"Tranny Storm" Headed To Suburban Gay Bar

By Joseph Erbentraut in News on Oct 15, 2009 8:20PM

A storm is a-brewing in Elk Grove Village. A great big tranny storm. Hunters Nightclub, a suburban gay bar that gained international media attention earlier this year by instituting a door policy banning patrons whose ID photos do not match their gender presentation, is the subject of an activist demonstration planned for Friday, October 23, at 11 p.m. During the self-dubbed "Operation Tranny Storm," transgendered Chicagoans and their allies will "storm" the bar dressed in drag and gender-variant gear as a challenge to the policy they (plus the ACLU and gay media nationwide) consider discriminatory.

Hunters manager Peter Lansdorf has said the policy was instituted to protect against cross-dressing prostitutes conducting business on their grounds, but event organizers believe otherwise:

"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."

Seriously, denied a vodka-tonic just because of some pantyhose and mascara? And we claim to be a free nation.