The Chapel Cancels Breitbart Meetup Upon Learning Identity of Organizers [UPDATED]

UPDATED: March 15, 2016, 12:43pm. New details below.

The Chapel, a music venue located in San Francisco’s Mission District, canceled a meetup of Breitbart News fans two days before the event was to take place after learning it was connected to the conservative site, according to reports.

The free event featured controversial Breitbart Tech Editor Milo Yiannopoulos as a speaker and over 500 attendees had RSVP’d on the event’s Meetup page.

“Had enough of Obama’s trampling of the Constitution and squelching of American freedoms?” the event page asks. “Join like-minded conservatives and make new friends as we discuss and share ideas about liberty, politics, and culture at the first-ever We Are Breitbart – San Francisco Meetup.”

Chapel owner Jack Knowles told the SF Gate on Monday that he removed the event from his venue’s calendar after seeing it was Breitbart-related, which he said wasn’t made clear when the organizers reached out to him back in February. At the time of the booking, he was told that they were only Republicans, and he later described the organizers’ tactics as being “sneaky.”

“I’m in favor of free speech, but this is not about free speech,” Knowles told the SF Gate.

The Chapel hosts political events — it’s hosting a viewing of the Democratic Primary results Tuesday, which is being promoted by supporters of Hillary Clinton — but Knowles said that after becoming more familiar with the website, he realized he didn’t want the venue associated with it.

Breitbart.com was started by fiery conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart in 2007, five years before he died of a heart attack. The site has been a prominent voice in right wing politics and recently came under fire for not standing up for one of its reporters after she was allegedly assaulted by Donald Trump’s campaign manager.

Those planning to attend the event have been leaving angry comments on the Meetup event page about the cancellation.

“THE CHAPEL CANCELLED ON US! All you have to do is call us a group of racists and we’re silenced,” We Are Breitbart San Francisco member nathan h. wrote on the event page. “The show must go on! I’m really pissed because once again, self-proclaimed anti-fascists are acting as fascists.”

UPDATE: The California editor of Breitbart News reached out to KQED Arts and forwarded emails between Andrew Greider, Breitbart’s director of community events, and Patricia Gums, the Chapel’s director of private events. In an exchange from Feb. 24 provided by the website, Greider clearly identifies the Meetup being associated with Breitbart.

“One other thing – the organization hosting the meetup is Breitbart News Network,” Greider wrote. “Breitbart is a conservative news and opinion website, so the topics we will be discussing will relate to conservative political issues. This is NOT a political rally – the meet-up is a gathering of our readers to meet in a social setting and discuss issues that are important to them and hear from one of our experts. I just bring this up because I want to make sure that we are respectful of your venue and not disruptive to any other guests you might have.”

Gums appeared to be acknowledging Greider’s statement in her response, which was included in the email exchange provided to KQED.

“We do host a Happy Hour here called “Sinner’s Hour”, so hopefully that is not in contrast with your topics? Some of the drink names are called ” Nail in the Coffin” and “Crown of Thorns” because we used to be a mortuary. Do you think that would be ok?” Gums wrote.