Comments on: Rainbow Lounge causes politically ‘neutral’ coffee shop next door to close its doors

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:31:34 +0000

Issues like this become more clear when we get back to what used to be an obvious fact: Homosexuality is a behavioural disorder. It’s not fair to society in general to treat gays as if they were an ethnic group deserving special “rights” based on their deviant behavior. The domain of any given right sometimes infringes upoon other rights, therefore countenancing “gay rights” results in an unfair infringement on legitimate rights. Homosexuals have rights like any other person, but they don’t don’t deserve special consideration for their perversions.

By: Rev Charles Curtiss

Rev Charles Curtiss — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:56:10 +0000

NYC = New York City. I think they (the Coffee Shop folks) just weren’t happy with all the publicity being generated by the Rainbow Lounge incident. Unlike Dallas, Ft Worth doesn;t really have an entire neighborhood that is identifed as being primarily Gay. The publicity surrounding the Rainbow Lounge raid probably made it too obvious to the Coffee Shop’s clientele that they were so close to a GLBT establishment.

By: David Taffet

David Taffet — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:16:12 +0000

Agreed, Pastor Charles. Not sure what NYC is talking about. There’s no indication from the article that there’s much more to the story than the straight people who own the coffee shop just didn’t want to serve a gay clientele. And when they moved in, there were other gay bars in the neighborhood.

By: Pastor Charles Curtiss

Pastor Charles Curtiss — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:41:41 +0000

“New Yorker” is out of his mind. He reminds me of folks in the 1960’s who would say, I have black friends…” (and therefore, at least in their minds, they were experts on being black in America). If you haven’t had to live the reality of being Gay in this society, you area fool to think that doing business with Gay owned/operated businesses make you some kind of legitimate expert on such matters. Give me a break! As one who must daily endure attacks and accusations from right wing fanatics, I can tell you that much of Gay “anger” is quite legitimate, as was the anger of so many Blck men and women in America as they too were being demonized, stereotyped, misrepresented in the media and on film, and denied access and opportunity for no other reason than the color of their skin. Your comments are idiotic at best, and sheer foolishness. I lived in NYC for the entire decade of the 1990’s. To think that NYC even remotely resembles Fort Worth, or even Dallas, in terms of it’s tolerance of Gay-Lesbian people and the variety and number of Gay-Lesbian establishments is to live in la-la land! You haven’t a clue as to what you are speaking of, and then, to add insult to injury, you compare apples to watermellons. Not very smart.

By: New Yorker

New Yorker — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:19:56 +0000

This is a very sad example of bigotry and intolerance.

Not against gays, but BY gays against others who hold different beliefs and opinions. “Let the neutral folks move on” really shows great tolerance /sarc. How do gay people like being told “We’re straight here and if you don’t like it move on?” Evidently not very much, yet that doesn’t seem to stop them from saying the same thing to anyone who doesn’t “embrace” them.

Having patronized plenty of the gay/lesbian-owned or “gay/lesbian oriented” restaurants and bars here in NYC, I can say first-hand that any perceived hatred and bias by straights against gays is reciprocated 150% by gays against straights. Often to the point of obscenity, and occasionally to the point of violence.

If gays would show the tolerance and respect towards straights that they want to receive, they would in fact receive it.

And speaking as a customer, I don’t want to have to watch *anyone* — gay or straight — French-kissing or engaging in any other type of foreplay while I’m trying to enjoy a meal. Especially teenagers, as in “under-age minors.”

Whatever your orientation, a little dignity and discretion, not to mention respect for those around you, go a long way towards fostering tolerance.

Apparently, and unfortunately, this is something the gay/lesbian community still needs to learn.

# # # #

By: VJ

VJ — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:34:22 +0000

I second what Mark said, I occasionally have to go to Fort Worth for work and that area where the Rainbow Lounge is and this coffe shop is very very dead most of the day. And if the coffee shop kept early hours, I can’t see how RL affected business there.

