In our 40 years in operation, Philadelphia Gay News has worked to serve as a platform to address injustice, inequality and discrimination faced by our LGBT community — a community that has long flourished because of its diversity. Yet bias exists even within our own community, and we all have a duty to speak out against it.
It is with that goal in mind that PGN joins those calling for a boycott of ICandy Nightclub; the video of the establishment’s owner repeatedly and carelessly using a racial epithet is unacceptable on every level.
Starting today, PGN is ending its advertising relationship with ICandy. The club has been a regular advertiser for a number of years, but continuing this relationship would be akin to condoning its owner’s actions and attitudes, which we cannot do. PGN will no longer organize or sponsor events that take place at the club, and we support community organizations and individuals who are organizing their own boycotts of the establishment.
Our staff, comprised of individuals of all walks of life and all experiences, is unified behind this effort: As our city’s LGBT newspaper of record, we must represent all members of our community; continuing to support a business whose leader uses hate speech erodes that effort.
There is, and never should have been, any room for discrimination in our community. We are a community that has felt the scourge of marginalization. We know what it is like to be othered. We should be better than this.