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Florida elementary school slammed for taking kids on field trip to gay bar & grill

Elementary students at Rosie's Bar and Grill in Wilton Manors, Florida
Elementary students at Rosie's Bar and Grill in Wilton Manors, Florida Photo: Sarah Leonardi

Local parents are upset that a Florida elementary school took students on a field trip to a cheeky gay restaurant and bar.

While the restaurant’s food items have slightly risque names and drag queens perform, Rosie’s Bar & Grill is primarily a restaurant and becomes a bar in the evening – long after school has been dismissed.

Related: Watch this 6-year-old spontaneously take the stage at a drag show & flawlessly perform “This Is Me”

“I was SO honored to be invited to chaperone Wilton Manors Elementary’s field trip to the incredible Rosie’s!” Broward County school board member Sarah Leonardi posted on Facebook. “The students and I had a fun walk over and learned a lot about our community! A huge thank you to Rosie’s Bar and Grill for hosting this special field trip every year!”

The post included photos of the group sitting at tables, coloring pictures of pumpkins, and posing in front of the restaurant’s sign.

The post drew quick blowback from conservatives who seemed to be under the impression that the business is a smoke-filled den of hedonism rather than a restaurant known for their chicken sandwiches and hamburgers.

Many of the menu items’ names are puns or drag queen names like the “Tender Lovin'” chicken tenders or the “Rhoda Cowboy” burger, which particularly enraged conservatives online even though they didn’t know if the students even saw a menu.

“This is evil, wrong and bad for the poor children,” Tom Payne responded to the post. “You should be fired and then sued for child endangerment.” School board members are not employees of the district.

“Whether you come for lunch or dinner, for Sunday Funday Brunch or for just a few drinks… whether you are LBGTQ+ or an ally…whether you are local or visiting… whether you come with a group or venture out solo… you will have a memorable experience with the most talented crew in South Florida,” the bar and grill says on their website.

But Paul Wagner took the time to look a little deeper and responded, “I’m looking at the pictures, and I really don’t see anything offensive (as long as the kids didn’t see an adult menu). Be different if it was a strip club with a stage and poles. IMHO might be blowing this just a bit out of proportion here.”

“New vocabulary word for the children: debauchery, perversion, sodomy, transgression, witchcraft, domestic, terrorism, alcoholism, suicide,” Kevin Newton posited as if the kids were going to go out and bomb churches or hex heterosexuals after eating a sandwich. “Pretty advanced words for little kids.”

“What type of field trip is this?… It’s a BAR. Since when is a bar, gay or straight , considered a good learning experience?” Mitch Spera asked, even though “bar & grill” is such a common name for a restaurant that even Applebee’s uses it. “Explain how a bar or restaurant for that matter is educational. What happened to historical sites or institutions? You should be cancelled !!! Oh yes, and fired.”

None of the men thundering online with righteous indignation live in Florida.

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