Gay bar aims to make history as polling site for presidential election, Texas owner says
All over the nation we’ve seen some pretty random places converted into polling centers through early vote casting and during election day — from sporting venues to a museum to drive-thru polling locations.
And while history shows it’s too uncommon to see a bar rapidly change into a place where voters can be heard, for one Harris County bar, one Texas boozy hangout might be a first.
Buddy’s Houston, a popular gay bar in the southeastern part of Texas, could be the world’s first presidential polling location at an LGBTQ+ bar, according to the Houston Chronicle and the bar’s Facebook post.
Many supporters have chimed in on social media, including Harris County.
Others shared their excitement.
“I moved to Harris County over 20 years ago and it’s never been as cool as it is now!!” said one Twitter user.
“The best thing I’ve seen all year,” said one Facebook user.
It was bar owner Christopher Barry who told Outsmart Magazine that he suspects his bar might be the first LGBTQ bar to be converted into a polling location during a presidential election.
“I’ve been to watch parties at gay bars, and I’ve been to celebrations in the streets on election night. I thought, what is the most productive thing I could be doing this year? It was literally a light bulb that went off,” Barry said.
Barry told Outsmart that he researched gay bars changing into polling centers on Election Day, and after some extensive research, Barry believed that an LGBTQ bar had never been used as a polling location — and he wanted his to be the first.
“I started working on it and didn’t tell a soul about it for four months. I didn’t want it to get jinxed!”
According to the Chronicle, the bar hosts 14 voting booths along with poll workers who “speak different languages, including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indonesian” and will be open until the polls close at 7 p.m. Central Time.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Gay bar aims to make history as polling site for presidential election, Texas owner says."