Arts & Entertainment
Local businesses boycott Yuengling over Trump endorsement
JR’s, Town will no longer sell the beer brand

(Popular gay bars like JR.’s, Number Nine and Town will discontinue the beer brand. Screenshot via YouTube.)
Local gay bars are boycotting Yuengling beer after the owner of the brewery endorsed Donald Trump for president.
On Monday, D.G. Yuengling & Son owner Dick Yuengling escorted Trump’s son, Eric Trump, on a tour of the Yuengling brewery in Pottsville, Pa., during a campaign stop for his father.
“My father’s going to make it a lot easier for business to function. We’re going to do it right here in the U.S.,” Trump said in a news conference.
The great-great grandson of the brewery’s founder thanked Trump during his visit saying, “Our guys are behind your father. We need him in there,” the Reading Eagle reported.
Thank you to Dick Yuengling for an amazing tour of the oldest brewery in the U.S! @Yuengling_Beer #PottsvillePA #MAGA pic.twitter.com/XrGVbbOiI3
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) October 24, 2016
JR.’s Bar and Grill manager David Perruzza was quick to respond in a video posted to Facebook announcing that JR.’s would discontinue selling the beer.
“His support for Trump is basically support for [Mike] Pence,” Perruzza told the Washington Blade. “I don’t want them getting any support from gay people. It may sound weird, but I don’t want any cent of it going to Trump.”
While Perruzza doesn’t want Yuengling in the bar he says other establishments should be free to approach the situation as they see fit.
“It’s everybody’s own decision. You could have other gay owners that might be voting for Trump and that could be their way of supporting him by not getting rid of Yuengling,” Perruzza says.
Other gay bars and gay-friendly businesses have swiftly followed suit with announcements on social media.
Ziegfeld’s/Secrets manager Jon Parks wrote in a Facebook post that the establishment will no longer serve Yuengling.
“Although the owner never said anything regarding our LGBTQ community his backing Pence more than Trump is an insult to us as a whole. No one has more hate for the LGBTQ community that Mr .Pence,” Parks wrote.
Level One manager Leigh Ann Hendricks posted on Facebook that the restaurant would also not carry the brand.

Number Nine, Town and Trade will no longer be serving Yuengling, owner Ed Bailey told the Washington Blade.
Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse has also sent back its shipment of Yuengling.
Italian restaurant Floriana, Duplex Diner and Stoney’s Bar and Grill have also chosen to stop offering Yuengling to their customers.
For Perruzza, whether the Yuengling boycott could spread further in the District depends on patrons’ responses.
“It’s up to the customers to say something,” Perruzza said.
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