Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Content Note: Nazi imagery and language, stupid white men, reference to Lindsay Clancy, homeless folx

Update – Yesterday, I erroneously listed local comedian Mike Bosco and Douglas Diegelman as the owners of the Steel City Cellar comedy club. That’s the venue that allowed a white woman dressed as Hitler to enter, get served, and enjoy some chuckles.

I apologize to Mr. Bosco and Mr. Diegelman for that error and have made attempts to clarify their role with the cellar.

On Halloween night, the door staff of a new local Northside comedy club – Steel City Cellar Comedy Club – made a decision to admit a woman dressed as a Nazi. She wasn’t removed. People took photos. Because of course they would.

Today, the club is doing exactly what you’d expect – backpedaling, tossing a DEI word salad to cover their asses, and dodging responsibility.

I don’t need to explain to ANYONE the reason dressing as Hitler is horrible because we just had a similar conversation in early October because another bar – The Blue Moon – allowed a performer in black face on stage during a drag show.

Educate yourselves before you come at me. I’m exhausted listening to families torn apart by the Nazi cops employed by our governments.

A few additional facts

The Steel City Cellar Comedy Club is in the basement of Max’s Allegheny Tavern. A German food restaurant that has been serving Pittsburgh since 1977. Prior to that, it was reportedly a speakeasy. The building traces back to the turn of the 20th century in a bustling neighborhood known as Deutschtown. Hold my beer – the owner of Max’s Allegheny Tavern is one of the founders of this Still Nazi Cellar Comedy Club. He’s known to be the landlord. Uncertain if he has any other role since he hasn’t made a statement.

In addition, the location of the Steel City Cellar Comedy Club is .2 (point two) miles from the former location of The City of Pittsburgh’s ROOTS (Reaching Out On The Streets) program. The homeless folx were not welcome in Deutschtown, but a person dressed as Hitler was. Do you think a costume demeaning homeless people would have gotten in the door of the comedy club?

The Steel City Cellar Comedy Club is also running a now-tasteless series of posts on Instagram about fake apologies. Not connected to this, but read the room, men.

The club owners are Doug Diegelman and Mike Bosco. While both men financially benefit from association with the club, Mr. Bosco has denied ownership. Mr. Diegelman has said nothing.

Doug Diegelman owns Max’s one of the most popular German spaces in one of the most high profile German neighborhoods and he didn’t implement a ‘no nazis’ admission policy ahead of time? wtf?

Sometimes, the blog posts just write themselves.

Just call all of the people and say all of the things. No room for Nazis. No room for people who hang with Nazis. No room for self loathing people with German ancestry.

There should be room for folx facing homelessness, but the City nixed that. That reminds me – also .2 miles away is the QMNTY Center, an organization serving trans and queer people, many of whom are people of color. All of whom would have been targeted by Nazis. You probably know that the Northside has a significant population of Jewish folx.

So if you want to be a decent human to offset the trauma, I’d suggest you make a donation to the Transgiving event. Support some of the people most directly impacted by this community violence. The patrons of the QMNTY center have to walk past the vacant homeless outreach building, but also past a local business that looked away when a stupid white woman did a terrible thing that hurt a lot of people.

That is my suggestion – not the organization or anyone in the community. When the woman is identified, hopefully she’ll make amends to the community once she’s been permanently chased off social media. And I don’t feel an ounce of pity for her. What she did was stupid evil and that’s a dangerous combination.

For the love of decency in this world, vote.