An anti-gay art controversy has erupted in San Antonio, Texas, fueled by a MySpace campaign intended to get the word out about the rejection of a gay photographer's work by a local bar owner.
On the first Friday of every month, San Antonio bar Joe Blues hosts a guest-curated showing of a local artist, but the San Antonio Express News reports that when he saw photographs that were hanging for the show by Marc Arevalo, which featured the photographer's boyfriend dressed in Victorian garb and wearing make-up (pictured here), he ordered them taken down.
Said Arevalo: “He just said they looked too much like drag queens, and he didn't want to attract that type of clientele to the establishment. Of course, right then and there, I felt really offended.”
Joe Blues owner Joey Villareal denies he's homophobic. He tells the Express News: “That's wrong. Flat wrong. A lot of my friends are gay. Sexual preference is not an issue with me. The impression you would get is that we cater specifically to guys who like guys, so I said, ‘I can't have this.' I could see easily this offending people and it could cause a ruckus. First impressions are everything. You come in and you see art that suggests it caters to a different crowd, you may not come back.”
Too gay for Joe Blue's? [san antonio current]
