Barney’s Scraps Anti-Gay Slur

A legal confrontation looming over a West Hollywood ordinance that prohibits discrimination against homosexuals was averted today when a restaurant owner agreed to stop distributing matchbooks printed with anti-gay slogans.

Irwin Held, owner of Barney’s Beanery, a restaurant and bar that has been a Santa Monica Boulevard fixture since the 1920s, said he would comply with a West Hollywood City Council request to withdraw matchbooks that warn: “Fagots Stay Out.” Held, who earlier threatened court action to protect the matchbooks, also agreed to remove a bar sign with the same slogan.