GAY COUPLE’S HONEYMOON ALMOST RUINED BY BIGOTS
Aitor and David Lerouw Lascurain in Paternoster
A gay couple’s honeymoon in the Western Cape fishing town of Paternoster was almost ruined after they were verbally abused and manhandled by homophobes and racists.
Following an enjoyable dinner on Saturday night at the Gaaitjie Salt Water restaurant, stylist David Lerouw Lascurain and his husband Aitor decided to continue celebrating their days-old marriage at the well-known Panty Bar in the Paternoster Hotel.
While having a drink, the couple was approached by another man who invited them to join a 40th birthday party for his friend, identified by Die Burger as Steven Brostlap, being held in a private room at the bar.
At first they declined, but after the man insisted they eventually joined the party where things at first appeared to go well.
Lascurain told Mambaonline that they were having a lovely evening with the group when “out of the blue we were dragged out by the arm and told that this is a private party.”
“We pointed out the man who invited us, who then turned around, looked us in the eye and said ‘get out!'” claimed Lascurain.
He said that when they argued in bewilderment with members of the group, one of them stated: “Die bar is nie vir moffies of k*****s nie.” (This bar is not for f*****s or n*****s.)
“One of the girls started heckling us. I was practically in tears,” said Lascurain, who pointed out that he’s often frequented the bar which has long been popular with gay tourists.
“I was outraged! We were so violated and felt like we were back in the 70s in disgusting dark old South Africa,” he added.
Brostlap later contacted Lascurain, apologised, and offered to take him and his “friend” on a booze cruise. Lascurain declined and angrily commented on Facebook that he’s not “‘my friend,’ he’s my husband, you fool and you can take your booze cruise and sail back to the isle of ignorance from whence you crawled.”
Lascurain said that the owner of the Panty Bar, Giorello Carosini, was not there at the time of the incident and that he does not blame the venue or the management. Carosini has also since contacted him, apologised and expressed his disgust at the patrons’ behaviour.
“We will not tolerate such behaviour in the hotel,” Carosini told Die Burger, “This brings my hotel, the town and the West Coast’s name into disrepute,” he added.
“This is in no way a reflection of the bar,” agreed Lascurain. “It’s a great place and we always go there. It was just a bad night. It’s a certain bad apple that can make a comment and ruin a person’s day, week, month and sometimes life.
“We had to make it public knowledge that things like this happen anywhere, even in a place like Paternoster where we feel welcome,” he said.
Well, that is Paternoster off the holiday list!! I am so done with spending money where GLBT are not welcome!!
Please don’t write Paternoster of the venue off because of this nasty incident – it was the group of people that turned it ugly, and not the place itself!
It is, however, sad that although we have all the rights on paper, gaining all-over acceptance is going to take a long, long time!
will not be going there ever. i think the right thing to happen is for this group of jackasses to be banned from ever entering this bar again. i think that it wont happen because as much as things change, the more they stay the same. why were these asses not thrown out of this venue, immediately. the owners obviously condone this behavior. now suddenly they were’nt there. yeah right. gays must watch out. we are the next best thing to be beaten down like they did in the old days to ‘k…..s’.
You really can’t blame the venue if they were not aware of the incident, that said they should enforce harsher penalties to patrons who heckle and attack other patrons’ due to their sexual orientation, race, gender etc. The writer is just bringing this story to light to show that this country is still sitting somewhere in the ignorant and idiotic ages. More gay people need to go to these places to show those ignorant fools that they don’t own those establishments. Why give them power by “boycotting” the establishment. Gay people really need to stop running away from businesses that do them wrong (in most cases, like this one, it’s the patrons not the business). You’re (LGBT community) quick to cry and shout for equality, but instead run away and boycott. Stop running away, stand for your rights. Sick and tired of men and women who complain but don’t act. Tell them you ain’t going anywhere, and tell them they can move to some other ignorant and bigoted country, just a little north over our the border. If someone takes my whole message out of context and says that I’m telling everyone to piss on a corner of the bar to mark their territory, then you’re just stupid as those ignorant fools.