It's a Gay Bar, Pamela

About

It's a Gay Bar, Pamela is a catchphrase used by the LGBTQ+ community and its supporters. The phrase is based on a Facebook comment responding a woman named Pamela who announced that she would no long patronize a bar because/ of its participation in a protest again United States President Donald Trump. People have begun sharing the phrase, highlighting the irony of boycotting something one did not use.

Origin

On October 9th, 2019, KARE 11, an NBC affiliate in Minneapolis, Minnesota posted on Facebook^[1] that the Saloon night club would be disaplying a "giant 'Trump baby' balloon ahead of a presidential rally." The post received more than 5,300 reactions, 2,000 comments and 475 shares in less than one month (shown below, left).

In response to the article, a Facebook user named Pamela wrote,^[2] "The Saloon lost my business." Another Facebook user responded to her comment, "It's a gay bar, Pamela" (shown below, right).

Spread

That day, writer and journalist Tony Webster tweeted ^[3] a screenshot of the exchange. The post received more than 1,500 likes and 275 retweets in less than one month (shown below, left).

On October 14th, 2019, Twitter^[4] user @_omgigi_ tweeted that they would be selling "It's a gay bar, Pamela" pins. The tweet received more than 380 likes and 85 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below, center).

Days later, "It's a gay bar, Pamela t-shirts appeared on the website Redbubble.^[5] On October 19th, 2019, Redditor ^[6] youngarmen shared the the shirt on the /r/TargetedShirts subreddit. The post received more than 1,300 points (98% upvoted) and 25 comments in less than one week (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the meme, including City Pages,^[7] LGBTQ Nation,^[8] Pink News,^[9] Pride.com^[10] and more.

External References