The former South Bend, Ind., mayor's campaign canceled a fundraiser at Dark Lady, a gay Rhode Island nightclub, following a dispute over the presence of a stripper pole, according to the venue.
Dark Lady's manager told WPRI that campaign staffers asked the club to remove the pole before the event. When the club refused, staffers canceled the fundraiser. "We guess this is what the gay candidate does to the gay community! #downonthepoles #dancersforanyoneelse," the owners complained on Facebook. "We're open, we're here, we're queer, get over it!"
The Buttigieg campaign's cancellation angered pole dancers including Steven Retchless, an America's Got Talent semi-finalist and the 2010 American Pole Fitness Champion.
"The pole stigma is associated with sex work, but sex workers whether they're on a pole or not are humans, too, and shouldn't be discriminated against for providing a service as old as time," Retchless told the Washington Blade. "Get over it and support the whole gay community."
Philip Deal, founder of Mr. Pole Dance America, told the LGBT publication that Buttigieg's decision was "shameful."