Due To Protests, Queer Bar Cancels Sharon Needles Appearance

Well, that honeymoon didn’t last long.

Only open a month, QUEER BAR, the new LGBTQ bar/club in the former Purr Lounge space on 11th Avenue on Capitol Hill has already run into a controversy. The bar which has widely promoted its Friday/Saturday drag show MX with host/RPDR Season 8 star ROBBIE TURNER made it known at opening that the club would have special out of town guests perform at their weekly shows. It was a tad surprising that they announced that the winner of Season Four of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” SHARON NEEDLES would be their first big guest on November 16th. Needles is both a much loved AND much reviled star from the RPDR empire, with thousands of fans who love her edgy, dark humor and performances.

But, Needles (aka Aaron Coady) has also earned pans from some members of the LGBTQ community who claim that the performer has demonstrated racist, anti-semitic and questionable behavior both in performances and off-stage with the star accused of everything from dropping the “N-bomb” and being abusive to fans as well as charges of using Nazi imagery and donning blackface in performance.

Defenders of Needles have pointed out that the performer has apologized for poor choice of language in the past. Fans have also pointed out that the photos used to criticize the star have been taken out of context. The Nazi uniform worn by Needles also included “Donald Duck” make-up and was making a point about Fascism and corporate culture. The infamous blackface photo was allegedly taken from a photo/video shoot from a production of “The Rocky Horror Show” starring Needles where the famous opening sequence of a singing mouth was replicated and the use of dark make-up was for filming purposes only to create contrast for the visual image.

Sharon Needles was also recently canned from an appearance in a Portland, Oregon club earlier this year based on protests from members of the community. But, conversely, there were no protests when Needles last performed in Seattle on June 22nd at “Dragapalooza” at the Egyptian Cinema. She performed at two sold out shows that night in an all live singing show featuring both local and nationally known drag talent and the star was cheered when she made numerous comments about standing up to Trump and promoting other social justice causes, something Needles has always been very vocal about.

But, the announcement that Needles was appearing at Queer Bar apparently struck a nerve with local social justice warriors who contacted Queer Bar Joey Burgess to demand that the appearance should be canceled. This website was also contacted and asked that we help the protesters with their demands. (We did not respond to that request.)

Burgess responded early yesterday afternoon (Oct 31, 2017) with a post on Queer Bar’s Facebook page indicating they would support Sharon Needles and continue with the event. Here’s the concluding paragraph of that long statement (Click here for full):

However, Queer/Bar is a place that looks forward, allows redemption, and creates spaces for artists- controversial or not. We believe that people who make mistakes are capable of growing, understanding how their actions have hurt others and then changing their behavior. And once people make those changes, we believe they deserve the opportunity to redeem themselves. We understand that exploring, understanding, and attempting to create our identity is a challenging and exhausting journey for us individually as well as a community as a whole. As we evolve throughout our lives, we hope that old versions of ourselves don’t haunt us forever. But, instead, are used as reflection points to understand how far we’ve come. Queer/Bar won’t be a space to condemn those who are working to become better people. We forgive. We allow lives to go on. We allow change and growth to happen. We are providing Sharon a space for that growth to continue. Hearing Sharon (Aaron) in his own words helped direct our decision in moving forward with this show.

But, the pressure continued, flamed by a post on The Stranger’s SLOG and later in the evening, Burgess decided to cancel the appearance and issued a second statement on their Facebook page. Here is that statement, in full: