After Violet Chachki alleged on Twitter that French gay sex club Le Dépôt 'dragged her out' during a Paris Fashion Week party because she presented as 'too femme', she posted live video of an altercation with the club's bouncers.
Consequently, social media went into uproar.
Thousands left 1-star reviews and comments on the well-known club's Facebook page, berating the venue for its alleged stance against femme-presenting gay men, and seemingly only allowing 'masc' men into its downstairs area reserved for sexual intercourse.
Soon after, the club turned off its review function on Facebook, and today, they have publicly responded to the allegations, saying that the allegations against them were false.
They allege that it was the drag queen's behaviour, rather than her appearance, that found her kicked out of the club.
Le Dépôt wrote in a statement:
“Le Dépôt has been a gay club for 19 years. It is a true institution of the Parisian nightlife that respects all the LGBTQ communities and in particular every gay individual, whether they chose to express their personality in a masculine, feminine or androgynous way. The club is a place where all the sexualities are respected.
"Violet Chachki was indeed expelled from the club at 4:00 am following an unacceptable and inappropriate behavior inside the club with the other clients. Violet Chachki posted videos of the Cruising Sex space of Le Dépôt on her Instagram account when this is explicitly forbidden by the internal rules and regulations as she was reminded several times. She also tried to go downstairs with female clients when the space is just for male clients.
"There never was any judgement about Chachki’s gender, looks, color of skin or overall appearance. He was welcomed inside without any discrimation just like all the other clients.
"He wasn’t denied the access at the entrance; there was neither transphobia nor any discrimination towards him/her, just enforcement of the rules and regulations of the club.
"Furthermore, Violet was very aggressive with the security staff, who stayed polite despite the insults, as you can see on the video. His excessive behaviour disturbed the event."
The club went on to say that they would move forward with legal action, should they need to.
"The club promotes every campaign about the discriminations against LGBTQI people and has never been targeted by such a defamatory campaign. If necessary, the direction of the club is ready to take legal action.”
