After several well-known LGBTQ-owned businesses launched successful fundraising campaigns, other businesses followed, with mixed results.
Two of the most successful were by South of Market s internationally acclaimed nightclub and cabaret Oasis (raising $268,000 in a 12-hour telethon) and the Castro s Twin Peaks Tavern (raising $110,000 through GoFundMe).
But when Arlen Lasater, the owner of Daddy s Barbershop in the Castro, launched its fundraiser the campaign fizzled, he conceded. As of May 3, 32 people have donated $3,650, barely making a dent in his ambitious $100,000 goal. It hasn t worked out so far, said Lasater.
Lasater, a 61-year-old gay man, was strongly opposed to asking the public for money, he told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview outside his 19th Street storefront. I thought it sounded like begging, he said.
Hope is on the horizon for small businesses within state’s proposed $9.6 billion spending deal
Governor Newsom and state legislative leaders have reached an agreement on a $9.6 billion spending deal to help those affected most by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s no secret, small businesses have been hurting throughout the coronavirus pandemic, but hope is on the horizon.
“The rules that California has put in place have done an incredible amount of harm to small businesses and the least that we can do is to be able to provide some assistance,” said Assemblyman Chad Mayes.
That assistance is in the form of over two billion dollars worth of one-time grants for small businesses and nonprofits as a part of California’s proposed spending deal.