Comments

1
THAT BOWLING PIN COCK'N'BALLS GRAPHIC IS AWESOME.
2
Really? A family friendly environment can't include gays and lesbians? In this day and age? In fucking Portland, Oregon? In Hollywood, no less? Will my rhetorical questions never end? Seriously, though, if I were a bowler I'd find somewhere else to bowl. And I'm not even gay. That's just entrepreneurial suicide, if you ask me...
3
SO THEY SAY.

4
Tommy, did you read the article?
5
I bowl in the Sunday league. We've been informed that Hollywood Bowl would not be renewing our contract, nor would they continue to honor the Friday Night Gay Bowling League Contract which is not due to expire until 2015. Not only that, the only two leagues that have been asked to leave on both Sunday and Friday are the gay leagues.......the other leagues which bowl on both Sunday and Friday have not been asked to leave.....
6
weird how it says that they said freeing up evening/nights we dont bowl on sunday night we bowl sunday afternoon, and only after the attention they offered sunday at 630pm or 10am, and another league that isnt gay orientated bowls at 630pm weird !!!!!! and he.... for what i was told by a 'friend' that he owns an alley in the tri cites washington and he actually llives in white salmon washington. talk about out of touch, they are a house of bigots and i will inform everyone that i can even if its in the tri cities washington
7
BS... devout bowlers can bowl throughout the week. This post made me spit on my own floor.
8
hey guys, we need to have league night on a night when we are not busy instead of when we are busy, is that ok?

What are you a homophobe?

no, we just need you to come when we are empty instead of when we are full.

Is that some sort of innuendo?

no, seriously you can move to any of 3 nights, but fridays are out.

"YOU ARE HITLER!!!"



memo to league of homo lebowskis "this is not making you look good, lots of straight people want you to have equal rights, but quit acting like babies"
9
Hey there, Daniel from the Friday night GLBT league here,
Mr frank did not mention a couple of facts. 1. Out of three leagues that bowl on Friday night, we the GLBT were the only league asked to move, the othere leagues were not...so much for clearing the decks to free up the house for "open"bowling. 2. Mr. Frank has not heard one word from anyone on our league, so in othere words we have NOT declined his offer. In his letter to us he stated that they needed to act on this change of business plan to remain a pillar of financial strength in the bowling community...I can not speak for the othere leagues, but for ourselves, and yes we were offered othere nights to move to...we as a league have not made a final decision. I can tell you some othere fun facts though...we spend upwards of $2500 a week there, we bowl 29-32 weeks a year, (you doing the math mr frank), the Sunday league is almost as big as us, so I am sure they spend about the same. The GLBT tournament held here in Portland, has also had their agreement from Hollywood pulled as well...how many othere tournaments have revoked mr frank?
10
Forgot the you in that last sentence...how many othere tournaments have YOU revoked mr frank?
11
Off-topic, but a very hilarious grammar correction from someone who spelled other incorrectly about a dozen times, it made me smile. Also, you guys should move to interstate lanes, we love gay people in North Portland not like those bigots in Hollywood.
12
So many questions about this!

"yes we were offered othere nights to move to" --Daniel

So Hollywood Bowl is not asking the LGBT league to leave but rather to move to another night? Is that correct? Not that that necessarily precludes discrimination. If you're being asked to move to create a more family friendly atmosphere on Friday, that's fucked up. If you're being asked to move for no other reason than to open up lanes then that's not really fucked up. But then why weren't the other leagues asked to move?

Daniel, what time did your league bowl on Friday night? What time do the other Friday night leagues bowl? Can you post the letter that your league received?

I'm really torn about this because I bowl in a weekly league there and really enjoy it. But I don't want to if they really are being discriminatory. It seems really difficult to get at the truth here.
13
you should consider interstate lanes; although they could use a food upgrade..
14
I too have the same questions as jigsawjo? What are the other Friday night leagues, and what is their experience/response?

Also, why wouldn't Mr. Frank take the opportunity in his statement to say that all bowlers are welcome at his establishment, regardless of race, color, creed, religion or sexual orientation?
15
I didn't know there was a gay bowling league. Where do I sign up?

