a drag performer wore blackface at a pittsburgh gay bar. in 2026. the apology had to say "blackface is not ok!" out loud.
There is now a sign in the dressing room at Blue Moon. Per WPXI, it reads: "Absolutely no performances based on race, ethnicity, or nationality (that is not your own) will be tolerated!!!" Three exclamation points. They have been through a week.
At the bar's weekly Open Stage on Wednesday, Sept. 23, a drag performer appeared in black face makeup, PinkNews reports. The look was meant to be Hexxus, the sludge villain from FernGully, according to QBurgh, Pittsburgh's LGBTQ news site. Nobody stopped the number. Management wasn't there that night, and the two guest hosts running the show, QBurgh reports, didn't realize at the time what was happening. One of them, PinkNews reports, has since said they are taking a long break from co-hosting.
what the bar said
Blue Moon, which has sat on Butler Street in Lawrenceville since 2002, posted its apology on Tuesday, Sept. 29, saying it had only found out the day before. "We're amazed we even have to say this," the bar wrote, in a statement WPXI and QBurgh both reproduced, "but blackface is not OK!" "Whatever the intent, blackface is racist and harmful and it is never acceptable. We are sorry that it happened in our bar. We accept full responsibility for this performance happening in our bar."
The performer, whom no outlet has named and neither will we, posted their own apology calling it a cosplay that went badly wrong, according to PinkNews and QBurgh.
Ciora Thomas, founder of the Pittsburgh group SisTers PGH, was not soothed. "I was disgusted but not surprised," she told WPXI. "This is something that we have been exposed to here in Pittsburgh for a long time, unfortunately." Her ask was simple: "Show us what it's going to be when racism shows up in the bar."
then the death threats
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the bar canceled that night's Open Stage. It was receiving "too many death threats for us to feel comfortable putting on the show this evening," Blue Moon wrote, per WPXI. "One performance last week violated this trust, resulting in threats of violence against the bar. Our responsibility, as always, is to our staff and patrons." No outlet has reported police involvement.
So to recap: one person did a racist thing on a stage, a room full of people let it run, the bar apologized six days late, and then someone decided the right response was to threaten to kill the staff. Every single step of that is wrong, and only one of them was the drag.
The Open Stage has run for 14 years, WPXI reports, and the bar hopes to bring it back next week. It should come back. With a host who knows when to cut the music.
