Please tell me this is a piss-take… non binary male complaining about being told to join men’s queue for Heaven nightclub

[AngeloMysterioso]

I mean it reads like a Titania McGrath-esque parody but I really don’t think it is…

Person called Jordan Bennett on Twitter has posted this amusing/ridiculous tale… (copied and pasted directly from 6 tweets)

Okay so I had the most DISGUSTING INVALIDATING experience at heaven nightclub last night- a place where I am meant to feel free and accepted. Queuing to enter the club it splits into 2 lines- MAN and WOMAN- to be checked by seperate people. I am non-binary so OF COURSE I’m gonna queue in the women’s line in sheer protest of where I know they would expect me to queue based on my appearance. I wait to be checked nervously and then one of the security staff rudely gestures me to the other line for men. I then kindly tell them that I am non-binary whilst highlighting the pronouns on my earrings which clearly say ‘They/Them’. They carried on refusing me access, repeatedly saying this side was for ‘women only’. I shamefully walk to the other side. The two distinctly separate box-like detectors for each queue added to the prison-like atmosphere. I felt invalidated and embarrassed. As a place that hangs the pride flag on every wall, invites non-binary performers every week to perform, calls themselves a QUEER VENUE. This is anything BUT a queer venue. What really upset me most was guest @theebillyporter , who is such an inspiration to me, introducing himself and celebrating every gender identity when they were on stage. @JeremyJoseph this type of treatment at your establishment NEEDS TO CHANGE. And until this backwards, dangerous rhetoric is reversed, HEAVEN IS NOT AND WILL NEVER BE a queer venue. I’m appalled.

Ok for search makes sense.

I'm still thinking unlikely.

Going to end of different queue? Heaven doing this?

I'd have thought they'd have said in you go, join the queue on the left, where the men are being searched.

If it's not a piss-take, I really wonder what Jordan thinks the reason for having two separate lines is

Isn’t it obvious? Jordan believes the two lines are there in order for they to make they’s point. Why else would there be two lines, other than to ensure Jordan can make they’s perfectly rational objection?

@yourhairiswinterfire

I am non-binary so OF COURSE I’m gonna queue in the women’s line in sheer protest of where I know they would expect me to queue based on my appearance

And who gives a fuck about how the female staff might feel about that, eh?

Exactly. He doesn't give a fuck about anything but himself, sheer arrogant prick.

@NewlyGranny

Pronoun earrings are a thing! Who knew?

Mine would be fuckoff if someone asked me to get them

For gods sake when will we grow some balls and stop pandering to these idiots?

There is no such thing as non binary, it’s a modern phrase dreamed up by some middle class attention seeking twits

You are male or female, nothing will ever change that. Ever. (Excepting of course the very small % of people born with both genitalia who ultimately tend to go on to be distinctly one or the other anyway)

It’s just stupid, the world I going mad and I hate this. I have no issue with peoples sexuality, bi, gay, straight, fine fancy who you like, but don’t claim that you are something you aren’t

Here’s a test

Put your hands in your pants

If there’s a dick you’re a bloke

If there isn’t you’re a woman

There is no gender/sex discussion to be had beyond this

No-one really believes a non-binary identity actually overrides their sex do they?

Yes, they do. Which would not be a problem were it not for the fact that some of these nutters are in positions of substantial power.

When I saw this on Twitter I couldn't believe it wasn't a parody. I just wish some massive bearded bouncer had said, 'S'alright, mate, I'm non-binary, too.' Or perhaps, 'S'alright, mate, I'm gender-fluid, and for the next 30 seconds I'm the woman checking your queue.' How would Jordan disprove it without being a transphobe?

Jordan needs to realise that everyone who doesn't know they will see the physical appearance of the gender they were born into. How is anyone supposed to know what they are feeling inside, I for one wouldn't be checking ear lobes.
I'm interested how he got on inside when they had to decide which toilet to use. Bet they went for the male one then as the female one always has massive queues.

He was so pissed off, but he still went in. If I'd been as upset as he claims I would have gone elsewhere, flouncing my earrings as I went.

So, if asked to display pronouns at work, women could say that they prefer to wear pronoun earrings now as they're much more current and relevant, and they're in the post for the next twenty years.

This is, in its own way, a beautiful morality tale. At Heaven!

Jordan I hear ya, the struggle is real. You tell 'em, no-one should tell you what to do. You're so brave, you're my inspiration.

I'm going to go to Claire's today to have these 40+ year old ears pierced for the first time ever just so I can get some pronoun earrings and then I can be like you.

Heartened to see the venue enforcing the equality act though, not just for the sake of the security staff but also for the women in the queue; having one line and not knowing whether it will be a man or a woman searching you is really stressful for some, and excludes those who would find a man doing it too much.

