Our LGBTQ community spaces have always had to fight just to exist. In Phoenix's Melrose district, a leather bar called the Barracks finally won its liquor license after months of hearings, legal filings, and subpoenas — not because of any real public safety concern, but because a billionaire heir who moved in next door decided he didn't want that kind of neighbor. Stuart Shoen, of the U-Haul fortune, bought his property after the bar's owner had already established the business. Then he used his wealth to drag the whole licensing process into a legal war. The bar won, but the message is clear: if you have enough money, you can weaponize local government to try to shut down spaces that serve communities you don't like.
This isn't just a Phoenix story. Across the country, LGBTQ bars, clubs, and gathering spaces face coordinated pressure campaigns — from wealthy individuals, from organized opposition groups — that exploit licensing rules, zoning hearings, and legal fees to exhaust small business owners into giving up. These venues are more than bars. They are places where people find community, safety, and belonging. Losing them has real costs — for local economies, for mental health, and for the visibility that keeps LGBTQ people safe.
I'm asking you to publicly speak out against the use of licensing and legal processes as tools to harass LGBTQ community spaces, and to support federal protections that keep local government processes from being weaponized by wealthy bad-faith actors against marginalized communities. Our neighbors deserve to run their businesses and gather in peace, without billionaires using lawyers as a weapon against them.
