Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Click2Houston reports:
Denied. For the owner of a local lesbian bar, that’s the word that keeps playing over and over in her head. This, after she said an insurance underwriter denied coverage to her business, in part, because it hosts drag shows.
Julie Mabry, owner of Pearl Bar, has insurance but decided to switch agents and shop around for a new policy after mistakes were made on some of the paperwork. A response that her new insurance agent received, which she shared with her, not only alarmed her but left her in tears.
“They outright denied us , the underwriters because we host drag shows,” Mabry said. Drag shows was the first thing mentioned in that email, followed by the bar’s daily drink specials with the underwriter stating “we won’t write the risk.”
NBC News reports:
Mabry, who opened Pearl Bar in 2013, said the current political climate fueled the situation she’s in, and she encouraged followers of the Pearl Bar Instagram account to contact their legislators about anti-LGBTQ bills in the state, including one that would restrict drag shows on public property, on the premises of a commercial enterprise or in the presence of a child.
The bill, Senate Bill 12, passed in the Texas Senate last month by a vote of 20-11, and it was set to be considered by a House committee Thursday. If the measure is signed into law, violators could be subjected to civil penalties of up to $10,000. State Sen. Bryan Hughes, the bill’s author, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
My March report on the bill is here.
The owner of Houston’s only lesbian bar says her business is in jeopardy after it was denied insurance coverage.
“They outright denied us, the underwriters, because we host drag shows,” Julie Mabry, the owner of Pearl Bar, says. https://t.co/q4hf0KURVH
— NBC Out (@NBCOUT) May 12, 2023
Texas Bill Raises Taxes On Bars That Host Drag Shows – https://t.co/mX6nmMxx02 pic.twitter.com/YjJEbgkBBa
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) March 7, 2023
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