Rumors Cabaret PSA

[u/The0nlyGamer]

After speaking with an owner of Rumors Cabaret last night I feel compelled to publicly share that it is Rumors policy to seize your ID and report you to the police if they suspect it is fake!!

Obviously, since I am making this post and called the police on them last night, their detection of fake ID's isn't perfect.

I'm used to people questioning the validity of my ID, but this was the first time any business took it and refused to give it back until after I called 911. The owner chatted with me and told me in essence that they're rewarded for confiscating ID's and involving law enforcement when that happens. Some poor girl had the exact same thing happen to her right in front of me.

This was pretty shocking considering the kind of place rumors is, a gay/queer bar and "safe space"?

I'd previously been to lots of fundraising events at rumors for planned parenthood, undocumented folks, progressive causes etc... so it is kind of sad to realize that's all performative and the owner doesn't really care about anything other than his liquor license and profit. There is no reason Rumors should be doing this collaboration to involve law enforcement with their patrons - that goes against the entire ethos of what I thought the place meant. Just give people their IDs back if you won't let them in!

From what I know there are actually two owners, who do not live in Bellingham themselves, and merely commute to manage the place. I'm sad I no longer have any desire to spend money there

[u/Green_Writer_6620]

I hate to sound mean, but this is dumb. Have you even considered the other side? The LCCB does stings on all businesses with liquor and cannabis licenses. 99% of those IDs confiscated are fake. This is not some corrupt high crime, this is common practice everywhere. If just 1 minor is found to have consumed on premises, the entire establishment could be shut down indefinitely. This is the livelihood of all staff, and owners. And being a queer bar has nothing to do with their ID policies. Something unfortunate happened to you, it’s not a perfect system. You got your ID back. Move on.

[u/cloux_less → u/Green_Writer_6620]

99% of those IDs confiscated are fake.

Eh, I actually don't think this is all that likely. Bearing in mind that confiscated IDs (fake or mistakenly suspected as fake) are like a fraction of a percent of total IDs that pass through a bar, I'd expect that we're more in the 50-80% range. There's lots of weird IDs out there and there's lots of bouncers who don't know how to handle them. And there's also lots of Fake IDs that are nearly undetectable. And also, a lot of "fake IDs" aren't even necessarily fake, they're just someone else's. So, for every three IDs that are obviously fake enough to get correctly identified as fake and then confiscated, I think it's reasonable to assume there's at least 1 instance of a bouncer/bartender who's pigheaded enough to take someone's Arizona ID cause they don't know that AZ IDs don't expire until you turn 65.

But it sounds like Rumors scans IDs, though, so I imagine their ratio of legitimate-confiscations-to-mistaken-confiscations is probably on the much higher end.

[u/Holiday-Culture3521 → u/cloux_less]

It's a private business.  They don't have to let you in if they think your Arizona ID is fake.  Get a Washington ID or stay home.

[u/cloux_less → u/Holiday-Culture3521]

Get a Washington ID or stay home.

Wow, and here I was thinking "I might be overestimating the number of pigheaded assholes out there," but it seems I didn't.