The earrings were the icing on the cake. It does seem on twitter there isn't as much support as once was, usually threads would be awash with support for them and the usual random insults rather than articulated responses?

What Esma and Sale said.

If the accusation were true that Heaven is not and can never be a QUEER venue then that’s actually really good news. ‘Queer’ isn’t anything concrete at all now. What was once the proud reclamation of a word of abuse, a word often followed by violence on LGB people, is now used by all sorts of people to signify anything they want that they consider not to be very mainstream about their feelings or lives (even though in reality it may well be) and therefore to qualify them for a minority status and a lot of positive attention.

The word has been diluted by privileged Common People prats who aren’t interested in the reality lived by others in minority groups- including the ones that were originally berated and attacked for being queers. From the perspective of their privileged bubble they think minority status is somehow ‘edgy’ and ‘interesting’ and want to find a way to acquire it. Announcing queerness seems to give entry into that. Which needless to say doesn’t make things any easier or better for LGB people who do face discrimination if the spectrum of what ‘queer’ now covers is everything… including things that won’t be discriminated against, like being a married heterosexual with 2.4 children.

So if Heaven were not a queer venue in today’s language then it would mean they are respectful of the same sex attraction and biological reality of LGB people and would be providing a safe space for them to meet each other and have fun. Which would be excellent.

I like the reply that says 'thoughts and prayers' - what a div Jordan is, lots of people on there stating the obvious, why would a woman have to search a man? I'll bet if they hadn't asked this prat would have complained about being frisked by a woman! When did logic and common sense get hijacked by the free range stupid?

Every venue needs EsmaCannonball's gender-fluid bouncer who can dodge between queues!

Problem solved.

Brilliant.

I love Heaven. Haven’t been in years (decades?).

Absolutely loving the idea Heaven ‘is not and can never be a QUEER venue’

Me too & I'm laughing my head off at the idea that Heaven has a male & female queue, my things have changed since the anything goes, wtf is gender, if it's not to be ignored club that I knew since the 70s/80s/90s 🥴😂

Gordon Bennet

@StaplesCorner

... you know when one moves quicker than the other and you think "shall I change now or just stay as I am?"

Now you mention this I can understand their pain a bit more

anon12345678901

Mine would be fuckoff if someone asked me to get them

These do the job!

@MurielSpriggs

What really upset me most was guest @theebillyporter , who is such an inspiration to me, introducing himself and celebrating every gender identity when they were on stage.*

I don't understand this. Is Jordan misgendering and invalidating Billy Porter here?

Billy should have known that this hallowed person was not only in the audience, but had been so cruelly invalidated in the queue. As I understand it, Billy is gender-diverse too, and our Tweeter here was expecting the special telepathy between Non-Binary/Gender-diverse people to connect them so that Billy would call out the situation with the queue.

As he didn't, I imagine the Tweeter felt especially invalidated, despite no doubt simmering with rage at the terrible oppression he'd just experienced.

We've all seen that. Usually on a toddler who wanted the green cup, not the purple one, but still. A heartbreaking account. Thoughts and prayers to the Tweeter.

Titania McGrath is going to feel soooooo hurt that someone is pretending to be her. I hope this doesn’t destroy and invalidate her.

We've all seen that. Usually on a toddler who wanted the green cup, not the purple one, but still. A heartbreaking account. Thoughts and prayers to the Tweeter.

How dare that security team not see into J's soul and just know that they do not belong in either sex category at all....

I read this yesterday and the thing that really fucking gets to me is the utter narcissism of some of the responses. Quite a few people asking why the punters couldn't just queue up to be searched in the queue the chose, without even one second of thought for the staff. The staff were just utterly inconsequential to them. They were like 18th century aristocrats who can't imagine for one second that the servants are also human beings with thoughts, feelings and boundaries that need protecting. Imagine going through life and not thinking that the people who make the things you like possible are also people!!!!!

The staff were just utterly inconsequential to them. They were like 18th century aristocrats who can't imagine for one second that the servants are also human beings with thoughts, feelings and boundaries that need protecting.

Yep. Definitely a sort of caste/class thing here. There are a whole load of people who know exactly what roles they would and wouldn't be playing in any given scenario.

This chap certainly wouldn't be working a door - the plebs doing so should be worrying about respecting his identity. Almost doesn't even occur to him that they might have a "gender identity" like him. It's the aristocracy that gets to choose a gender.

Similar thing in reverse at Edinburgh Rape Crisis - the Good, Decent people run the place, and the scum who end up needing the service need to respect their benefactors' identities.