He said that he tried to intervene in a liquor-license transfer out of concerns related to health-code violations and that his intervention isn’t what shuttered the bar. Singer, who’s owned a building next to Boxers and has had a presence in the neighborhood for years, said he’s not motivated by hate or homophobia. People were angry - it wasn’t the first bar in the Gayborhood to be shuttered - and some showed up at the bar Sunday for a fundraiser to support the 20 employees newly out of jobs. A Philadelphia gay bar posted a notice on Facebook last week that it was “officially closed due to hate.” The post was a photo of a flier that blamed its lack of a liquor license on a “well connected wealthy man' motivated by hate.Ĭomments poured in from customers and community members, who began looking into the man, real estate developer David Singer, who had no direct connection with the operations of Boxers PHL, an outpost of a chain of sports bars that serve an LGBTQ clientele.