want to make sure that people see what happens when our people are gone. I want you to see that this is real consequences, that when these people get killed…they had somebody that loved them.”

“My Zoe had a lot of people who loved her, and I was the main one,” Corado continued. “I was her number one fan. I love her so much.”

Tragically, Spears’ death is the tenth known case of deadly violence against the transgender community in 2019, all of whom were Black transgender women. Last year, advocates tracked the deaths of at least 26 transgender people in the U.S.

In November, ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance, HRC Foundation released “A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in America in 2018,” a heartbreaking report honoring the trans people killed and detailing the contributing and motivating factors that lead to this tragic violence.

It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, and that the intersections of racism, transphobia, sexism, biphobia and homophobia conspire to deprive them of necessities to live and thrive.

This epidemic of violence that disproportionately targets transgender people of color — particularly Black transgender women — must cease.

To learn more about Casa Ruby’s work to support the transgender community in the Washington, D.C. area, visit casaruby.org. For more information about HRC’s transgender justice work, visit hrc.org/Transgender.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-mourns-the-loss-of-zoe-spears?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed