New Pink Pony Club venue wanting 90 percent male customers faces backlash
Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club" a song specifically about a special place where boys and girls can all be queens every single day was chosen as the name of a new Australian nightclub, but it seems like the owners of the new venue are missing the point of the song.Palms nightclub owner Kevin Du-Val and manager Michael Lewis, two gay men, recently announced they would be opening a new gay bar in Sydney, Australia, named for Roan's gay anthem. "Gay people understand gay people more than maybe some of the [other] venues understand what they want," Du-Val said to Gay Sydney News about his new club, the Pink Pony. "We're not doing anything miraculous; we're doing what I like and what Michael likes, and that's what the gay people like."However, not all gay people like the new club's business strategy.In the interview with Gay Sydney News, Lewis said that the club will "unashamedly be targeted at the boys, pretty much 18 to 35. He added, Of course, the girls will be welcome. But it would certainly be our desire that it is predominantly gay boys, and when I say predominantly, I'm sort of talking 90 percent plus. Lewis admitted there are legal hurdles "in terms of how much we can vet the crowd while still complying with the law," but the goal is to fill the club with gay men."Pink Pony Club" is a song by lesbian artist Chappell Roan, who wrote the song after her first time visiting gay bar The Abbey in Los Angeles."All of a sudden, I realized I could truly be any way I wanted to be, and no one would bat an eye, she said in an interview with Headliner Magazine. "It was so different from home, where I always had such a hard time being myself and felt like Id be judged for being different or being creative. I just felt overwhelmed with complete love and acceptance, and from then on, I started writing songs as the real me."The song has become a gay anthem, especially for lesbians and queer women.Many of those queer women have expressed hurt that the new club named for a lesbian artist's iconic song seemingly is uninterested in the demographic as clients."So disappointing and tone deaf and actually fked," a user wrote on the club's now-deleted Instagram, according to The Guardian. "Appropriating lesbian culture for your own $/benefit for gay men!! What??""So, it's gay men only, but the name of the club is a song by a female LESBIAN pop star?" another wrote. "Oh I fear they missed the mark with this one!!!!"After the club's Instagram account received hundreds of comments, many criticizing the name and preferred clientele, it was wiped.Now, Lewis has confirmed to The Guardian that he will change the venue's name."We acknowledge and respect the very passionate feedback from the wider community, and it is clear that it's best to move forward with a different name for the new venue," he said.One Instagram user commented, "lol imagine renaming ur club instead of being more inclusive," The Guardian reports.