NYC Stonewall Inn won't serve Anheuser-Busch beer due to political donations

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Art lovers primarily seeking works from LGBTQ artists don't need to look any further than the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art—formerly known as the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art—located at 26 Wooster Street. Charles W. Leslie and J. Frederic "Fritz" Lohman founded the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation in 1987 with the mission of collecting and protecting historical LGTBQ+ items and works. The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art was officially recognized as a museum in 2016, though various galleries and spaces have held its collection since the 1970s. Today, the museum oversees more than 25,000 items.
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Established in 1983 to support the LGBTQ community with social activities, career services and arts programs, among others, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center has remained the home and cultural center for queer New Yorkers for nearly 40 years. The Center, as it is often shortened to, is also never short on medical and family support groups, and offers these services to its thousands of annual visitors. It can be found at 208 W 13 St., it's home in Greenwich Village since the very beginning.
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Founded by four members of the AIDS activist group ACT UP in 1990, Housing Works has spent the last 30 years aiding members of the homeless community and those living with HIV/AIDS with food, healthcare, housing, and much more. The non-profit's bookstore and café, located at 126 Crosby St., is volunteer-run and accepts tax-deductible clothing, book and furniture donations.
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One of the city's oldest lesbian bars, Cubbyhole has been a staple in the LGBTQ scene since it opened in 1994. It remains a fixture in the LGBTQ+ community as some of the other older lesbian bars in the city slowly close their doors. Cubbyhole is still well-known for its colorful, indoor ceiling decorations, which range from streamers to plastic toys, and its drink deals. It is located at 281 W. 12th St.
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Julius holds the title of New York City's oldest gay bar. It rose to prominence during the 1960s as a destination for members of the city's LGBTQ community, though it has functioned as a bar since 1864. It was landmarked in 2022. Julius is located at 159 W. 10th St.
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Created as a necessity to preserve lesbian history outside of the patriarchy, the Lesbian Herstory Archives has provided New York's queer community and those interested in it with a collection of LGBTQ-centered works, from books to photos, since the 1970s. Decades later, the LHA, now also a museum and community center, remains the nation's biggest, oldest source of lesbian-related content—including zines, videos, books, periodicals and more. It can be found at 484 14th St. in Brooklyn.
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The "Gay Liberation" sculptures, located in Christopher Park at 38-64 Christopher St., were created to represent love between members of the LGBTQ community. The statue, created in 1980 by artist George Segal, wasn't on display in New York until 1992. Located across the street from the Stonewall Inn, it remains a staple on Christopher Street.
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Customers gather at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, New York.
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Pride flags and colors display on the Stonewall Inn bar in Manhattan, New York.
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The Pyramid Club took the East Village by storm when it opened in 1979. Created as an alternative to Studio 54 and similar clubs, the Pyramid Club, which can be found at 101 Avenue A, put drag at its forefront, with storied NYC names like RuPaul, Lady Bunny and Andy Warhol passing through the doors on multiple occasions. As the years passed, bigger names like Madonna, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers – the latter two of which performed their first NYC shows there – also performed on the Pyramid Club stages, solidifying it as a place to be for queer club-goers.
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Arguably the most notable historical LGBTQ location in New York City, the Stonewall Inn, located on 53 Christopher St., is where the gay liberation movement began in 1969. The gay bar was the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, where push back from the bar's patrons during a then-regular police raid on a queer-inclusive space got the fight for gay rights into the mainstream conversation. The bar was named a New York City Landmark in 2015.
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While it's no longer used as a meeting space for women, The Women's Liberation Center at 243 W. 20th St. served as the prime place for many lesbian and feminist groups from 1972 to 1987. The common goal for many of these groups was to work to bring more equality to the political and social scene in New York blossoming during that time. It is now privately owned by Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW), an organization that helps women train and find work in trade careers like carpentry, ironworking, electrician, and more.

PUBLISHED: June 21, 2021 at 4:27 p.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2021 at 8:38 p.m.

The Stonewall Inn’s owners say they won’t serve certain beers at the famous LGBTQ bar during Pride weekend to protest manufacturer Anheuser-Busch’s political contributions to some politicians who have supported anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Stacy Lentz and Kurt Kelly, co-owners of the West Village landmark, said they would be instituting the ban Friday in support of the “Keep Your Pride” campaign, a recently launched effort highlighting five companies that it says advertise support during Pride but have also made contributions to anti-LGBTQ lawmakers.

Pride flags and colors display on the Stonewall Inn bar in Manhattan, New York.

The campaign, a project of Corporate Accountability Action, used data compiled from the National Institute on Money in Politics to show that Anheuser-Busch contributed more than $35,000 to 29 legislators it described as anti-LGBT@ between 2015 and 2020.

“We just felt Stonewall having the platform, the power to do this, it was important to stand up,” Lentz said. “We really just want Anheuser-Busch to stop donating to lawmakers who are trying to legalize discrimination.”

Customers gather at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, New York.

In a statement, Anheuser-Busch said, “We support candidates for public office whose policy positions and objectives support investments in our communities, job creation and industry growth.”

The statement continued, “Together, with our brands, we have a clear role to play in bringing real change and creating an inclusive and equitable world where we cherish and celebrate one another.”

It was at an earlier incarnation of the Stonewall Inn in June 1969 when bar patrons fought with police who had come to carry out a raid, which galvanized gay rights activism around the country and the world.