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‘You need to leave now’: Brisbane man kicked out of Wickham Hotel for wearing Trump hat as staff claimed people ‘won’t feel safe’
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‘You need to leave now’: Brisbane man kicked out of Wickham Hotel for wearing Trump hat as staff claimed people ‘won’t feel safe’

A Brisbane man is demanding an apology from a popular city center bar after he was kicked out for wearing a Trump hat at a Halloween event.

Rob Holt spoke to 4BC’s Peter Fegan on Tuesday and told the popular breakfast radio host he attended a Halloween party at the Wickham Hotel in Brisbane on Sunday and was told by a member of staff he had to leave because people might be disturbed by his hat.

“We went there with my wife and 6-year-old daughter. When we arrived everything was fine. We went to the back of the bar and there was a dance party going on. So we were there for a few hours,” Mr. Holt said.

But as he prepared to leave, Mr Holt said he noticed a member of staff who he said was watching him, calling his manager and several colleagues who were looking after him.

“My wife and daughter came out and I was just getting up from my chair and the actual lady who was looking at me from behind the bar came up to me,” he told 4BC.

The Brisbane dad said he wanted to know if staff were leaving and when he asked why he was leaving, he said it was “Because you’re wearing a Trump hat… we’re a gay bar.”

When asked what this had to do with anything, the staff member said: “People here don’t feel safe with people wearing (Trump-branded) clothing coming into this bar.”

“‘What do you mean? Just because of my hat?’ I said. The Trump supporter said, “Yes, you need to go now.”

The Brisbane man said everyone was “having a great time” before this.

“You can usually tell if someone has a different belief than you because they might make a frown or something like that. None of this happened. Everyone was sincere. “Everyone was going about their day and doing their job,” he said.

“Only when I returned to the bar did it become clear that an employee was responsible for the situation.”

Mr. Holt told Fegan that given it was a Halloween event, people might be offended by a lot of what he was wearing, but his hat shouldn’t be a problem.

“The hat literally says Trump 2024 and it has three gold stars on it,” he said.

“I could tell if they were using offensive language or if someone was making a rude gesture or something like that (like some people were wearing hats or shirts), but there was nothing like that.”

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He said he asked staff if anyone was offended and, if so, what they said, but staff “just kept repeating: ‘Oh, we’re a gay bar.’ You can’t do this here. You can’t have that here.”

“I wasn’t angry, it was more frustrating and confusing at the time because it didn’t have a legitimate reason in my eyes,” he said.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Hey, look, there’s some people here who might be a little mad at your hat… can you take your hat off?’ if he said.

“Still asking him why (about) etc. I would ask a question, but (I would take it out).”

He said he asked staff what would happen if he was asked to leave a business because he was wearing a pride hat or said he couldn’t enter because of his ideology, but the employee “just… drew a face that looked displeased and said” walked away.”

Mr Holt stated that he expected an apology from the Wickham Hotel, stating that the incident took place in front of his wife and daughter, and then his six-year-old child asked him why the staff came to him.

“I would like them to reach out and say it was a mistake or something like that,” he said.

“It would be nice to hear from them, but you know, it’s their choice.”

SkyNews.com.au contacted the Wickham Hotel for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.