Newsweek
On Tuesday, Texas bar owners protested the Texas capitol building in Austin, declaring “Bar Lives Matter” in response to Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s June 26 order to close all drinking establishments. Abbott’s order sought to stop his state’s dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases.
Appropriating language from Black Lives Matter protests against anti-Black police violence, Tuesday’s protest speakers told bar owners to reopen their establishments in defiance of Abbott’s order, according to KXAN.
On the protest’s Facebook event page, organizers wrote that bars had been scapegoated for the state’s rise in newly confirmed coronavirus cases.
“No other businesses are being shut down. It’s wrong and affecting the livelihood of hundreds of thousands across the state. From owners to bartenders, waitresses, entertainers… we will all take the hit,” the event page read. “It’s up to us to take a stand and let our voices be heard as loud as the people that caused the numbers to go up.”
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