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He said that the anti-Rascals fliers had hurt his feelings and that he had a right to respond with the ad.Ĭommission member Jay Pagano, who called the meeting and identified himself as a gay man, said his vote against the transfer reflected the concerns of his constituents, including a number of elderly people who live near the proposed club site, "who need quiet. Manthey defended the ad by saying it was not directed at the ANC, but at those who had sent out unsigned fliers opposing the bar. It is an issue about the rights of businesses to maximize their profits and about the rights of those who want quiet."
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Gays deserve the same rights to open a nightclub on Dupont Circle that straights have had for years."īut the ad, said Dennis Bass, chairman of the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission, "has polarized everyone and offended many people." He said the commission, dominated by gay members including himself, voted 4 to 1 with two abstentions last month to oppose the license transfer.Īt an informal meeting of the commission last night, Bass told the more then 300 people who filled the church hall that the negative vote already taken was "not a gay rights issue. Manthey said he wrote the ad, which was headlined "Homophobia in Our Back Yard," and which said in part, "Help stop this coalition of homophobes and elitists from forcing Gay business out of Dupont Circle. The owners of the bar, which closed late last year, have filed an application with the District's Alcohol Beverage Control Board to transfer Rascals's liquor license from its old site at 1520 Connecticut Ave. "I call it homophobia," said Manthey, who manages the Fireplace, a gay bar owned by some of the same partners who own Rascals. The ad in the Washington Blade, which asks gay residents to "unite and fight" for a liquor license transfer for the bar, Rascals, has stirred deep resentment in the Dupont Circle community, which has long prided itself on defending the civil rights of its many gay residents and businesses that attract homosexuals.īill Manthey, a spokesman for the owners of Rascals, said the Blade ad was taken out after unsigned fliers appeared in the neighborhood that the owners believed distorted their plans to move the bar and reopen it as a nightclub. Owners of a Dupont Circle gay bar who took out an ad in a gay community newspaper accusing some neighborhood residents of homophobia for opposing their plans to move up the street pressed their complaint at a packed community meeting last night.