Queens and Trans Folk to Storm Gay Bar

Transgendered community plans protest

All of the queens and all of their men will rally to have their civil rights back again.

Hunters Nightclub -- a popular gay bar Elk Grove Village gay bar that recently began requiring customers to show a valid photo ID that matches their "gender presentation" -- is under fire from the ACLU, which says the policy is discriminatory.

The policy, which has garnered worldwide attention, is meant to prevent cross-dressing prostitutes from using the bar as a meeting place for their customers, says a manager.

But transgendered Chicagoans and the ACLU said the policy was discriminatory and unfair.

"The fact is, if they are only requiring this of cross-dressers, that would be problematic because it would single out cross-dressers or transsexuals for a special burden," said Ed Yohnka, spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Now the drag queens are trading their well-decorated nails for fighting gloves.

"It is widely believed that the Hunters door policy is being executed selectively to ban certain transgendered women, and is a classic example of 'profiling,'" read an event press release.

"Community members wish to send a message of continued patronage and support to LGBTQ spaces that protect the rights and safety of gender-alternative people and to assert that policies that exclude transgendered people threaten the entire LGBTQ community as well as all people invested in equality."

On Friday, October 23, at 11 p.m., a group of transgendered activists and their allies will "storm" the bar dressed in drag and "gender-variant" gear in protest.

It will be a rally fit for a queen.

When Matt Bartosik, a "between blogs" blogger, plays poker, a Queen always beats a Straight.

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