Southern gay bars vs. cops

Police in Atlanta and Memphis recently conducted harsh raids on gay bars, said Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic. After a “similarly brutal raid” in June on a Fort Worth gay bar, in which a patron nearly died, it’s worth asking if these gay-bar raids are not “random data points” but part of something bigger, like “rage” at the changing face of this country in the Age of Obama.

“Sorry, but no,” said Stephanie Ramage in SundayPaper.com. At least in Atlanta, the Sept. 10 raid on the Atlanta Eagle “leather” bar seems like a pretty garden-variety raid on a bar, straight or gay, for exotic dancing without a permit. If some cops made anti-gay slurs to patrons, as alleged, that’s “completely reprehensible,” but “this was no Stonewall,” as some patrons allege.

Right, said Dan Savage in The Stranger. “No doubt it’s standard practice in Atlanta” for cops to conduct a drug raid on a bar, make all the patrons lie on the floor in handcuffs, then arrest the bar owner and seven employees because the bar doesn’t have its adult-entertainment permits in order, and hold them overnight until two city council candidates step in. "Nothing to see here. Nope.”

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