It is New York; there most likely already is a gay bar in the vicinity. I know for certain there is a strip club nearby. Such juxtapositions are part of the beauty of New York City.

Megan McArdle should know this already, but she is apparently an idiot regarding all subjects, not just economics.

I hate this sort of shit. It reminds me of when Prop 8 passed, and unscrupulous individuals tried to blame the black community, and to pit the ‘gay community’ against ‘the black community’. I was super disappointed when Dan Savage took the bait. It totally erases people that occupy both identities. They’re acting as if gay Muslims are non-existent or an absurd joke. When I first read a version of this statement I think they mentioned plans for a non-alcoholic floor where men could just come to dance and meet one another.  If this wasn’t framed as stupid retaliatory baiting, this seems like something there may be a demand for. I know teetotaler gays. This ‘ho, ho, we’ll even offer a dry floor’ as if no one would possibly want that. Gah!

“As you know, the Muslim faith doesn’t look kindly upon homosexuality…”

...unlike Christianity, which is all about love and understanding and acceptance of differences…

...wait, did you say “homosexuality”?  Sorry, I got mixed up there for a moment.  Yes, Christianity does not “look kindly” upon homosexuality either.  Sorry about that.  Maybe you can build a Christian gay bar too…

”...which is why I’m building this bar.  It is an effort to break down barriers and reduce deadly homophobia in the Islamic world.”

Right!  Just like invading Afghanistan was all about protecting the civil rights of women suffering under the Taliban, and invading Iraq was all about bringing Freedom and Liberty and Democracy to those suffering under Saddam Hussein.

Dude, the only “barrier” that needs breaking down is the thickness of your skull, which prevents truth, logic, and common sense (which obviously can’t come from Republicans anymore) from soaking into the parched tissue of your brain…

I heard about this a day or two ago, and a bunch of people jumped on the story, but my impression was that it was totally unserious; there are no real plans for such a bar at that location.

”...there are no real plans for such a bar at that location.”

...which somehow makes all the stupid and bigoted stuff these morons said just go away, right? 

Move along folks, nuthin’ to see here.  Move along…

This reminds me that a mom-and-pop liquor store just opened up adjacent to one of the local halal markets.  Not that it changed a lot, because the place is 200ft from a BevMo anyway—and the other halal meat counter I know in San Mateo is in a Greek-owned grocery store, which sells beer, wine and liquor.

I don’t think a gay bar will last very long there, not because of outraged Muslims or gay rights activists who love sharia law, but because that neighborhood isn’t really a clubbing kind of neighborhood.  But if they could put up an affordable, tasty restaurant in the space, I’d be much obliged, since I often find myself hungry in that part of town.  If they plaster it with gay rainbows, so much the better.  But I don’t trust wingnuts to cook anything outside of the double deep fried family, so I won’t be holding my breath.

Race baiting, gay baiting, Islam baiting….Fox “News” is just a wealth of worthlessness.

So there are enough gay conservatives in Manhattan to open an anti-Muslim gay bar?

That makes it worse, Dana.  They’re not even willing to put their childish idea to the test, because they know damn well if they actually did this, they’d meet no real resistance.  They’d go out of business, but that wouldn’t have anything to do with the Islam center.  It’s because they’d run a shitty gay bar.

So there are enough gay conservatives in Manhattan to open an anti-Muslim gay bar?

If they did, I bet within a week you’d have some gay conservatives whining about how they’re discriminated against because gay Muslims and gay non-racists won’t fuck them.

Greg Gutfeld was a moderately amusing editor when he was at Stuff magazine, till he went on to the UK to run the Maxim mother ship. I didn’t realize till later just how much of a right-wing tool he was, but it shouldn’t have surprised me, given the whole lad mag mentality.

(No, I have not bought a copy of Maxim in years. Come to think of it, I should probably send the ones I have to the recycle bin at the dump since I’m unlikely to ever read them again.)

I think your right a gay bar in that part of town will not prosper or last. However a southern pork BBQ would! Im going to propose that! Not that would prosper and make allot of money and would not be a direct slap to the face! We would hold out of respect for the sabbath day a whole pig roast and offer free food to all the mosque members!

Let the assholes build it. Let them advertise. Have it boycotted and then they lose all the money they invested. Win-win.

Maybe the Uncle Marys in GOProud could bring Ann Coulter to the bar to perform “Over the Rainbow.”

I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men.

“So… how do you know so much about gay bars, anyhow?”

It’s also just an extension of the same racism behind the initial “misunderstanding” to erase the existence of Queer Muslims by reinforcing the idea that Islam is inherently homophobic in this, like undifferentiated way.

This post hit the bigots where they hurt.  For some reason, they’re all freaking out at me on Twitter. It’s really sad, albeit not as sad as the “jokes” they slaved over.  Just because humor often comes from a dark place—-in this case, fairly obvious sexual repression—-doesn’t necessarily make it funny.

