(R Public House/Twitter)
A man wielding a hammer and shouting homophobic slurs at customers smashed a glass entrance door to an LGBTQ-owned business located in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood Jan. 9.
The R [pronounced “our”] Public House is a community-driven bar and grill that welcomes everyone and has established a reputation for providing goodwill for the diverse and queer friendly population of Rogers Park as an anchor business in the neighborhood.
WLS-TV ABC News 7 reported the incident started around 5:40 p.m., during happy hour, when an unknown masked man approached a man and a woman as they were getting out of their car near the bar and grill.
A Chicago police spokesperson said that the masked suspect then began yelling homophobic slurs and threatening them before walking away and shortly returning to follow them into the bar.
“He walked in, started calling them some like anti-gay slurs, and they were like, ‘just leave, man – just get out of here,’ and then he took out a hammer and started bashing everything,” said Corey Rolon, an employee of R Public House, to WLS ABC 7.
Renee Labrana and Sandra Carter, the lesbian couple who have owned R Public House for a decade, spoke to multiple media outlets about the incident.
“It’s very frustrating and disconcerting because we live in this neighborhood because it’s so diverse, and we love that about the neighborhood,” Labrana said. “So you tend to forget that there’s people that hate you out there just for who you love. And it makes me really angry that we even have to think about it.”
Carter said the incident was jarring for patrons, some of whom were left running out the back door with the manager as the man started shattering the window.
“They weren’t sure if it was gunshots,” Carter said. “And knowing the horrific hate crimes that have happened in different bars, it was scary.”
Nothing like a homophobic guy with a hammer yelling anti-gay slurs at customers and threatening them to shake up the night. WTF is wrong with people #hatehasnohomehere pic.twitter.com/oR5JBC0IA4
— R Public House (@rpublichouse) January 17, 2023
“It hits you in the pit of your stomach. It really does. And these things shouldn’t matter. Love is love. I don’t know how many other ways we can say that,” Labrana said.
The pair said the community is already rallying around them.
“Hate has no home here, and we’re not afraid. We love our neighborhood. We work with local police, locally elected government officials. We feel safe,” Carter said.
No arrests have been made in the case.
The Chicago Police Department reported 177 hate crimes last year, by far the most in at least 11 years, according to city records. The Rogers Park police district has recorded the second-most hate crimes over that period, and anti-LBGTQ incidents have been the most common citywide.
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