‘It’s no different than the flu’: Texas nightclub owners organize protest in Austin to reopen bars

Bars in Texas were forced to close again after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the businesses to do so last Friday in a response to the recent spike of COVID-19 cases in the Lone Star State.

Nightclub owners Chris and Helen Bergeron from Pasadena were “shocked” by Abbott’s orders and have since organized a peaceful protest at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Austin to reopen the bars. The protest will take place at the Texas Capital.

“It doesn’t make no sense whatsoever and it’s totally discrimination is all it is,” Chris said about Aboott’s bar closure. “I’m not sure why they are picking on us … I don’t know what (the governor’s) reasons are, but it’s wrong. It’s completely wrong. It’s totally against our constitutional right.”

As part of Abbott’s “Open Texas” plan, bars were allowed to reopen at 25 percent operating capacity on May 22 after being closed for months to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The capacity at bars was expanded to 50 percent on June 12.

READ ALSO: Gov. Greg Abbott closes Texas bars once again amid COVID-19 spike

The Bergerons said they were disappointed when they had to close the first time in March after having just opened their new nightclub, Chuters. The couple said if they would have had to kept the club closed any longer, they would have had to close down the business for good. Now, Helen said she doesn’t know if they will last this time around as Abbott has not given a reopen date for bars.

While they were open for the last month, Chris said they nightclub ensured social distancing measures but business was slower than usual.

“Our capacity is 581 and at 50 percent it’s 290, but we maybe had around 140 people come in because people are still scared to get out because they are telling everybody how dangerous this (coronavirus) is when it’s no different than the flu,” he said.

When the Bergerons first organized the protest, they said it was no more than 20 people heading to Austin. The couple now expects around 1,000 people to show up on Tuesday.

“We want to be acknowledged and we want to open back up,” Chris said. “That’s all we are asking. Let us go back to work. We need to be able to survive and get back to work. We want to make an honest living and let people get back to a normal life.”

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | [email protected] | @CillaAguirre