Note: I'm a terrible bowler.
16
@FC: THERE'S A GAY EVERYTHING. THIS IS PORTLAND.
17
This from the bowling alley that doesn't let you wear hats and calls cops on teenagers.

http://www.katu.com/news/3634666.html

Fuck that place. I went there once in 2006, never went back. There's at least two other good lanes in town (Grand Central NOT being one of them).
18
Sounds like we need more factoids. Certainly, if other leagues are being allowed to stay at those times, something is f'd up.
19
@GRAHAM, IS THERE A LGBTQ MOCK SWORD FIGHTING LEAGUE? IS THERE A GAY DC UNIVERSE DRESS-UP SOCIETY?
20
I have a couple lanes on my house boat. The league is welcome to play there.
21
This has to be retaliation for the gays having their own softball league in Seattle.

Hollywood Bowl is terrible anyway. Powell Lanes fo' life!
22
Hey there Daniel here again...
I am glad to answer any questions I can for anyone. As stated before mr frank said very clearly in his statement above that there would be NO LEAGUE bowling on Fridays, sat, and Sunday's.friday night league bowlers that this effected was only the GLBT league. The othere Friday league was NOT asked to move or leave. We bowl at 7pm, they bowl at 7pm.
Our league is still talking about this, we have NOT refused the options offered to us. We just wonder why we were asked to move, but the other Friday leagues are NOT being asked...after commenting that all league play is being done away with, his words not mine.
23
@FC: WITHOUT SOUNDING TOO HOMOPHOBIC, BOTH THOSE THINGS ARE INTRINISCALLY PRETTY GODDAMNED QUEER TO BEGIN WITH; I FEEL THAT IT WOULD BE MORE DIFFICULT TO FIND GROUPS LIKE THAT FOR STRAIGHT PEOPLE.
24
@GRAHAM! EXCELLENT! I'M GOING TO BUY A NIGHTWING COSTUME!
25
@Daniel: How do you know the other league was not asked to move? Can you post the letter that your league received?
26
Yes, econoline, the entire gay community -with all our alphabet in tow- got together en masse and voted to complain about this issue. A little known fact is that we are all a member of this very bowling league, which does indeed make things very busy on the nights we attend with our teeming hordes. But your input is still appreciated since we gays never do anything without wondering how it might affect the perceptions of hypothetical straight people. (I wish the latter were a joke, but sadly it is not).
27
So Hollywood Bowl is turning away a packed house in hopes that people show up off the streets ... and this is a business plan?
28
"homo lebowski"? Wow. I hate it when a group is discriminated against and acts like "babies".
29
He forgot to mention that he only asked the gay league to leave, not the Asian one. Looks like hate for the gays to me.
30
I'm also hearing from other people in the LGBT community that outside LGBT groups have recently been denied access to HW Bowl for events and fundraisers. I think a more in depth article is required, but I'm sure the WW or Oregonian will beat the Merc to it.
31
people need to understand that we were NOT offered any different time slots on any day or days til this came out. We will continue to bowl out our contract on the PCBL league that bowls at 330pm on sundays while continuing to boycott food and beverage. Our league founder has a mid-day tournament ( also gay ) there yearly and he was told by the house that he would have to find a different house to have his tournament, but Hollywood was under contract and was informed legal counsel would be consulted because a breech of contract.
below is a link to the facebook page for those that want to voice their opinions and take a stand against hate.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/326718224046895/326994300685954/?notif_t=group_activity
32
So I would like to say that I know a lot of the staff at Hollywood Bowl and this is not their fault. I have heard for days now that people keep calling and coming in to the bowling alley and being extremely rude to these people. Don't take it out on them. They are just doing thier jobs and trying to support themselves and their families. They have no control over what the owner of this company does. Haven't you had a boss do things that you don't agree with but still had to do them to keep your job. I know I have and in this day and age jobs are hard to come by. Don't take your anger out on them over something that first of all doesn't affect your life and second isn't their fault. Don't get me wrong if the things that I am hearing and reading are true shame on him but before you pass judgment on people you don't even know get all the facts first. How would you feel if you worked there and you were treated that way. Act like an adult not like you are in high school and just go with the flow. My intent is not to offend but the truth is the truth and I would like to know that before I jump to any conclusion.
33
Grumbles: Yes.
34
Daniel wrote: "The othere Friday league was NOT asked to move or leave. We bowl at 7pm, they bowl at 7pm. "

