By Maria Perez
Staff Writer
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The owner of a bar in Texas claims he was accused of turning away a gay man for wearing heels but says that is not why the patron was turned away.
Ben Rios wrote on Facebook on Sunday that he was out with some friends on Saturday night when they decided to stop by Voodoo Niteclub Corpus Christi. Rios, pictured in heels and makeup, said he was wearing heels and makeup when a bouncer at the club told him that he was "out of dress code." The man at the door also allegedly told Rios that because he is a man, he should not be wearing heels or makeup.
"If the purpose of this 'dress code' policy is to exclude LGBTQ people from entering, then the dress code is not any different...putting up a sign that states we don't serve your kind," Rios wrote. "Treating people this way is not okay."
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Newsweek has reached out to Rios for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
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But the owner of the bar, who is also gay, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that he did not turn Rios away because of his outfit. VooDoo NiteClub owner Eddie Djilali told the publication that Rios and another man were stopped at the door because they fit the description of two other men who had been accused of recording cellphone videos of women in the women's bathroom the weekend before.
"We wanted to make sure they weren't the same people who were recording women in the bathroom. That is our policy," Djilali told the publication. "You cannot record in the restrooms. I don't know why someone would do that."
On Monday, the nightclub posted a statement to Facebook stating that the men had walked away from the club when the manager arrived to the door to identify the two men.
"The bouncer denied access to these two people until the manager arrived to verify that these were or were not the same two men involved in the previous week's incident," the statement read. "Upon the manager arriving at the front door, the customers had already left."
The nightclub apologized for the incident but said they were just trying to protect their other customers.
"We welcome every customer. We do not support any homophobic action in denying our customers entry. We welcome with open arms every race and we welcome any one regardless of their gender based clothing," the statement read. "We have men dressed as women all the time come into our club and vice versa."
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