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]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Steve Jones
*Sent:* Monday, November 3, 2025 10:08 AM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
<mailto:[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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