Feb 16, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Gay activists have mixed views on a bill introduced last week by D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) that would place new restrictions on allowing people under 21 from entering nightclubs and bars, as well as restaurants offering entertainment, after 11 p.m.

Graham’s bill requires such establishments choosing to admit persons under 21 to obtain a special permit or “underage entertainment permission” from the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, which would be subject to annual renewal and approval. The bill has two co-sponsors, Kwame Brown (D-at-large) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), and is pending in the Committee on Public Works & the Environment, which Graham chairs. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.

“This bill sends a strong message to parents, young people and business establishments that D.C. is doing everything possible to keep our children safe,” Graham said. “It also allows for a responsible, safe environment for entertainment aimed at youth.”

Graham, who is gay and served in the past as director of the city’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, said his legislation was in response to recent incidents of violence involving young people in city nightclubs and bars. The latest incident occurred Jan. 20 at a straight nightclub in the popular U Street, N.W., entertainment corridor, where a 17-year-old girl died after being hit by a stray bullet during a fight between an unruly customer and a security guard.

Business groups representing restaurants and nightclubs, while condemning the death of Taleshia Ford in the Jan. 20 incident, said the city should respond to such developments by cracking down on problem clubs rather than imposing sweeping restrictions that could hurt well-run entertainment businesses.

Gay activists, meanwhile, have said they fear the few entertainment businesses catering to gays that now admit people under 21 might stop admitting this group, adding to the longstanding problem of a lack of social meeting places for gay youth.

“Bars are not always the best option,” said Bruce Weiss, former director of the city’s Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, known as SMYAL. “But given that GLBT youth have virtually no other place to go, I would be very concerned about prohibiting or restricting people between 18 and 21 from going to clubs.”

Weiss said many of SMYAL’s teen clients who live in inner city neighborhoods have told him a lack of clubs or gay-friendly recreational facilities in which to meet prompted them to seek out places on the streets outside gay clubs that already refuse to admit them because of their age.

Graham described as “very reasonable” his bill’s requirements for bars and clubs to obtain permits for admitting people under 21.

In order to get such a permit, the establishments must put in place a series of safeguards that include a detailed, written security plan. Owners of such establishments must also agree to charge all customers a $1 surcharge, in addition to their normal admission fee, to help the city pay for more city inspectors to enforce the new rules.

The liquor-serving establishments would be exempt from these requirements if a person under 21 is accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, is a paid employee of the establishment, is “involved in an emergency” or is attending a social gathering where alcoholic beverages are not being served.

“I could have introduced a bill to say no one under 21 can come in, period,” Graham said, adding that many parents urged him to do just that.

‘Guns are the problem’

Joey Oldaker, general manager of the Dupont Circle gay nightclub Apex, which admits patrons under 21, said the club had long ago adopted its own procedures that cover all of those required under Graham’s bill.

“Our biggest concern was this bill would do away with under-21 admissions,” Oldaker said. “That would crush our college night event every Thursday.”

Oldaker said Apex has a strict policy of checking identification and placing plastic armbands on everyone 21 and over, with bartenders and waiters refusing to serve drinks to anyone not wearing the armband. He said the armbands are designed so that they cannot be removed and placed on another person’s arm.

He said the club also has at least 10 security guards, some of whom walk through the sprawling club in civilian clothes, carefully looking for potential problems using two-way radios to communicate with each other and management.

“We know how to do this,” he said. “It has worked out fine for a long time.”

Apex is the only remaining gay establishment in Washington that admits persons under 21.

Gay nightlife advocate Mark Lee said existing laws and regulations, combined with what he calls “chronic” protesters among the ranks ...