San Franciscan Refused Service For Looking Queer

How Bubbles often looks on a night out. (image from Bubbles’ Facebook page.)

Read the update at the bottom of the article

This just floated across my Facebook feed.

Anthony Torres, known as Bubbles, shared this audio of himself being refused service at Ace’s for how he looks.

As you can hear, its quite alarming. The bartender literally says he won’t serve Bubbles because of the way he looks.

I reached out to Bubbles to hear how it went down. This is what he said:

“I had one drink and when I tried to buy another the bartender told me that he’d talked to the manager and that they wouldn’t serve me because of how I look. I’ve gone there plenty of times because it’s one of the only bars left that opens at 6am. I couldn’t believe the humiliation I felt. I couldn’t believe this was San Francisco”

Tamie, a witness to the whole thing posted this on Bubbles’ page:

“I thought I would never see the day that someone was asked to leave a bar because the owner didn’t like the way she looked … And because of their chose of sexual orientation … Yes peeps .. The bartender actually referred to this beautiful spirit as an “It”…..My heart melted and cried out for Bubbles. And the bar was Aces.. I’m outraged at how in 2016 discrimination is still alive and well”

I’ve been a fan of Ace’s for years so this is quite a let down.

Update: 12:53pm

I just got off the phone with Scott Broccoli one of the owners of Ace’s. This is what he had to say

Jake (the bartender in the audio) was fired immediately after I found out about this. This is tragic and I am disgusted by what happened. No owner or manager would’ve said that. It’s absurd. There is no chance in hell that we would discriminate at Ace’s. Not only is this San Francisco, this is 2016. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

Scott mentioned that he is reaching out to Bubbles so that he can apologize himself.

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