'This is horrible!' Gay club slammed over leaked photographer's brief
A Melbourne gay club has been slammed after a leaked document revealed a list of discriminatory instructions for photographers about who they should and shouldn’t photograph at the venue.
Poof Doof, a bar in South Yarra, was forced to apologise on its Facebook page after the photographer’s brief was posted online.
The damning document explains via bullet points the types of patrons that can be photographed, including:
• “Boys. Poof Doof is a gay club for homos. No one is here to see girls. Ever.”
• “Boys with muscles. Big ones. The kind of muscles that come about from spending at least five sessions a week at the gym.”
• “Hot boys. If you want to lick their faces because they look so delicious, take a photo.”
In a separate list, organisers featured a list of people who should NOT be photographed for the club’s website and social media pages.
Among the second list were “boys with bad skin”, “skinny boys in burgundy t-shirts and chinos”, “messy boys” and “indi boys”.
The only exception was indi boys who “are BREATHTAKINGLY good looking or epically stylish”.
After being shared on social media, hundreds of comments were posted slamming the club’s organisers.
“Great way to build up moral for young gay adults that are trying to build up their self confidence,” one man wrote.
“Now I understand why I never got a photo or my friends never got a photo. We weren’t the right IMAGE for poof doof.
“Here’s a suggestion. Whoever your next photographer for the following weekend make them post all photos of people. All shapes and sizes, sexes. It will show the real diversity of Poof. Because even though that brief was for years ago, the photos haven’t changed. So in my view it’s the exact same brief being used today.”
A photographer with experience working in clubs said she was floored by the “horrible” brief.
“I have NEVER ever seen anything written up like this, and I’ve spent 20 years in the fashion/photo industry. This is so horrible! They need a wake-up call,” she wrote.
Apologetic club says Poof Doof is a venue for everyone
A spokesperson for Poof Doof told Yahoo News they regret the brief, and are now doing everything they can to listen to the community and make the club as “inclusive as possible”.
“We’re extremely sorry for the hurt our actions have caused. Our tagline used to be “a gay club for homos”, this is when the brief was written, many years ago. It’s now “a gay club for everyone”.
“We love our community so much and are now actively listening and learning to be as inclusive as possible. We are committed to making an incredible space for everyone and we need to listen to our community in order to do that. We have no formal brief now but will be working to create one and implement some other changes.”
The club also addressed the document on their Facebook page, and vowed to introduce a new set of policies.
“We would like to apologise. We made a mistake… For everyone who has ever felt discrimination in any capacity, we all know that feeling. If you have ever felt discrimination in our space, that’s not good enough and we are taking full responsibility to fix it,” the statement read.
The club also asked for suggestions on how to improve, and opened a survey for past and future patrons to submit their feedback.
Stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo7’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
