Two gay men kicked out of Chico's Tacos restaurant for kissing

[SemiCharmedQuark]

EL PASO -- Two gay men kissed at a Chico's Tacos restaurant, prompting guards to eject them and a police officer to endorse their ouster.
...
"It was a simple kiss on the lips," said Carlos Diaz de Leon, a gay man who was part of the group.

He called police at 12:30 a.m. June 29 because he said the guards and restaurant had discriminated against the group after two of his friends kissed in public.
...
De Leon said the officer told the group it was illegal for two men or two women to kiss in public. The five men, he said, were told they could be cited for homosexual conduct -- a law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.

That same year, the El Paso City Council approved an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation by businesses open to the public.
...
El Paso police Detective Carlos Carrillo said a more appropriate charge for what happened at Chico's Tacos would probably be criminal trespass.

"The security guard received a complaint from some of the customers there," Carrillo said. "Every business has the right to refuse service. They have the right to refuse service to whoever they don't want there. That's their prerogative."

Briana Stone, a lawyer with the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, disagreed.

She said the city anti-discrimination ordinance protects people on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation in public places. Perhaps more troubling, she said, was that the police officer chose not to enforce that ordinance and might have contributed to discrimination.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12790543

[BlooInBloo]

1. /facepalm

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Ditto

[lindisfarne]

3. GLBT has a thread on this. n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. I found it originally on HuffPo and thought it should be brought to the attention of DU

Lest anyone live near one of these restaurants or patronize them.

[lindisfarne]

20. GLBT is DU.n/t

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x142152

[Ken Burch]

23. Got enough abbrieviations in that post?

If writing it made you hungry, you should send out for a BLT.

[lindisfarne]

25. Come on. U can DU better.n/t

[SemiCharmedQuark]

27. But not everyone visits GLBT. This is at *least* as important as the Unrec feature.

[TokenQueer]

30. Right on

:thumbsup:

[TokenQueer]

32. my sig line says it all.

:mad:

[libnnc]

37. I'm stealing your sig line

with proper attribution of course

[Ignis]

40. Thanks for posting it here! Not everyone visits the Gaygeon.

;)

[LeftyMom]

39. And now GD does too.

:shrug:

[justiceischeap]

4. This is the sort of thing that bringing gay rights issues to the forefront

would help put an end to.

[Ohio Joe]

6. Please look at updates in the LGBT Civil Rights and Acivism Group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=412x52

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Seems like they definitely have cause to sue the city and maybe the restaurant

You can't cite somebody for a law that the Supreme Court struck down and presumably you can't kick somebody out if the city has a non-discrimination ordinance.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

10. I can't imagine how awful it must feel to turn to the police for help and have them threaten you

with an outdated unconstitutional law instead.

[Hippo_Tron]

13. I really do hope they can get a good lawyer

It must indeed feel powerless when a cop is threatening you with an unconstitutional law. It makes things a little better when you can get back at the ignorant asshole for doing it in the first place.

[Hepburn]

8. Wow....

...when did it become illegal to kiss a member of the same sex in public?

If we cannot get him on War Crimes, maybe we can get him on same-sex lip lock? After all, he does live in Texas!

[flvegan]

9. I hope every single supporter of GLBT rights sees this story and costs

Chico's Tacos :eyes: a shitpile of money. Yeah, they have the right to refuse service, and we can choose to vote with our purchasing dollars not to support hate.

Fuck 'em.

[Hepburn]

11. I don't think there are any of these restaurants in Calif ~~

if there are someone tell me so I can go and park my CRV with the "I SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE" sticker on its butt end in the Handicapped Space by their Front Door.

Exactly: Fuck 'em!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. I'm looking now...so far it seems they re limited to the El Paso area.

[Hepburn]

16. Thanks and I will google for a fax number to their corp HQ and ...

...let them know what I think of their BS.

Awful, just awful...especially the cops saying that people of the same sex cannot kiss in public. Man ~~ sex on their brains much? Gee, are they gonna go after a dad kissing his son, too?

Assholes...

[myrna minx]

12. K&R n/t

[dionysus]

15. i'm no fan of PDA in restaurants from anyone but this is absurd.

:wtf:

[Deja Q]

18. PDAs themselves are absurd.

General societal decency. People who do PDAs should never whine if they are stared at, and people will stare for one or more of three reasons:

1. Curiosity
2. Discomfort (or extreme case: Disgust)
3. Voyeurism

That can happen with anybody, of any orientation.

That might be why such issues were relegated to 'closed door' status. None of it should be illegal, if done as a private issue.

Many heteros who take everything for granted and freely fondle in public, ironically, need to get the concept of general social niceties drilled into their thick skulls even more.

[yellowcanine]

28. But the point is if they are not throwing heteros out for PDAs they can't throw gays out for the

same thing. Besides the action in question sounded more like a simple greeting kiss. But I was not there so ..... can't say, can I?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

42. But it's not just that. The article reported the guards hurled bigoted slurs at the men as well.

Not to mention the police lying to them about it being illegal for same sex couples to kiss.

[David__77]

17. Untrue: "They have the right to refuse service to whoever they don't want there."

Not that simple. They cannot discriminate on basis of sexual orientation. Now will they kick out an opposite sex couple for a simple kiss? If not, then this is illegal.

[Caliman73]

19. Beat me to it.

This was a classic case of homophobia and bigotry. I seriously doubt that a heterosexual couple would have been ousted.

Also, a taco shop with security guards? Really?

[yellowcanine]

26. Exactly the claim used to exclude blacks before 1964 Civil Rights Act.

This guy is way out of line and if a lawsuit is filed Chicos will lose big time. Not to mention they are setting themselves for one helluva boycott.

[aikoaiko]

21. That simple kiss was really a very bold thing to do in El Paso, Texas.

:applause:

Its not exactly P-town.

[KamaAina]

22. Time for El Paso activists to stage a taco-flavored kiss-in?

"Valentine's Day in July"!!

[bigwillq]

24. Equality NOW!

There really needs to be a law permitting same-sex marriage in all 50 states, which would reduce incidents like this. And the fines for not abiding by this law should really be severe. This crap should NOT be tolerated in 2009 America. But, then again, most of our government officials are freaking cowards for a law like this to ever exist. :mad:

[Ikonoklast]

29. I wonder if they'd kick me out, if I was with my Dad.

Dad kisses each of us kids and grandkids goodbye when we leave for home, in public or not.

I guess they just don't like money spent by the gay community in their restaurant.

Dumb move. Really, really dumb.

[orleans]

31. ugh. k&r n/t

[alsame]

33. MSNBC just said they are going to cover this story after the break. nt

[Ohio Joe]

35. Can you tell us what they said?

I don't have TV.

[alsame]

36. They reported the same info that is in the OP. Afterwards, they asked

for comments from viewers on their Twitter pages - Schuster and Tameron Hall. I don't Twitter, but if they report the comments, I'll post them.

[Ohio Joe]

38. ok, cool. Thanks - nt

[Brooklyns_Finest]

34. Bar

I was once kicked out of a karaoke bar for making out with a blond woman(I'm a black dude). This woman was all over me! I never chalked it off to racism or anything. In fact, I think the bar owner was in his right to do so. I really can't remember most of the incident because I was really drunk. I was actually really glad we got kicked out, because we went straight to her apartment afterwords!

[Mari333]

41. sweet jesus is it 1974????

this happened in chicago in 1970's....and we staged a huge KISS IN..everyone came to Daley Plaza and kissed..gay, bi, straight, everyone stood there and kissed and basically sent on message.. ARREST US ALL
that changed the law in Chicago but my god in heaven it is 2009..wtf????