I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men.

I guess no one’s told him that there are gay bars all over the Middle East?  I know this because I used to work with a bunch of Arab translators, many of whom were either a) Arab b) gay c) both, and they were always raving about the gay bars, especially in Beirut and Cairo.  I can only assume these bars aren’t out in the open, but they seem to be an open secret.

DoucheRebecca doesn’t seem to realize that the Ba’ath party was a secular party.

Why would any sensible queer go to a bar operated by jerkwads like that?

Amanda: what’s left of affordable is going to be pretty much anywhere but right around city hall park. And of course good is in the palate of the beholder. If only Yaffa’s hadn’t closed…

...But they’re all brown anyway amirite?

I’m honest impressed by the kind of baseline stupidity behind not knowing what a dense city like Manhattan is already like. 

If they’d bothered to look, they’d find that there <a href=“http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/oh_thats_why_you_call_them_jerkoffs/”>are already a bunch of gay bars right near the planned community center.

snakdoctor @13 - It might have to compete with the other BBQ joints already in the area.

Wow.  Gutfield: “This might be the greatest idea I’ve ever had.”  So, er, the ideas stopped getting better after sixth grade?

I couldn’t watch all of the Glenn Beck clip.  I had no idea that such hateful ridicule was being passed off as a legitimate television show.  Appalled. 

I think the sickest part of this is the dehumanization of gays (particularly gay men).  I’m thoroughly disappointed in Greg, Glenn, anyone who would air this crap and anyone who supports it.

Didn’t your parents teach you better???  This is not an acceptable way to treat people.  Shame, shame.

Shame. These assholes have no shame, the only thing they understand is pain.

So make them hurt.

I think this bit is particularly telling:

As an American, I believe they have every right to build the mosque - after all, if they buy the land and they follow the law - who can stop them?

Since they are certainly not being disingenuous, they meant should there, right?  Who SHOULD stop them?

I’ll admit “Suspicious Package” made me laugh. I’m stealing it for when I open my gay bar next to the bomb squad training facility.  It could be a chain! “Unclaimed Package” could go next to the post office;  “Poorly Wrapped Package” next to the odd sized clothing store at the outlet mall. “Stimulus Package” right next to the coffee shop!

“... only works for the builders of the gay bar if they think that Park 51 is being built as a disingenuous effort to piss off specific sensitive groups of people, which makes this simply a mirror effort…”

Clear example of the typical right-wing victim AND false equivalence attitude. 

“When someone offends me it MUST be on purpose! So it’s perfectly natural & right that I should purposely offend them in retaliation!”

I think I get most pissed off when he says “It HAS to be done” around 2:40. Like he’s really saying, “I know, no one wants a gay bar anywhere, but sacrifices have to be made to piss off brown people!” So sick.

Also, it took me a while to figure out what “Suspicious Packages” had to do with Cordoba House, even after reading scrumby @29. I’m not too upset about being slow on the uptake, though, because it means I don’t automatically associate terrorism with Islam (or the other way around). I’m not at all surprised that it was Beck’s favourite, though.

I’m a bad progressive liberal. The 72 virgin drinks actually made me laugh out loud. *hangs head in shame*

on the actual topic though, I really can’t figure out what the dude thinks the reaction is going to be?

liberals might, at best, get upset about the stereotyping of muslims; the muslims themselves as well. so, what reaction is this dude actually expecting? in the video he quotes a tweet from some Cordoba House person saying that he’s welcome to build whatever he likes, wherever he likes, but that he isn’t going to build a lot of common ground by disrespecting the muslim community. does he think that’s already being hypocritical, or what?

Ba’ath House — DuchessRebecca

Pretty minor in the scheme of things, but it doesn’t look like anyone else has mentioned it, so I may as well… The Ba’ath Party are secular socialists, not Islamists. Asshole.

jadehawk - you’re not alone. I also enjoyed “Suspicious Packages.”

jadehawk, some of them made me lol too. Sometimes we are all juvenile assholes, I guess.

The difference is that you and I and Rea would just as happily make blasphemous/irreverent dirty puns about Christianity. How about a bar called “Eat Of My Body”? Or “Kiss the Ring”? Or “Confession”? (“I’m going to Confession this weekend.”)

I’m sure, if they were asked to comment in public on this similar counter-protest, most fans of this protest would react with either silence or outrage. I’m all for mocking religious fantasists for their prudery and sexism, but in that I’m an equal opportunity guy.

In any case, as others have noted, this is NYC—plenty of gay bars already in the neighbourhood, and the Islamic Centre people don’t seem to mind. That’s probably because they understood better than these Real Murkin Patriots the centrality of liberalism and openness to NYC’s history and success, as eloquently expressed by Mayor Bloomberg the other day.

