Just Like I-Club, Club Sylk Doesn’t Welcome Gays

The sad thing about bigotry is that it is contagious. And it would seem it’s spreading. Last year, we reported about how I-Club employees followed a gay-boy into another business premises and harassed him and it seems Club Sylk want to follow suit.

I can understand that management rezerves right of admission but they are however not allowed to harras clients. That means that while bouncers can bar you from entering the club, they cannot subject you to either humiliation or worse, put their hands on you.

The incident in question occurred a couple of nights ago when a dyke (lesbian) couple and two gay-boys were barred from entering the club by bouncers. this is how the news was carried by gay rights advocacy website; Identity Kenya:

“Jan 29 – A GAY and lesbian couple were allegedly barred from entering Club Sylk on Kimathi Street over the weekend and were informed it was because they were homosexuals.

Gay couple Peter N. and James P. and lesbian couple Janet K. and her partner Sylvia S. were reportedly turned away by bouncers at Club Sylk on Saturday evening when they tried to enter.

According to the four, the first not be allowed in was the lesbian couple who had gone to the bar at around 9pm but the bouncers, after frisking them, said they cannot enter since they ‘looked like lesbians’ and that the club does not ‘admit lesbians.’

‘We were shocked since there was nothing to indicate we were a couple,’ said Ms Sylvia.

As the couple stood outside the gate wondering what was going on, the gay couple tried to enter but was denied entry since they ‘looked like homos’. According to the two the bouncers used a derogatory term to refer to them. ‘They said we looked like fags and told us to leave saying the pub does not allow homosexuality,’ recounted Peter N.

The four later left the establishment and went to another pub. They reported the matter to Identity Kenya and several LGBTI activists.

The incident highlights the discrimination facing LGBT persons in accessing social amenities according to Brenda Sausage, a lesbian and social commentator.

‘There were previous reports last year that showed several clubs in the city (and some countrywide) that were directly barring anyone perceived or known to be gay from entering. Why Club Sylk has begun this archaic move is unfathomable,’ she said.

According to Ms Sausage, Club Sylk was one of the clubs that even as others barred LGBT patrons, ‘it remained neutral’ but was surprised at this ‘new’ development.

‘Just because you are two persons – men or women – entering a bar does not make you gay or lesbian. The security in the club discriminated against people based on their clothing or how they looked or interacted with one another. From the reports of the four nothing seemed to indicated they ‘acted’ or ‘behaved’ gay.’

Efforts to contact the management of Club Sylk to comment on this proved futile as our calls went unanswered by the time of going to press. We further could not establish if it’s the management or the bouncers who decided to bar the four.“

Club owners need to learn that they are running a business and as Mahatma Gandhi put it, “The customer is king.” I’m not gay but i believe that they way the two couples were treated is appalling. That in itself has made me write off Club Sylk because i now know that the bouncers who humiliated them without provocation will not hesitate to either beat me or humiliate me because that’s how they get their rocks off! Discosting!