By: Pastor Charles Curtiss

Pastor Charles Curtiss — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:20:09 +0000

Our ministry is starting a new, sister church, in Fort Worth. The ONE Church is a GLBT Affirming ministry, and I am it’s Gay pastor. The folks at the Rainbow Lounge have been abundantly kind and cooperative in helping us get the word out. We hope to possibly be able to set up shop near the RL at some future date. Ft Worth has never really had a GLBT “area” or “strip” as Dallas has, and I wouldn’t be at all oppossed to our ministry ultimately helping our GLBT community in Ft Worth to establish one. Let the “neutral” folks move on. More for us, as my Portuguese grandmother used to say! LOL

By: Tom P

Tom P — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:56:22 +0000

Lee Chevalier:
You are so full of it, an apologist and a re-historian.
I was there when theses things happened…I lived in Oak Lawn during the very early 80’s and saw the changes you discussed.
Sorry for your disappointment, but I’m always happy when a business owner, especially in a “gay neighborhood”, who doesn’t embrace his or her LGBT customers, goes belly-up.
If a business owner is making his buck from the LBGT community, he or she better go to great lengths to not only support that community in return, but to distance himself from any anti-gay crazy aunts who won’t shut up.

By: Arnold Wayne Jones

Arnold Wayne Jones — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:19:21 +0000

Stephan Pyles, the gay restaurateur who used to operate Star Canyon in the heart of Cedar Springs and got his start on the line at The Bronx, told me how when he first worked around C.S., there were very few businesses. One, Adair’s, sold great hamburgers… but they moved to Deep Ellum because the neighborhood got “too gay.” Good riddance, Pyles said. They thrived in Deep Ellum, where customers were tattooed ravers and piercing salon customers. And Hunky’s moved in.

By: Mark Giesh

Mark Giesh — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:17:19 +0000

I read the original story, and Mr. Kennedy didn’t do much history or fact checking for his story.

The coffee shop was originally started as a gay oriented coffee shop: art work for sale on the walls, coffee drinks and food with gay names, rainbow flags, Dallas Voice newstand, etc. It was a nice place, and I went there for lunch and supper whenever I had business in dowtown Fort Worth. During lunch time, the customer base seemed to be mostly medical people in scrubbs from the local doctor’s offices, hospitals, and nursing homes. In the weekday early evenings, it was a more of a mix of medical people and gays eating supper. In the later evening, the business seemed to be mostly gay guys with laptops and a lot of gay male teenagers and college students. The gay male teenagers seemed to do a lot of french kissing and appeared to use it as a date place.

One day I went into the coffee shop and as looking for a Dallas Voice and was told that the coffee shop had been sold and the new owner had all the gay stuff removed. They also said the new owner had also told the gay teens they couldn’t hang out there anymore. I got on the internet and found that gay sites, including the Dallas Voice, were all blocked. The place was empty except for me on a Saturday night about 8pm. A few weeks later, I noticed a sign that said they were only open for lunch. For months they were only open for lunch. So, I’m not sure how the bars impacted their business since they weren’t even open during the evenings.

Eventually, they re-opened for the evenings, but it was only 5pm to 10pm. LIke most gay bars, the Rainbow Lounge doesn’t get busy until after 11pm or so, so I’m still not sure how the Rainbow Lounge impacted their business. Their parking lot always had empty spaces up until 10pm.

I know of two other small independent coffee shops between the “gay strip” and the hospitals. After Gallery Art Cafe closed at night, I went to these instead.

The manager at one of these told me the real reason business was dead: Starbucks finally had opened a new store in a new buidling nearer to the hospitals. I drove by and sure enough, Starbucks has a new building and it was packed. It’s hard to complete with a Starbucks that’s closer to the medical businesses, in a new building, and in a safer neighborhood with a well lighted parking lot.

Also, in general, Starbucks has been the kiss of death for many local independent coffee shops.

I think the Dallas Voice should revisit this story in a couple of months. Now that Gallery Art Cafe has moved to a gay free location, let’s see how viable their business is. Let’s see how long their business can last.