Daniel, what's the name of the other Friday night league that was not asked to move?
35
The other friday night league is an Asian league. It should also be noted that there are TWO gay leagues, one on friday, and one on sunday, and both leagues were asked to move, while other leagues in the same time slot were not. It is also important to point out out, that the alternate time slots that were offered were 9pm to midnight on a weeknight. Most of those bowlers have day jobs and cannot be out till midnight in the middle of the week so that is not an option. Thats WHY it was offered. I should also mention that I work at a bowling alley, and the trend is NOT moving towards open bowlers. The time slots that we don't have leagues (which includes weekends) are our slowest times. We do four times as much business on a monday night with leagues as we do on a saturday night without leagues.
36
Trick, do you know the acutal names of the other Friday and Sunday leagues that were not asked to move? "Asian league" isn't really helpful, unfortunately.

For example, the Hollywood Bowl website lists a "Recesstime" league on Sundays at 7pm. Was this the league that was not asked to move? FWIW, their site doesn't list any leagues on Friday nights.

I would like to see about contacting members of these other not-asked-to-move leagues to see if they know anything about this whole mess.
37
@17 - I got asked to remove my hat at Hollywood Bowl by a 16-year-old "security guard" (read: owners' son) wearing, ironically, a security guard hat.

That was the single worst bowling experience of my life. I went with some friends for a night of cosmic bowling. They had blacklights on, but they also left the main lobby lights on which just sort of dimly washed out everything, and while they had music playing, instead of a CD or mp3 they just turned on the radio, so the music was interspersed with Mattress World commercials.

This was probably 7 or 8 years ago. I've never been back since.
38
If anyone is employed buy or owns a bowling center they know that times are changing! Having free lanes for parties and open play is important. This is a business just like all others and they need to do what what have to do to keep there doors open! Is everyone going to be happy...no. It is sadly the price you pay for being a business owner doing what you think you need to do to stay in business. I looked into this and DO know that all leagues on Friday Nights, at all three of his centers will be no longer! This has Nothing to do with being a gay league! I find it so crazy that a few angry people turned this all around trying to look like they are discriminating against them!! I find these accusations absurd! None of the other leagues that are not going to have a Friday Night time slot were Gay leagues so I don't understand the uproar! Also, to the people in that league who are sending the rude emails to the management there, calling them C*nts! Really classy. Times change and business changes. I do agree that is extremely unfortunate that this is happening to you guys...But you are NOT the only ones!
39
jigsawjo, why don't you just go there on friday night? It should become immediately obvious if there are other leagues there, and whether they want to talk to you about this. It would be sort of weird for Hollywood Bowl to lie about a pretty easily verifiable thing such as stopping all league play at specific times. But it sounds like Hollywood is lying or someone from the accusing league is misinformed. We should all be extremely vigilant in matters of potential discrimination. But so should we also in matters of potential libel.
40
For what it's worth, I wrote to a member of Recesstime Sports and it turns out their league was notified, last August in fact, that moving from Sunday night was a possibility as a result of the owner wanting to have more lanes for open play.

So it's possible that not every single league was approached to move, but it also looks like it wasn't just the gay ones.
41
Recesstime is run by mostly gay people. Just FYI. Also, they're the nicest people around.
42
My league bowls Friday night (a straight league btw) and we were asked to move to another night too. We were told we can bowl the rest of this season (so was the gay league, but they left early on their own) but we have to bowl another night next year. To me, that's not discrimination. All the leagues have been asked to move. The manager explained to me like this... the league bowlers pay about $7 each and take up the lanes for 5+ hours on their busiest night, Friday. They can have upwards of 7-8 bowlers for each league bowler in that time and make over $50-$60 instead of $7. And like they told me, it's either they make more money on weekends or they will have to close the whole place down because they're not making money from leagues.

Any other business owner who makes smart decisions to keep their doors open and the employees paid wouldn't get so much heat, but because some people have a desperate need for attention and to promote their cause, a business shouldn't try to be profitable?

It's not about gay, it's not about who's the bad guy, it's about making money, what nearly every business is about.
43
in reference to the discrimination of the lesbian and gay bowlers... I think it's embarrassing that this is happening in our city and totally unacceptable that they not only acted in such a way, but that they couldn't even be adult enough to back up their personal beliefs. Insteady they make excuses. Not just a bigot, he's a coward too.

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