A_Wanderer
ONE love, blood, life
Government is a whole different thing; everybody pays taxes amd everybody deserves equal opportunity to government services. At the end of the day everybody is an owner.Judah said:
Hell No, No Gay Kissing In My Pub
- Thread starter MrsSpringsteen
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
toscano
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Wasn't there a Denny's lawsuit a few years ago claiming discrimination against certain customers ? I believe Denny's lost, so maybe "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" doesn't really hold any more
Vincent Vega
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
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MrsSpringsteen
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Kansas City Star March 16th
COMMENTARY
Lesbian kiss falls flatter than a pancake
By MIKE HENDRICKS
Columnist
Just one kiss. That’s all it took — to get thrown out of the IHOP in Grandview.
“It was a kiss I would share with my uncle,” Blair Funk told me. Except it wasn’t her uncle she kissed. It was her honey, Eva Sandoval.
Two young women sharing a kiss didn’t seem inappropriate to the other couple in the restaurant booth that night, Jackie Smith and the woman with whom she shares her life, Toni Smith. But someone watching the scene was offended.
So later, the manager confronted them in the lobby and told them to get out.
The way Blair tells it, “He said, ‘I have to tell you, we’ve had some complaints about public displays of affection, and we’re a family restaurant. We can’t accept it, and we won’t accept it.’
“The way he worded it was like: We don’t accept you.”
These days it’s rare for gays and lesbians to be denied service in restaurants for acting like who they are. Blair assures me that she and Eva did nothing that wouldn’t have been appropriate for a man and a woman to do at a dinner date. No heavy makeout. No groping.
However, incidents like this one are not unheard of, and the people affected often can do nothing about it.
There is no federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Neither Kansas nor Missouri are among the few states that protect gay people from being discriminated against in areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.
Kansas City does have an ordinance protecting gays, as do St. Louis, Columbia and University City. But if you’re anywhere else in Missouri and you’re gay, you can legally be denied service in restaurant. Landlords can refuse to rent you a place to live.
You can even be canned from your job on the suspicion that you’re romantically inclined toward members of your own sex.
“Many people are shocked to hear that people can be fired from their jobs for being gay or being perceived to be gay,” says Julie Brueggemann, executive director of the Missouri gay rights group Promo.
That would change if bills pending in Kansas and Missouri would ever pass. It’s only the first year for Senate Bill 163 in Kansas. But the so-called Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, House Bill 819, has been up time and again.
And as in past years, it has almost zero chance in Jefferson City, says Rep. Jeneé Lowe, a Kansas City Democrat, the bill’s sponsor.
“It’s surprising to me,” Lowe says, “how many people think there’s federal legislation. But there is no law.”
No law, but there is power in public opinion. So the night that she and her friends were evicted from the restaurant, Jackie Smith started tapping furiously on her computer keyboard.
E-mails to the media yielded a TV report on Fox 4, as well as a call from me.
Promo and other civil rights groups responded with support. IHOP was apologetic.
“Thank you for taking the time to contact us concerning your experience at the IHOP in Grandview,” began the letter from someone identifying himself as the guest services representative at the company’s headquarters in Glendale, Calif.
“We are sorry to learn of the difficulties you encountered at this location. Please be assured that the matter will be shared with the proper individuals to address your concerns.”
When I called the Grandview restaurant for comment I was told to ring the company headquarters. But the P.R. director there failed to return my phone calls. However, I can tell you that the restaurant chain wants Blair, Eva, Jackie and Toni to come back for pancakes sometime.
“It is our hope,” the guest services rep wrote, “that you will once again allow us to earn your patronage.”
Jackie isn’t ruling it out entirely.
“But it’s not likely,” she said.
COMMENTARY
Lesbian kiss falls flatter than a pancake
By MIKE HENDRICKS
Columnist
Just one kiss. That’s all it took — to get thrown out of the IHOP in Grandview.
“It was a kiss I would share with my uncle,” Blair Funk told me. Except it wasn’t her uncle she kissed. It was her honey, Eva Sandoval.
Two young women sharing a kiss didn’t seem inappropriate to the other couple in the restaurant booth that night, Jackie Smith and the woman with whom she shares her life, Toni Smith. But someone watching the scene was offended.
So later, the manager confronted them in the lobby and told them to get out.
The way Blair tells it, “He said, ‘I have to tell you, we’ve had some complaints about public displays of affection, and we’re a family restaurant. We can’t accept it, and we won’t accept it.’
“The way he worded it was like: We don’t accept you.”
These days it’s rare for gays and lesbians to be denied service in restaurants for acting like who they are. Blair assures me that she and Eva did nothing that wouldn’t have been appropriate for a man and a woman to do at a dinner date. No heavy makeout. No groping.
However, incidents like this one are not unheard of, and the people affected often can do nothing about it.
There is no federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Neither Kansas nor Missouri are among the few states that protect gay people from being discriminated against in areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.
Kansas City does have an ordinance protecting gays, as do St. Louis, Columbia and University City. But if you’re anywhere else in Missouri and you’re gay, you can legally be denied service in restaurant. Landlords can refuse to rent you a place to live.
You can even be canned from your job on the suspicion that you’re romantically inclined toward members of your own sex.
“Many people are shocked to hear that people can be fired from their jobs for being gay or being perceived to be gay,” says Julie Brueggemann, executive director of the Missouri gay rights group Promo.
That would change if bills pending in Kansas and Missouri would ever pass. It’s only the first year for Senate Bill 163 in Kansas. But the so-called Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, House Bill 819, has been up time and again.
And as in past years, it has almost zero chance in Jefferson City, says Rep. Jeneé Lowe, a Kansas City Democrat, the bill’s sponsor.
“It’s surprising to me,” Lowe says, “how many people think there’s federal legislation. But there is no law.”
No law, but there is power in public opinion. So the night that she and her friends were evicted from the restaurant, Jackie Smith started tapping furiously on her computer keyboard.
E-mails to the media yielded a TV report on Fox 4, as well as a call from me.
Promo and other civil rights groups responded with support. IHOP was apologetic.
“Thank you for taking the time to contact us concerning your experience at the IHOP in Grandview,” began the letter from someone identifying himself as the guest services representative at the company’s headquarters in Glendale, Calif.
“We are sorry to learn of the difficulties you encountered at this location. Please be assured that the matter will be shared with the proper individuals to address your concerns.”
When I called the Grandview restaurant for comment I was told to ring the company headquarters. But the P.R. director there failed to return my phone calls. However, I can tell you that the restaurant chain wants Blair, Eva, Jackie and Toni to come back for pancakes sometime.
“It is our hope,” the guest services rep wrote, “that you will once again allow us to earn your patronage.”
Jackie isn’t ruling it out entirely.
“But it’s not likely,” she said.
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
Apalling.
Irvine511
Blue Crack Supplier
MrsSpringsteen said:
quite right.
and this is, ultimately, the most important thing.
people who mock gay people for comparing their struggle to the civil rights movement, or who who think that gay people have little to complain about because the gays they see are wealthy older men living in the West Village who vacation in Anguilla, really aren't aware of what it's like to be a gay person in non-coastal America and the fact that it is still perfectly, 100% legal to discriminate against people if you should so choose, becuase, of course, we don't want to trample on anyone's right to religious beliefs/expression. it's amazing when someone's religiously sanctioned right to discriminate trumps someone's right not to be fired from a job on the basis of sexual orientation.
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MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
I agree that religious beliefs are part of it (but many religious people believe differently, I do), but I also believe that part of it is that many people believe that being gay is a choice-whereas you don't choose to be black, a female, etc. I don't believe that and I think it's a complete crock to justify it based upon that belief. There needs to be legal protection- it's absolutely outrageous that people can be fired from jobs or denied employment or housing or anything. Kissing in an IHOP or a pub is just the beginning in the whole continuum.
joyfulgirl
Blue Crack Addict
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2001
- Messages
- 16,690
MrsSpringsteen said:
maybe the leather district isn't the best place to have a bar if you don't want men kissing each other
BoMac
Self-righteous bullshitter
redhotswami said:
sulawesigirl4 said:
Irvine511 said:
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MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
Re: Re: Hell No, No Gay Kissing In My Pub
It's not that kind of leather
I guess it's called that because maybe leather used to be produced/sold there, I don't know the exact history
"Boston's Leather District is a definitive example of the intermingling of professional, cultural and residential interests or what may be called the "New Urbanism".
