Instagram Suspends Yet Another San Francisco Queer Bar’s Account & Reinstates it Following Outcry
Powerhouse is the latest LGBTQ+ venue that advocates say was censored by Meta.
The Instagram account of legendary San Francisco leather bar Powerhouse has was suspended and then reinstated following community backlash and accusations of censorship. This suspension is the latest in what appears to be an emerging pattern of LGBTQ+ accounts being targeted by the social media company.
It comes only weeks before the city’s famous Folsom leather festival. Now advocates say Meta, the parent company of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, has been targeting queer venues, especially around major LGBTQ+ events in the city.
Executive director of San Francisco’s Office of Transgender Initiatives and co-founder of the city’s transgender district, Honey Mahogany, posted a video on the platform. It comes only a couple of weeks after the bar she co-owns, the Stud, also had its Instagram account suspended briefly.
“So here we are again, another iconic queer venue here in San Francisco has lost its Instagram and its Facebook,” Mahogany said in the video. “SF Powerhouse has lost access to its primary method of communication with its community, its primary way of getting the word out about events, and this is devastating for small businesses, especially queer small businesses here in San Francisco that are operating on razor-thin margins.”
Shortly after Mahogany’s video went up the Powerhouse account was reinstated.
“This is clearly an issue that is going to be ongoing,” she said. “I’ve heard from other venues all across the country, other queer groups, and this is not okay. And we need to flag this for Meta so that they know that they need to fix this.”
GO has reached out to the owner of Powerhouse and to Meta for comment.
GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group, condemned the move by Meta.
“It is appalling that a company as huge as Meta is selectively shutting down LGBTQ voices with no accountability. These accounts are not in violation of any policies, but are presumably somehow being errantly flagged by AI moderation systems,” a spokesperson told GO. “This is an extremely serious systemic problem that Meta is now fully aware of. After the countless other unwarranted LGBTQ account deactivations this past year, we’ve seen Instagram creators and digital rights groups speaking out around the world. Meta must fix this problem, now.”
Besides the ones in San Francisco, other recent cases of Meta suspending queer accounts include a drag performer and business owner banned in North Carolina, and a wave of suspensions hitting LGBTQ+ accounts across Australia and New Zealand, GLAAD notes.
GLAAD recently told GO that since the beginning of 2025, the company has made several changes to its policies that are anti-LGBTQ+ — including explicitly stating that LGBTQ+ people are not protected from hateful rhetoric labeling them “mentally ill” and “abnormal.”
The organization’s 2026 Social Media Safety Index found these policies continue to cause ongoing harm to LGBTQ+ people across Meta’s platforms.
