Activists and civil rights lawyers are going to court on Thursday to fight the closing of Christopher Street bar Chi Chiz, which bills itself as "the only Black gay bar in New York City".
"The police claim in Manhattan Supreme Court that on four instances in a six-month period, undercover officers witnessed the sale of marijuana, cocaine and other controlled substances in the bar, which opened 12 years ago. But Chi Chiz supporters say the crackdown's motivated by racism and homophobia in a community that's increasingly white, wealthy and worried about property values. 'These are the same people who forced the city to tear down the Women's House of Detention on Sixth Avenue and Christopher Street,' activist Allen Roskoff told Page Six.
'Manhattan so-called liberals are only so when it affects others. Otherwise, they cry 'quality of life' and 'not in my neighborhood.''"
