As a boomer from redneck land, I had the predictable reactions to
“queers” growing up. Later, qrown and working in the telecom industry
and about the time that Matthew Shepherd was killed, I moved to a
large city and started a formal education. I became friends with
people “other” than the rednecks I had known my entire life. I had a
good friend that was a music major and musician that worked in the
entertainment industry. We were both of the same religious
persuasion, he explained to me that the arts is full of those types of
people and they are some of the gentlest and talented souls on the
planet. That stared a long paradigm shift for me. I came to a place
where I consider queer folk as the knots in the knotty pine paneling.
They add character to life. So, the Q now is pretty much a normal
accepted element of society for me. The other letters…. I am kind
with Dave Chapelle on those. Who knows, maybe I will learn something
about them too before I croak.
*From:*AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Steve Jones
*Sent:* Monday, November 3, 2025 10:08 AM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT Unions
The left tends to eat their own without concern of consequence, just
like how they created the hepatitis outbreak in california with their
plastic bag ban.
I cant imagine being a niche service provider like a gay bar, already
operating on slim margins and probably paying higher insurance
premiums or suffering increased out of pocket repair costs for
vandalism getting wind that the employees were "organizing" thats a
death sentence for any niche market. Any service based business with
protesters outside is almost always doomed unless they had a decent
buffer in the account, which most niche services do not.
Im not a fan of the alternative lifestyle folks, but having a place
where they can congregate with like minded folks is critical to avoid
becoming victims of abuse by the neanderthals on my side of the
aisle. As is the outcome of most leftist ideology, all they did was
harm their own in the name of "progress".
Hopefuly somebody opens up a blue oyster for them sooner than later
On Mon, Nov 3, 2025 at 11:01 AM <[email protected]> wrote:
I found myself writing a post on a gay bar facebook page this
morning.
The bar had closed due to the normal reasons small businesses close.
Someone else tried to give it a go this summer.
Their employes tried to unionize. Union supporters started to
picket. Sales trickled to a halt. So the owner first fired all
the employees (and broke a labor law) reinstated them and closed.
Big outrage amongst the gay left. Or maybe just the left (of all
predilections and proclivities).
Check out how this huge business with its thousands of employees
looks like from the outside:
102 South 600 West Salt Lake City.
Ill bet they don’t have 10 employees at the most.
I wrote both to the owner and to the folks posting on the bars FB
page that unless you have risked everything to start a small
business you have no standing. Unless you have lived with the
daily burden of meeting the next payroll you do not understand. If
you think a super tiny business like this should be subject to the
burdens of a union shop, you would be happier in a socialist country.
Here is the article in the SL Trib this morning:
As historic LGBTQ+ bar closes in SLC, owner and union organizers
hope to find ‘a path forward’
By BROCK MARCHANT, SHEILA MCCANN and RICK EGAN The Salt Lake Tribune
The SunTrapp, Salt Lake City's iconic LGBTQ+ gathering spot, "will
be closing," the bar announced on Instagram Friday — weeks after a
group of employees asked the owner to recognize their proposed union.
About 50 people were gathered outside the bar at 102 S. 600 West
shortly after the post was published Friday night. A sign on its
door said it was closed for a private party.
In September, SunTrapp Workers United (SWU) asked bar owner Mary
Peterson to voluntarily recognize the proposed union by Oct. 10,
according to a news release. Peterson told The Salt Lake Tribune
in a text at the time that her business "is too small. The
SunTrapp will not be unionizing."
But in the statement posted Friday night, she said, "I want to be
clear that I support the rights of all employees to choose whether
they want to join a union."
The business was "committed to engaging" in the next step, which
would have been a secret ballot election conducted by the National
Labor Relations Board, she said. "Unfortunately, because of the
government shutdown, the National Labor Relations Board was closed
and the election process was stopped."
The bar has tried to stay open during the shutdown, she said, but
"sadly, the financial impact of consistent protests has made it
impossible for us to remain open. As such, we will be closing the
SunTrapp on October 31st, 2025."
Natalie Jankowski, a lead bartender at The SunTrapp and a member
of the SWU organizing committee, said she and other union members
have not felt Peterson supported their rights as they have worked
to unionize with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7765.
Two hours after she and other SunTrapp workers delivered a letter
— which stated that the majority of staff had signed union
authorization cards — to Peterson on Sep. 26, Peterson fired them,
Jankowski said. She added that Peterson quickly reversed the
decision and reinstated them.
Still, believing Peterson had committed several unfair labor
practices, Jankowski said she and other pro-union staff members
went on strike on Oct. 3.
Since then, she said, staff members and their supporters have
picketed in front of the bar every Friday and Saturday night.
Meanwhile, others were hired to fill the positions of the staffers
on strike, according to Jankowski.
For the last two weeks, Jankowski added, the workers' lawyer went
back and forth with Peterson's attorney, unsuccessfully requesting
a meeting.
"She closed down instead of talking with us," Jankowski said. "She
had every opportunity to do that."
Jankowski said she was with the group who had intended to picket
Friday night when she learned the bar was closing. Around her, she
said, some staff members shed tears. "It is profoundly sad," she
said, "that our owner saw our love for this place as a threat."
In her Instagram post, Peterson said she's "not certain" what a
path forward looks like for SunTrapp, though she is hopeful for one.
Under Utah law, a bar must notify the Utah Department of Alcoholic
Beverage Services if the owners plan to close for more than 10
days, or it may forfeit its license. The bar owner can apply for
an extension to be closed longer (for remodeling or after a fire,
for example), but for the deadline to be extended, the DABS
commissioners must approve the application.
Derek Petersen, who said he was a former administrative assistant
and bartender at SunTrapp and now helps with SWU, was with the
crowd outside the bar Friday night. He had read Friday's Instagram
post that said the bar was closing, he said, "instead of sitting
down with the union and with queer workers. I think that's just a
big disappointment for the queer community. They deserve and the
workers deserve some kind of conversation."
Others in the community have defended Peterson, who reopened the
bar last year after a previous owner closed it. Peterson posted
her own video statement on Facebook earlier this month, where she
said the bar was in danger of closing. She acknowledged firing and
then rehiring workers after receiving the SWU letter, saying she
had been "ignorant" of the laws protecting unionization activities.
On its Instagram account two weeks ago, SWU noted: "We do not want
the bar to close. All we want is to collaborate with ownership on
a better, safer Suntrapp!" Posts on the account detail the safety
measures and workplace changes its members requested.
"The reason we unionized was not to do a takeover, was not to ruin
the bar, was not to close down the bar," Jankowski said. "We
wanted to unionize to save and preserve the bar."
The employees hope the bar reopens, she said. The SunTrapp is not
just a second home to many LGBTQ+ people, but also to many staff
members, she said, who often hang out there even when they are not
working.
"We want to ensure its longevity, and we want to create policies
and rules and safety policies that really just secure the future
of that bar," Jankowski had told the Tribune in September,
"because all of the staff loves it so much, and so do the customers."
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