A gay bar in Pittsburgh was raided for a compliance check by police officers in bulletproof vests. Performers were forced off stage while police emptied the bar and carried out their checks – all while Donald Trump continues his assault on queer rights.
Given that historically, queer bars are often over-policed via these same compliance checks, attendees were sceptical of the police’s motivations. One witness said:
Dozens of state police, geared up with bulletproof vests, flooded the bar and told us to get out. None of the officers would explain what was happening. We stood in the rain for maybe 30 minutes or so until most patrons were let back in.
Pittsburgh response
Whilst waiting outside, patrons at the bar were joined by Indica, a drag queen, who rallied the crowd as they waited for police to leave. Indica told Qburgh:
Queer people banded together and showed we are so much stronger than an attempt to make us scared or comply with their rules.
Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey discussed the context of the raid:
I want first to acknowledge the way in which bar raids were used historically to harass and commit violence against the LGBTQIA+ community. It was not so long ago that police raids on gay bars were routine, and it was one such raid, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, that sparked the modern movement to establish safe places for people to be open about their gender and sexuality without fear of arrest.
It is my intent that our actions as a city build upon, rather than undermine, that legitimate desire for safety.
Officers found that at the time of the raid, the bar had 133 people inside. But, the establishment only has an occupancy permit for 70 people due to overcrowding regulations. However, as Gainey acknowledged, this doesn’t change the intimidation of police raiding a venue during an event:
However, we need to be thoughtful about the fear that the sudden appearance of multiple armed officers can cause. We also need to have safeguards in place that ensure that NBTF [Nuisance Bar Task Force] complaints cannot be used to target vulnerable populations.
Historical targeting – and now Trump
Famously, the Stonewall uprising was one of the prominent examples of patrons at queer bars resisting pressure from police. These raids have been so ubiquitous that the police’s mode of operation is all too familiar:
Officers would pour in, threatening and beating bar staff and clientele. Patrons would pour out, lining up on the street so police could arrest them.
This routine is so familiar that as far back as 19th century London, an example can be found of police raiding queer spaces:
in 1810, we get our first recorded instance of a gay bar—under admittedly unfortunate circumstances. In London, a bar called the White Swan was raided under laws against sodomy. In total, 25 men were arrested, eight were convicted, and two were hanged (one of whom was 16 years old, while neither were even present at the White Swan on the night of the raid).
The Black Cat in San Francisco ended up taking the state of California to court in the 1950s. The bar would overturn a decision by the local police department to revoke their licence when the supreme court ruled that:
in order to establish ‘good cause’ for suspension of plaintiff’s license, something more must be shown than that many of his patrons were homosexuals and that they used his restaurant and bar as a meeting place.
There are numerous existing lists and archives of American and British bars that were raided by police in attempts at state intimidation and surveillance of gay, lesbian, and transgender people.
Policing queerness
Being policed in public places is part of being queer, whether gay, lesbian, transgender, non-binary, or otherwise queer. In a climate of Trump increasing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation, the raiding of a Pittsburgh bar is extremely troubling. Just days after the Pittsburgh raid, a Boston hotel accused a lesbian of being a man in women’s toilets and kicked her out.
Ansley Baker described how a security guard barged into the stall she was using:
All of a sudden there was banging on the door.
I pulled my shorts up. I hadn’t even tied them. One of the security guards was there telling me to get out of the bathroom, that I was a man in the women’s bathroom. I said, ‘I’m a woman.’
Baker and her partner were escorted out of the hotel, but not before the guard demanded they produce identification to ‘prove’ they were women. And, Baker described how other people in the public bathroom jeered and insulted her and her partner as they were removed.
Liz Victor, Baker’s partner, said:
It was a very scary situation, but trans women experience this every single day in the U.S. and across the world.
Climate of fear under both Trump and Starmer
Both Trump in the US and UK more broadly are barrelling towards more policing of queer people, and trans people in particular. As the government fans the flames of a culture war, both police and members of the public are emboldened in persecuting and vilifying queer people. The fact that other users of a public bathroom thought it acceptable to jeer at people being removed by security speaks to a wider problem with a rollback of LGBTQ+ rights.
Unfortunately, these incidents will only become more commonplace in both states. GenderGP, an organisation that campaigns for healthcare for trans and non-binary people, said:
Denying gender-affirming healthcare, banning pronoun recognition, and excluding trans athletes are not just inconveniences—they are life-threatening. Studies consistently show that access to gender-affirming care significantly reduces rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among transgender individuals.
Historically, queer people are over-policed in public spaces, be it bars, bathrooms, or otherwise. States are emboldening bigots with their own bigoted legislation – we cannot allow it to happen.
Featured image via the Canary