Transformed in the 1970's and 80's from a mercantile area to a mix-use neighborhood of residential, light industrial, commercial and business uses, Boston's Leather District has been proclaimed by Boston Magazine as "like Greenwich Village or SoHo in the 1970s", deeming its income diversity and neighborliness strong."
Check out some of the comments on the KC Star site about that IHOP story
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=kr-kctm&tid=1221
joyfulgirl said:
It's not that kind of leather
I guess it's called that because maybe leather used to be produced/sold there, I don't know the exact history
"Boston's Leather District is a definitive example of the intermingling of professional, cultural and residential interests or what may be called the "New Urbanism".
Transformed in the 1970's and 80's from a mercantile area to a mix-use neighborhood of residential, light industrial, commercial and business uses, Boston's Leather District has been proclaimed by Boston Magazine as "like Greenwich Village or SoHo in the 1970s", deeming its income diversity and neighborliness strong."
Check out some of the comments on the KC Star site about that IHOP story
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=kr-kctm&tid=1221
joyfulgirl
Blue Crack Addict
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2001
- Messages
- 16,690
Re: Re: Re: Hell No, No Gay Kissing In My Pub
Oh.
MrsSpringsteen said:
It's not that kind of leather
Oh.
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MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
I thought of this thread after reading this story. Just unbelievable that a bus driver would strand two 14 year old girls like that. And we all know it would never have happened if it was a 14 year old boy and girl.
2 girls kicked off Oregon bus for kissing
By William McCall, Associated Press Writer | June 21, 2007
PORTLAND, Ore. --A transit agency chief apologized Wednesday to two teenage girls who were kicked off a city bus for kissing each other.
The girls, both 14, said the driver called them "sickos" after a female passenger complained about their kiss. The driver then stopped the bus along the street and forced them off.
"Removing the girls from the bus was not consistent with our policy," said TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen. "I want to reiterate that we welcome all riders on our system."
The 64-year-old driver also violated company policy that requires operators to call for assistance before removing any minors, TriMet said in a statement.
The driver, an 11-veteran who was not identified, will be disciplined, TriMet officials said, though no details were released.
"TriMet sincerely apologizes to the girls and their families for this incident," Hansen said in the statement.
The mother of one of the girls, Ronnda Zezula, welcomed the apology.
"The only thing I had a problem with is they didn't really address why the driver broke those policies," Zezula said. "He knew it was wrong. He's been a driver for 11 years."
She also said she wished the agency had made the extent of the disciplinary action public to show it will not "be just a slap on the wrist."
Zezula said the family has been encouraged to consider a lawsuit, but they will "have to mull it over."
2 girls kicked off Oregon bus for kissing
By William McCall, Associated Press Writer | June 21, 2007
PORTLAND, Ore. --A transit agency chief apologized Wednesday to two teenage girls who were kicked off a city bus for kissing each other.
The girls, both 14, said the driver called them "sickos" after a female passenger complained about their kiss. The driver then stopped the bus along the street and forced them off.
"Removing the girls from the bus was not consistent with our policy," said TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen. "I want to reiterate that we welcome all riders on our system."
The 64-year-old driver also violated company policy that requires operators to call for assistance before removing any minors, TriMet said in a statement.
The driver, an 11-veteran who was not identified, will be disciplined, TriMet officials said, though no details were released.
"TriMet sincerely apologizes to the girls and their families for this incident," Hansen said in the statement.
The mother of one of the girls, Ronnda Zezula, welcomed the apology.
"The only thing I had a problem with is they didn't really address why the driver broke those policies," Zezula said. "He knew it was wrong. He's been a driver for 11 years."
She also said she wished the agency had made the extent of the disciplinary action public to show it will not "be just a slap on the wrist."
Zezula said the family has been encouraged to consider a lawsuit, but they will "have to mull it over."
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MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
District Sorry for Censoring Gay Kiss
New Jersey School District Apologizes for Blacking Out Gay Kiss in Yearbook
By JEFFREY GOLD
The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J.
