Indiana Brewery Brings in Big Freedia to Support LGBT Rights

Every year Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Ind., hosts a Dark Lord Day celebrating the brewery's own Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, what many craft-brewery enthusiasts consider the finest brew in the world. It's the only day the stout is available for purchase, making the event a bona fide bash. Usually the day is filled with live music of the heavy metal varitey.

This year, owner Nick Floyd says some folks asked him to cancel the event to protest his state's controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which in its original form (it's since been amended) could have been used to discriminate against LGBT people. But Floyd had a better idea: Make the party itself a protest.

So Floyd reached out to Big Freedia, the gender-bending gay bounce artist and Fuse reality television star, and invited her and her crew to Indiana to twerk things up at the event, which happens Saturday. (To keep the event somehwat traditional, several metal bands, including Corrosion of Conformity and Pallbearer, are also on the bill.)

"We're fighting the power of the governor of Indiana over the freedom of religion act, or whatever it's called, that basically makes it legal to discriminate against anyone," Floyd told an interviewer.

To those who say he should cancel the event, Floyd says, "I tell them, 'Look, Dark Lord Day is the biggest 'fuck you' to that law. We're fighting back, and the best thing to do is come here and support us."

Big Freedia is thrilled to lend a hand. "It's an opportunity to share my music and to get fans into the culture of bounce music and the message to let everyone be free to express yourself, be who you are, and live life to the fullest extent possible," she said.

The brewery is taking the protest one step further by developing a beer tribute to the androgynous singer. The Big Freedia Ale, which will debut on Dark Lord Day, is a pink daiquiri-like Belgian brew.

"People should expect to have a belly full of Big Freedia beer and to get those asses bouncing," says Freedia.

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