Pittsburgh ‘LGBTQ-friendly’ Bar Owners Slammed for Joining Anti-Lockdown Rally

“Take Back Control” rally in Pittsburgh on Monday. (Photo credit: Andrew Rush/AP)

Members of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ community slammed the owners of two local nightclubs on social media for attending Monday’s “Take Back Control” anti-lockdown rally, according to Pittsburgh City Paper.

The husband and wife bar owners, Paul and Leah Martinez, co-own the CAVO and Cake establishments which have been frequent supporters and hosts of LGBTQ-friendly events at their venues in the Steel City.

Online attacks of the couple alleged they openly promoted the rally and attended it armed, based on photos taken during the event held in downtown Pittsburgh, an open carry city.

Here is some brief video footage captured from the rally:

A drag queen who performs under the name “Lucille Lovegood” posted to Facebook:

“The owners of Cavo/Cake feel the need to brandish their guns because they don’t understand how viruses work. And to think they own lgbtq+ friendly spaces”

“I’ve heard from friends on my timeline that [Paul and Leah] are [Trump] supporters. After Trump’s calls to ‘liberate’ states, I can only imagine what their intentions are when carrying around weapons.”

In response to the attacks, which also included associating the business owners with a “white nationalist” group that attended the protest, Mr. Martinez provided this statement:

“My wife and I attended a protest yesterday.
As you can see from the screenshots (see below) from the last week, I have been trying to get people from all sides to come together and stand against our government.
This wasn’t about us. We own a large capacity venue, we already know we aren’t opening any time soon due to social distancing and safety.
What it’s about is our government forcefully shutting down small businesses while letting huge corporations like Walmart, Home Depot/ Lowe’s and others operate while not allowing the same type of business owned by the little guy.
The government said they would help small businesses and their employees, but so many small places are closing their doors for good because the help never came.
We aren’t saying the virus isn’t real or that we don’t care about others. Everyone does.
And we certainly aren’t ‘white supremacists’
That is just silly.
And yes to answer your question, we have been doing LGBTQ events for almost 12 years. We support LGBTQ community and will continue to do so.”

Governor Tom Wolf recently extended Pennsylvania’s statewide coronavirus lockdown order to May 8th.

READ MORE LOCKDOWN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Lockdown Files

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