The Stud, SoMa's historic queer nightclub, is asking for help after the venue's Instagram account was suspended. The collective's owners assert the suspension resulted from posts promoting trans events at the club being falsely flagged as "engaging in human trafficking."

The loss of access to Instagram puts the Stud's ability to promote plans and draw crowds for Sunday's annual Dore Alley street fair at major risk. In a video posted to her personal Instagram, drag artist and Stud Collective co-owner Honey Mahogany detailed the situation facing the venue at a most unfortunate time.

"The Stud’s Instagram account was just shut down by Meta," Mahogany begins, explaining that the club's suspension arrives after unknown parties started flagging the venue's posts about trans parties as human trafficking.

She then goes on to note that the club's promoter-driven nature makes losing the Stud's primary social media channel the day before Dore Alley — "a major gay weekend that we rely on to keep us afloat through the leaner months ahead" — truly disastrous.

"The Stud is a labor of love," Mahogany continues. "We are a collectively owned venue where none of the owners have seen a profit. We keep the place open on a razor-thin margin so having our only source of marketing shut down this weekend is going to be devastating to our club and puts us at risk.

In response, Mahogany and her fellow Stud Collective co-owners are calling on anyone with connections at Meta (Instagram's parent company) to help them recover the account before more damage is done:

"We’re asking the Stud community for help. If anyone out there works for Meta or works for tech and can help us, we need you. We hope that if Meta is made aware of this mistake and this targeted harassment, they won’t shut down the account of this historic LGBT institution right in their backyard."

The Stud's Instagram suspension resulting from anti-trans attacks targeting the venue follows an incident at Tuesday's SF Board of Supervisors meeting that saw them quickly end a call from a remote public commenter using anti-gay slurs but later permit another caller to deliver an anti-trans rant uninterrupted.

Related: SF District Attorney Announces Charges Against 18 ‘Stud Alley’ Block Party Attendees

Image: Jay Barmann/SFist