It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Queer Nation!

LGBT Activists Fly Banner Over Fire Island
Calling for Boycott of Gay-Owned Businesses There

Airplane Fly-Over Exhorted Beachgoers to Fight for LGBT Civil Rights

Fire Island Pines, NY (June 7, 2015) – A plane trailing a banner reading “Boycott Hi/Lo Tea! Fight For Full LGBT Rights!” flew above the beach at Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines on Sunday, June 7. The action was orchestrated by the gay rights group Queer Nation.

While nearly 1,000 people on the beach watched, the plane circled the two communities for 40 minutes, from 2:10 pm to 2:40 pm, first flying east along the beach, then circling back and flying west along the bay.

The action was meant to underscore the LGBT community’s outrage over the April 20 meeting between Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and gay businessmen Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass. Reisner subsequently donated money to the Cruz campaign. The two gay men also held an April 14 fundraiser at their Manhattan penthouse for Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), another anti-LGBT politician.

Reisner owns most of the businesses in the Pines—including the Blue Whale, Sip-N-Twirl, and the Pavilion, where the “High Tea” and “Low Tea” cocktail hours are held—as well as the gay-oriented Out Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

Having seen some of several hundred flyers that Queer Nation members had left at houses, tacked to utility poles, and handed out prior to the fly-over, many beachgoers were clearly awaiting the plane’s arrival. Others, however, were surprised. Many snapped pictures and took video as the plane made its 7 passes.

The flyers informed those sunning on the beach that even if the U.S. Supreme Court grants all LGBT Americans win the right to marry, they will still face discrimination in employment, public accommodations, housing, federal programs, credit, education, and parental rights. They prompted some lively conversation on the beach, both for and against the action.

“We can get married on Sunday and then evicted or fired on Monday in many states in this country,” said Queer Nation member Ken Kidd. “Yet two gay business owners are making money off of the LGBT community at a world-famous gay vacation spot and then giving that money to outspoken anti-LGBT politicians who would keep us from winning those rights.”

As a result, in part, of Queer Nation’s ongoing campaign for comprehensive civil rights legislation, a bill that would give all the rights and protections currently extended to all Americans to LGBT people will be introduced in the current Congress.

“Is doing without a cocktail at Tea such a sacrifice to make in our struggle for true equality?” Kidd asked.

“We will not be dragged down by those who fund anti-LGBT politicians at a moment when the sky is the limit for LGBT rights. And we’ll let them know how we feel by boycotting their businesses, from Fire Island, New York, to Fairbanks, Alaska.”