The owner of Houston’s only lesbian bar says her business was refused insurance coverage because it hosts drag shows
Julie Mabry, who runs Pearl Bar says she believes she was likely turned down because of proposed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Texas.
There are just two lesbian bars in the entire state of Texas, and while her current insurance coverage runs until December, Mabry was looking for a new policy as she planned for the future.
It was during this process she received an email from her current agent informing her that her coverage, which costs $60,000 a year, had been denied.
‘They outright denied us, the underwriters, because we host drag shows,’ Mabry told KPRC.
Julie Mabry who runs Pearl Bar, Houston’s only lesbian venue, claims that her business was denied insurance coverage because it hosts drag shows
An insurance underwriter declined coverage for her business that hosts drag events, citing it as a risk despite it never having been a problem in 10 years
There are just two lesbian bars in the entire state of Texas with Pearl Bar, above, being one
‘She forwarded this email from an underwriter. … The first sentence in [the email] said, ‘We will not write this risk due to drag,” Mabry stated.
Mabry noted that while insurance underwriters might typically identify various risks for a business, drag shows have never been considered as a ‘risk’ for her venue.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever gotten an email like that. I cried about this for about a week,’ she said to NBC News.
‘My immediate reaction was this is discrimination. In almost 10 years of operating, drag has never been a reason for denial of coverage,’ she told NPR.
Mabry is not revealing the name of the insurance company for fear that she might harm her business’ chance of securing insurance coverage in the future.
Pearl Bar opened in 2013 and aimed to provide a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community.
Pearl Bar opened in 2013 and aimed to provide a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community
Julie Mabry, far right, owner of Pearl Bar in Houston, Texas says her business is in jeopardy after it was denied insurance coverage, and she’s putting the blame on anti-drag bills moving through the Texas Legislature
There is now a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills progressing through the Texas Legislature and she believes this may be part of the reason why her coverage was denied.
‘I’m not playing the victim, and this is not a plea for pity. It’s about raising awareness,’ she said.
Mabry added that only people who are 21 and older can enter her bar and they don’t allow children inside to watch drag shows. She believes the current political climate is what’s fueling the anti-LGBT sentiment.
‘The narrative that we aren’t good people that’s what I believe the insurance companies are looking at as a risk. obviously, at some point they have decided that we are too much of a risk,’ Mabry said.
One senate bill proposed banning drag shows on public property, within commercial establishments, or in the presence of minors.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever gotten an email like that. I cried about this for about a week. My immediate reaction was this is discrimination. In almost 10 years of operating, drag has never been a reason for denial of coverage,’ Mabry told NBC News
The bill has now been amended to remove all references to drag shows.
‘Legislators need to start thinking about saving the economy because they’re not helping the economy if they continue to allow this hateful narrative to go around,’ Mabry explained.
Texas is among several states where elected officials have introduced anti-LGBTQ+ bills in recent years.
By the latest count, at least 20 states have imposed bans or limits on transgender athletes’ sports participation at the K-12 or collegiate level. And at least 18 states have adopted laws or policies — including some blocked by courts — barring gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors.
Rev. Pat Langlois, senior pastor of MCC Church of Christ of the Valley, speaks at an interfaith rally in Pasadena, California in March, protesting the wave of anti-transgender bills being enacted in numerous Republican-governed states
Even though California’s Democratic-controlled legislature would not approve any anti-trans measures, an organizer of the event said it was important to speak out in support of trans people in states enacting such bills
In April, the Texas Department of Agriculture brought in a dress code requiring its employees to dress in a manner ‘consistent with their biological gender.’
Last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate certain gender-affirming care for transgender children as potential child abuse.
In 2021, Abbott signed House Bill 25 into law, mandating that public school students compete in athletic competitions based solely on their assigned sex at birth.
The law, which came into effect in January 2022, made Texas the 10th state to enact such legislation.
Nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were filed during state legislative sessions in 2022, but only 29 of them were signed into law.
Texas is just one of several Republican-governed states across the nation advancing a myriad bills targeting transgender young people.
In Oklahoma, state Senator David Bullard cited a biblical passage in introducing what he calls the Millstone Act — a bill that would make it a felony for doctors to provide gender transition procedures to anyone under the age of 26
In Oklahoma, state Senator David Bullard cited a biblical passage in introducing what he calls the Millstone Act — a bill that would make it a felony for doctors to provide gender transition procedures to anyone under the age of 26.
Bullard, who has served as a deacon at his Baptist church, said the act’s name alludes to a passage in the Book of Matthew suggesting that anyone causing a child to sin should be drowned in the sea with a millstone hung around their neck.
In the Texas legislature, one of the leading backers of anti-trans legislation is an ordained minister — Rep. Steve Toth. One bill he introduced also proposes making it a felony to provide gender-affirming care for minors.
Bills in other states have sought to restrict transgender people’s use of public restrooms and limit their ability to be called by the pronouns that reflect their gender identity.
Rev. Carol Johnson, Morgan Davis and Heather Malkawi, left to right, participate in a rally against SB14 which would ban gender affirming medical care for transgender children at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, earlier this moth. In the Texas legislature, one of the leading backers of anti-trans legislation is an ordained minister
America’s faith leaders are starkly divided in their assessment.
Some view the legislation as reflecting God’s will; others voice outrage that Christianity is being invoked to justify laws they view as cruel and hateful.
U.S. Catholic bishops have rejected the concept of gender transition in guidelines issued in March.
The SBC has been on record since 2014 asserting that gender transition is ‘contrary to God’s design.’
In an online article, the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, depicted gender transition as ‘a blatant attempt to undermine the very order of creation.’
