This right-wing Idaho saloon hosted a failed ‘Hetero Awesome Fest.’ It could become a gay bar

A GoFundMe has been set up to buy an Idaho bar with famously anti-LGBTQ+ owners and turn it into a gay bar.

Barely a year after Old State Saloon owner Mark Fitzpatrick hosted “Hetero Awesome Fest” for an audience of mere dozens, he has put the Boise-area bar on the market. Now, Montgomery Kuykendall has just the idea for what to do with it.

“We're raising money to buy Old State Saloon in Eagle, Idaho and turn it into a gay bar,” Kuykendall wrote on a GoFundMe page last week. “The property is currently for sale, which means there is a very real window to take a place that has become nationally known for its politics and turn it into something radically different: a permanent LGBTQ+ bar, nightlife destination, and community space for the Treasure Valley.”

Related: 'Hetero Awesome Fest' in Idaho concludes with fighting, low attendance, and racism scandal

The goal is to raise $3 million to buy the bar. As of Wednesday, the campaign had raised about $6,180. Kuykendall hopes to use the building as both a nightclub and a safe community and organizing space during the day. An illustration posted with the campaign depicts it as “The New State Saloon.”

This would be quite a transformation. Fitzpatrick infamously promoted last year’s event as a “celebration of traditional gender norms and heterosexual awesomeness” and an alternative to Pride Month events in June. But it unfolded disastrously. Attendance was low, Fitzpatrick cut short a pro-LGBTQ musician’s performance after the artist showed up wearing a rainbow jacket with pink triangle patches, and a podcaster promoted the event by bragging about how few Black people live in the community.

But that’s just part of Fitzpatrick’s right-wing marketing. His bar offered free drinks to patrons who provided tips to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that resulted in deportations, a promotion amplified by the Homeland Security Department. It also hosted a “Conspiracy Theory Trivia Night,” during which patrons with the greatest knowledge of chemtrail theories and QAnon conspiracies could win a free AR-15.

The property is listed for $2.4 million. That price includes a third of an acre in downtown Eagle and a 4,800-square-foot building. The bar’s liquor license is also listed for $500,000.

The $3 million goal of Kuykendall’s fundraising effort would cover both asking prices and leave an additional $100,000 to help complete the deal.

“It's a real building, with a real liquor license, perfect for hosting music, events, drag, drinks, community nights, celebrations, ridiculous parties, and a place that belongs to the people who actually show up for it, but we don't want this to just be a bar,” the GoFundMe page reads. “We want the building to be useful to the community when the dance floor is quiet, too.”

The plan is to host educational workshops, art shows, and nonprofit fundraisers at the venue and donate 2 to 5 percent of the business’s weekly proceeds to the ACLU of Idaho and the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise.

“A place associated with division can become a place where people meet,” the page reads. “A bar can become a community venue. A business can help fund organizations working for civil rights.”

If the effort falls short, the organizers say that any money not used to complete the purchase will be donated to pro-LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups.

“If we can't turn this particular building into something better, then the money raised trying to do it should still accomplish something consistent with why people donated in the first place,” the fundraising page states.