‘Queer-Friendly’ Bar Says It’s ‘Heartbroken’ After Unknowingly Hosting Pro-Israel Candidate
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
A bar apologizing for accidentally hosting a sitting congresswoman because she happens to support Israel's right to exist is the kind of story that would sound like satire if it weren't printed with a straight face. Haley Stevens didn't sneak in through a window. She's a Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, and someone booked the room without checking whether her foreign policy views passed muster with the staff.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
A bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that describes itself as “queer friendly” and advocates “for a free Palestine” apologized after learning it had hosted an event for Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), saying it had not been told she would attend. “We are heartbroken as we pride ourselves on being not only a
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
A bar apologizing for accidentally hosting a sitting congresswoman because she happens to support Israel's right to exist is the kind of story that would sound like satire if it weren't printed with a straight face. Haley Stevens didn't sneak in through a window. She's a Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, and someone booked the room without checking whether her foreign policy views passed muster with the staff. That's the actual scandal here, not her presence.
What's telling is the word "heartbroken." Not annoyed, not embarrassed about a scheduling mix-up. Heartbroken, like the venue had been physically violated. That's the language people use when a political litmus test has become indistinguishable from a moral one. A bar that markets itself as a welcoming space for everybody apparently draws the line at elected Democrats who won't disavow Israel, which is a strange place to land if inclusion was ever the actual goal.
This is also a preview of the fight happening inside the Democratic coalition right now, and Stevens is caught in the middle of it. She's not some outlier in her party on this issue, yet activist spaces increasingly treat mainstream pro-Israel Democrats as unwelcome guests. If a business wants to be an activist outpost, that's their right. But they shouldn't pretend it's a "queer friendly" community space open to all when what they really mean is open to all who agree with them on the Middle East.
The bigger lesson for anyone watching from outside this bubble: this is what it looks like when politics stops being about persuasion and starts being about purity tests, even for people on your own side of the aisle.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.