In the wake of a month-long boycott and ongoing demonstrations, Nellie’s Sports Bar, a mainstay in D.C.’s gay nightlife scene, has vowed to take steps towards inclusivity.

After a security guard dragged a Black woman head-first down the bar’s stairs during Pride week, Nellie’s released its first in-depth statement on Friday, July 16 addressing the incident, pledging to make several changes in the bar’s operations. But those who have been boycotting, protesting, and demonstrating outside of the U Street establishment for the past several weeks describe the bar’s statement as empty and performative — failing to meet the demands that they’ve been calling for since the incident occurred and continuing to ignore the voices of Black LGBTQ+ patrons who say they’ve felt unsafe in D.C.’s queer nightlife spaces for years.

The Facebook post includes an apology to Keisha Young, the 22-year-old woman who was dragged down the stairs by a Nellie’s security contractor, and the announcement of a new hire: Ruby Corado, the founder and director of Casa Ruby, will be the business’ new Director of Community Engagement, tasked with leading diversity and inclusion trainings.

The bar, which has since reopened, has also created a customer feedback page on its website (where “any concerns reported will be acted upon within 72 hours”), stated that de-escalation training is now included in new-employee onboarding, and highlighted the more than $1 million it’s donated to local nonprofit organizations since opening over a decade ago.

“As we reopen to serve the community and ensure continued employment of our team of 50 employees — all of us at Nellie’s renew our mission to be an inclusive, welcoming and safe space for women, for all people of color, for the entire LGBTQ+ community and for all our neighbors and friends,” reads the statement, signed by owner Doug Schantz. “We promise to see you, to listen to you, to embrace you and to welcome you each night.”

Metro Weekly first reported on the community’s reaction to Nellie’s statement on Friday.

Brandon Burrell, a lawyer representing Young in her case against the bar, wrote in an emailed statement that “Ms. Young and myself think the changes Nellie’s are making were needed and Ms. Young appreciates the apology from Mr. Schantz.”

But Preston Mitchum, a co-chair of Collective Action for Safe Spaces’ (CASS) board of directors, says Nellie’s statement “reeked of performance, and not actual accountability.”

Along with other activist organizations, CASS has been boycotting Nellie’s over the past several weeks, repeating a list of demands that have, they say, largely been ignored. While Nellie’s statement included an apology to Young, CASS and Harriet’s Wildest Dreams are still calling for a public listening session with Nellie’s ownership, for Nellie’s to release publicly all security footage from the incident, and for Nellie’s to pay reparations to the Black LGBTQ+ community.

We stand with survivors & survivor-led movements for accountability. As of July 16, demands issued by DC organizers (follow @HarrietsDreams) have not been met – including an apology to Keisha Young. Nor has Nellie's management engaged the organizations issuing these demands pic.twitter.com/UeHfYA8X4b

— Collective Action for Safe Spaces (@SafeSpacesDC) July 16, 2021

Despite repeated requests to meet directly with the owner, Doug Schantz, organizers say they have not heard directly from Schantz since the incident occurred, making the unexpected hire of Corado appear to them as a hollow attempt at damage control that does little to address the concerns of Black patrons, many of which extend beyond the incident during Pride week.

“For Doug to take a month, and to reach out to a person of color, not even Black, when we’ve been stating from day one that we’re fighting for the Black empowerment, and liberation and respect for Black people, we felt was heartbreaking and disrespectful,” says Nee Nee Taylor, a co-conductor with Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, a Black-led abolitionist group that’s organized several block parties outside of Nellie’s. “We didn’t ask for a mediator, we asked to speak to Doug.”

According to Mitchum, CASS did receive a request through their online portal from Nellie’s on Tuesday, July 13, to lead a training workshop for Nellie’s staff. (That night, Nellie’s attempt to reopen was swiftly shut down by a demonstration coordinated by Harriet’s Wildest Dreams.) CASS denied Nellie’s training request, and in an open letter to Schantz wrote that they would not engage with the bar until it met the organization’s five demands.

Hours after CASS published its statement, Nellie’s published a Facebook post announcing Corado’s new role and their list of operational changes aimed at diversity — all without a collective conversation between Nellie’s, Corado, and the activists who have been demanding more substantive change. According to Mitchum, the abrupt hiring of Corado without first gauging the community’s reaction demonstrates a failure of communication on behalf of Nellie’s ownership.

“What’s really important to us is not money, not proximity to power, not being celebrities with bars and restaurants — it is actually making sure that we are building a community. That is number one, and the way that you do that is actually making sure you have aligned principles and values,” Mitchum says.

Do not be fooled.
The boycott continues until all demands are met. #boycottnellies pic.twitter.com/AQIyeuklvC

— Harriet’s Dreams (@HarrietsDreams) July 16, 2021

Corado says she was contacted by Nellie’s on Friday, July 16, and accepted a paid contract to lead diversity and inclusion training — services she has offered via a contract-basis for years, she says. While she says she’s aware of some push back against her hiring, she says her decades of work serving Black LGBTQ+ residents equips her to do the job.

“I am hoping to bring the community together,” Corado says. “My intention in general [was] to come into a space and facilitate communication, like I have done.”

At a block party outside of Nellie’s on the Friday evening following Nellie’s announcement, Taylor and Makia Green, another organizer with Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, approached Corado to discuss her decision to accept the job. Corado described the encounter as tense, but Taylor denies verbally assaulting Corado. Instead, Taylor says they and Corado went inside Nellie’s later that evening and had a civil conversation regarding organizers’ concerns with her hiring.

“I told her, ‘don’t let Doug divide us,'” Taylor says.

Mitchum was not at Friday’s block party, but reached out to Corado over email following a tweet exchange on Friday, asking to meet up to discuss Corado’s decision to accept the job. (The emails were reviewed by DCist/WAMU).

“One thing I do want to make clear that this is not organizers and activists versus Ruby Corado,” Mitchum says.

The assault on Young over Pride weekend is not the first incident that’s prompted a boycott of the bar. In 2018, No Justice No Pride staged a boycott after patrons noticed a “blue lives matter” flag flying above the establishment. (Nellie’s apologized and said it learned a lesson about racial inclusivity and that it was planning to make the space more welcoming in the future.) The recent push for an open conversation with Nellie’s ownership isn’t new either. In 2017, Mitchum wrote to Schantz asking to address the treatment of Black patrons in D.C.’s queer spaces. The letter went unanswered.

“The goal is not to take away fun,” Mitchum says. “The goal is to have fun and to acknowledge that some spaces that have purported to be that, they’re not safe for us. And we should not just accept spaces just because we have minimal ones available.”

Those boycotting Nellie’s don’t plan to stop until their demands are met – and Nellie’s ownership engages in a true discussion about making the city’s queer nightlife safer, specifically for Black patrons. Core organizers tell DCist/WAMU that they still have not heard directly from Schantz to set up a meeting or listening session.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the bar by the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration — which alleged that Nellie’s had violated D.C. law by allowing illegal or disorderly conduct to take place on their licensed premises — has moved to D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine’s desk. If Racine decides to proceed with the case, the bar could face fines or a potential loss of its liquor license. (A spokesperson for Racine’s office did not immediately respond to DCist/WAMU’s request for an update on the case).

Harriet’s Wildest Dreams plans to host another block party outside Nellie’s this coming Friday.

“We will not be letting up until Doug meets our demands, and hiring Ruby is not the solution,” Taylor says.