Lesbian Couple Says Restaurant Kicked Them Out For Kissing
A lesbian couple says the District American Kitchen & Wine Bar, located inside the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, asked them to leave after they hugged and kissed. They were reportedly spotted in an embrace during their anniversary celebration, reports the Arizona Republic.
Arizona Equality Executive Director Nick Ray said: “I finally was able to speak to the general manager of the hotel. I’m not sure they really actually had a sense of the degree of anger they caused in the community, which they added to last night because they deleted dozens of (negative) comments off their Facebook page.”
According to Ray, Sheraton management was scheduled to meet with the couple on Tuesday: “My guess is going to be that this individual employee didn’t know how to deal with the situation and felt like he had to make a snap decision.“
A message posted on District Kitchen’s Facebook page Tuesday morning said the restaurant was “taking this incident very seriously.”
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Apparently several of you think that a heterosexual couple making out would have been ignored? The couple were making a disturbance and other customers complained. End of story.
I don't understand the homosexuals acting out in public and then getting upset that people are offended. Look around. Heterosexuals aren't usually necking or walking around with their hands in each other's rear pockets or rubbing each other suggestively in public. Believe it or not, if heterosexuals were behaving that way, people around them would complain about them too.
If you want to be treated like everyone else, then act like everyone else. Keep public displays of affection "G" rated and get a room when you want to go further.
Good. I would tell them to leave my establishment too. I don't have to look at anyone's disgusting display.
I hope you are joking. Do they kick out a heterosexual couple celebrating an anniversary if they hug and kiss?
Why is this considered news? If it was a straight couple, nothing would be thought. Since the couple was gay, it can't be that they were over doing it......it must be homophobia! Like gays can't be as tacky as everyone else!
Private establishments can make their own rules, thus, they will reap the consequences of their business strategy and policies.
- The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.-
Incorrect! A business open to the public must follow the law. The Sheraton Phoenix Hotel is a place of public accommodations and bound by State/Federal anti-discrimination laws. If the couple was not invovled in boisterous,lewd or immoral conduct the Sheraton had no legitimate business reason to deny them access/service. The courts have consistently upheld the constitutional interest of equal access outweighing a business owner's right to exclude.
Incorrect! Arizona AG website says this:
"Arizona law makes it unlawful for a public accommodation to discriminate because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex or disability."
It says nothing about sexual orientation, or personal conduct. By your logic, it should be unlawful or public accommodation establishments to place signs denying access to individuals carrying concealed firearms. It is a Second Amendment right to possess and carry a firearm.
- The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.-
Federal law, which includes sexual orientation, trumps state law (notice I wrote "State/Federal"). Personal conduct would be a "legitimate business reason". The business owner is within his right to have you removed if you are disruptive. And conduct is addressed under Az anti-discrimination law. Your gun analogy is irrelevant, the 2nd amendment doesn't address discrimination.
But to answer your question, it is perfectly legal for business owners to ban guns from their property. The saftey concerns for their other customers would again be a "legitimate business reason."
blah, blah, blah......this is a worn out subject and everyone knows it - there are far more important things going on in this country than a couple of people who can't wait until they get into their car to be intimate.
And the civil rights act is bs, I think that's an end around property rights and it's un-constitutional. I just don't see that public accommodation is more important than property rights. I understand why the act(s) were passed, I just don't agree with them. I think it was an artificial way to force bigots to serve the colored man. They bent the shit out of the constitution to right a wrong, and now that it been bent so many times it weakened the integrity of the charter.