The school district said Monday it regretted ordering a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend blacked out from all copies of a high school yearbook and said it apologized to the student.
Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn't accept it as sincere.
"I would accept an apology a public apology," said Jackson, 18.
Jackson said he learned of the apology through the media.
The district issued a statement Monday saying it regretted the decision and that it would issue an unredacted version of the yearbook to any student of East Side High School who wants one.
"The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph," the district said.
"Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him."
District spokeswoman Valerie Merritt said Bolden would meet with Jackson on Tuesday.
Jackson said his teachers, classmates and his parents all knew he was gay and that his sexual orientation was never a problem at school.
"I've never had to deal with this before," he said. "It's shocking. It's crazy."
Previously, Bolden had described the picture, which showed Jackson kissing boyfriend David Escobales, as "illicit."
"If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It's how they posed for the picture," Bolden told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's editions.
In the 4 1/2-by-5-inch photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing Escobales, 19, of Allentown, Pa. It was blacked out after Russell Garris, the district's assistant superintendent who oversees the city's high schools, told Bolden he was concerned that the photo could upset parents.
The photo was among several that appeared on a special personal tribute page in the yearbook.
Jackson, who paid $150 for the page, noted that the yearbook is filled with pictures of heterosexual couples kissing.
Newark public schools have about 42,000 students, making it the largest district in New Jersey.
New Jersey School District Apologizes for Blacking Out Gay Kiss in Yearbook
By JEFFREY GOLD
The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J.
The school district said Monday it regretted ordering a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend blacked out from all copies of a high school yearbook and said it apologized to the student.
Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn't accept it as sincere.
"I would accept an apology a public apology," said Jackson, 18.
Jackson said he learned of the apology through the media.
The district issued a statement Monday saying it regretted the decision and that it would issue an unredacted version of the yearbook to any student of East Side High School who wants one.
"The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph," the district said.
"Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him."
District spokeswoman Valerie Merritt said Bolden would meet with Jackson on Tuesday.
Jackson said his teachers, classmates and his parents all knew he was gay and that his sexual orientation was never a problem at school.
"I've never had to deal with this before," he said. "It's shocking. It's crazy."
Previously, Bolden had described the picture, which showed Jackson kissing boyfriend David Escobales, as "illicit."
"If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It's how they posed for the picture," Bolden told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's editions.
In the 4 1/2-by-5-inch photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing Escobales, 19, of Allentown, Pa. It was blacked out after Russell Garris, the district's assistant superintendent who oversees the city's high schools, told Bolden he was concerned that the photo could upset parents.
The photo was among several that appeared on a special personal tribute page in the yearbook.
Jackson, who paid $150 for the page, noted that the yearbook is filled with pictures of heterosexual couples kissing.
Newark public schools have about 42,000 students, making it the largest district in New Jersey.
Angela Harlem
Jesus Online
Irvine511 said:
And yet you folk in the US keep up the mantra of being a country of freedom and choice and all that jazz? I've never understood how you lot can think you are so damn lucky to live in such a shining example of freedom and opportunity. You do realise how far short your nation falls in the very definition of this, don't you?
I'm digressing, and this isn't to you specifically, irvine as I know you are not one to tout this brand of belief..
Irvine511
Blue Crack Supplier
Angela Harlem said:
all i can say is that it's a very, very complex place.
phillyfan26
Blue Crack Supplier
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- May 7, 2006
- Messages
- 30,343
Angela Harlem said:
And yet you folk in the US keep up the mantra of being a country of freedom and choice and all that jazz? I've never understood how you lot can think you are so damn lucky to live in such a shining example of freedom and opportunity. You do realise how far short your nation falls in the very definition of this, don't you?
I'm digressing, and this isn't to you specifically, irvine as I know you are not one to tout this brand of belief..
If only so many people didn't define freedom as freedom to discriminate.
BoMac
Self-righteous bullshitter
phillyfan26 said:
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
Angela Harlem said:
Yes.
A_Wanderer
ONE love, blood, life
Yeah because having the government chuck a giant fine at you or throw you in prison for discriminating is so much more free.phillyfan26 said:
It's good that this place gets the bad press for being homophobic (although even that probably appeals to no small section of any population).
