Natalie Wester/Facebook, CBSDFW via Twitter
September 20, 2021, 7:58 am
A Texas couple who wanted to wear their masks inside a local bar to promote safety in a pandemic says that they were asked to leave — and now anti-maskers suddenly understand the concept of private businesses being allowed to make their own rules.
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Natalie Wester shared on Facebook that she and her husband, Jose, met up with some friends at Hang Time in Rowlett, Texas, earlier this month.
“We entered the bar wearing our masks, and at the front a girl informed us to take it off as she checked our IDs,” she wrote. “The music was loud, so I assumed she just wanted to see our faces for our IDs.”
Wester says they were able to order drinks and food and stay in the bar for half an hour before their waitress came by and said the manager sent her over to tell them to remove their masks “because I’m nicer than he is. And yes, this is political.”
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Despite Wester explaining that she and her husband wore their masks out of an abundance of caution, as they have a four-month-old with cystic fibrosis at home, the waitress allegedly insisted that masks don’t work and that Hang Time has a firm no mask policy.
Now, here’s where the story differs from the reverse, where anti-maskers are asked to put on a mask or get out — Wester and her husband closed out their tab and “left without a scene.”
She did, however, post about the encounter on her Facebook so as to warn anyone “wise enough to be afraid of Covid [to] avoid this place.”
Hang Time’s owner, Thomas Blackmer, defended his decision on both Facebook and on the news, insisting: “I spent my money on this business. I put my blood, sweat, and tears in this business. And I don’t want any masks in here.”
Anti-maskers have come out in swarms to defend Blackmer as well, suddenly insisting that a private business has the right to apply a “dress code” and prevent customers from wearing masks — something they have consistently failed to comprehend for the past year and a half when private businesses require masks for entry.
However, as no one threw a temper tantrum or insisted that it was a violation of rights to kick Natalie and Jose out of the bar if they wouldn’t remove their masks, screeching about the rights of a privately owned business, in this instance, isn’t doing much good.
Instead, criticism of Hang Time and Blackmer has focused around calling the bar out for exactly what it is — a potentially unsafe place for people to go in a pandemic.
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Not his first rodeo
Here are some reviews before today.
My fav: “They do not care about your safety, they put tampons in guest drinks to be funny but it’s not funny it’s fucking gross (even if it’s unused)”
+ “the drunk patrons will inappropriately leer and grab at you” TX pic.twitter.com/tt7czridzZ— Any Doubts
(@ma_makosh) September 19, 2021
At some point, people won’t visit Texas because of this behavior.
—
Victoria
(@McMcMc0103) September 19, 2021
Twitter users also noted that Blackmer had no problem taking nearly $55,000 from the government during the pandemic to prop up his business, which was intended to allow employees and communities to stay safe and take precautions against the virus without financial damages.
Blackmer appears to have shut down Hang Time’s Facebook page in response to the criticisms. And yes, he might be able to make certain requirements for his establishment, but that doesn’t leave him immune to backlash over what many see as a poor, unsafe, and illogical decision.
*First Published: September 20, 2021, 7:58 am
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