“The 72 virgin drinks actually made me laugh out loud.”

Yes, but think about it. I remember a great joke Lea DeLaria (lesbian singer/standup comedian) told on one show wondering why “It’s Raining Men” was constantly played in every lesbian bar she went to. Is there a group of people less likely to be interested? “Yeah, it sure is raining men. Huh. Well, rack ‘em up again and let’s shoot more pool.”

Muslim gay men are going to be utterly unimpressed by 72 virgin women. Does make the cluelessness of the whole thing that more deeply ironic.

I particularly love how he insists that he’s going to keep this bar open 24 hours a day - with no liquor, that’s not an issue - to specifically cater to closeted gay Muslim men who want to hide their orientation.

Like closeted Muslim men are going to jump at the opportunity to go to a gay bar next to an Islamic community center.

The most clueless aspect of this is the obvious assumption that gay Muslims currently have no place to go and would jump at the chance - as though every other gay bar in Manhattan didn’t already welcome them.

@37

Res-Erection?

I don’t get it.  Why are we supposed to be offended by a gay bar?  We aren’t Republicans.

Gotta wonder what the marketing campaign will look like though.  “Come on down to the only gay bar in New York run by folks who thing Matthew Sheppard got exactly what he deserved!”  Yeah, that won’t go over too well.

Well this will draw gay conservatives. What would it be called? The _________closet?

Velvet Closet?  That’s kind of creepy sounding.

Well this will draw gay conservatives. What would it be called?

For conservative closet cases, something more manly and reminiscent of their most vocal spokespeople. The Wide Stance? Luggage Lifters?

Some market research is in order, and fortunately we have with us a conservative who’s also unusually obsessed with gay anal sex. lonnie, since we can’t call the bar “poo-poos and pee-pees,” which of the suggestions so far appeals more to you?

I’m fond of pointing out that the founding fathers, especially Washington, did anticipate this when they wrote the First Amendment. There wasn’t much of a unified “Christian” identity in the 18th century, with tons of bad blood and nationalistic feuds among all the various religious denominations that made up the early United States. For President Washington to tell a Jewish congregation that nothing was expected of citizens beyond good citizenship was a big fucking deal at a time when monarchs held the title of Fidei defensor and denominational favoritism was typical.

The difference is that you and I and Rea would just as happily make blasphemous/irreverent dirty puns about Christianity. How about a bar called “Eat Of My Body”? Or “Kiss the Ring”? Or “Confession”? (“I’m going to Confession this weekend.”)

Rapture Ready? :-p

Anyway, that reminds me of this

If they really wanna show those Mooslims, they should drop this penny-ante nonsense and support marriage equality!  And hate crime legislation!  Ooh, ooh, and repeal DADT so the terrists will know they might be killed by the ghey!

If they knew anything about anything, they’d propose a major barbecue joint for that next-door location.

I am hoping that at least one person will attempt to explain why we should support the mosque near Ground Zero, but not the gay bar next to the mosque near Ground Zero.  I would find that very entertaining.

I am hoping that a large number of well-heeled wingnuts will sink considerable cash into a putative “gay Muslim bar” to which no self-respecting gay or Muslim (or anyone else besides cheapskate, non-tipping, non-drinking, wingnut tourists out to see the gay Muslims) would bestow his custom, causing the investors to lose every dime. I would find that very entertaining.

@Snowmentality #37 - Actually in Seattle we have a rotating BDSM Dance night called “Confessional,” so does that mean we win?

How do you have an Islamic-centric gay bar? is it a juice bar? what with Alcohol being far more clearly and specifically forbidden.

honestly, I’d hang out at a gay juice bar.

I guess the part that blew me away about the clip is: Glenn Beck calling something over the top.  Greg Gutfield is an arse - no question about it. I used to think it was all schtik, but I’m pretty sure he’s trying to set himself up to be the next level of Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity/O’Reilly insanity.

Bring it on. There’s nothing worse than a gay bar operated by greedy, not-so-gay-friendly straight people. It’s like a bunch of vegans opening a steakhouse—they just can’t get it quite right. (one I know of played 8 Mile on the monitors behind the bar their opening night. Because Eminem and the gays love each other so much) So they can spend all their money on that prime real estate, open their doomed bar, and no one will give a shit—I’m sure NYC’s gay muslims already have better places to hang out.

Also, fun fact: the small town in Ga where I grew up was home to a lesbian bar called Repent, which was across the street from a Baptist church (and within a few blocks of over a dozen of other churches).

@50, GGR is that at the Spot? ’ Cause I love that place… I hate being on the redneck side of the state. Le sigh. Trying to get my oldest into U-dub to get her away from the small-mindedness here.