El Paso Times:
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.
Civil-rights lawyers say the security staff was out of line. Police, though, contend that a business such as a restaurant can refuse service to anybody, any time.
Deborah Calla: The Magic Of Kissing
After remembering my own first kiss, I started to wonder how human beings found out about kissing. I mean how did the cave people know about French kissing even before there was a France?
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..Attentio
California Love is a Fred Phelps plant.....
Are you okay?
Please explain why it is lewd behavior for a gay couple to give each other a simple kiss on the lips in public, but perfectly acceptable for a straight couple to do the same.
Thousands of people are reading this and will be very curious to read your post.
and u on the couch reply, what ?
Are you OK? It's you who spends days here obsessing about gays.
He is. Intolerance is so 1950's Mississippi. He'll wake up on the wrong side of history very soon. It's inevitable.
Personally, I don't want to see any kissing while I'm eating, whether it's gay, hetero or cross-species. It's unappetizing, IMO.
I'm entitled to hold hands with my partner or give him a simple kiss on the lips any time or place I want. It's my legal right.
Kissing in public isn't a legally-protected activity, hate to tell you. You don't have a "right" to kiss in public. In other words, if that restaurant had had a sign posted that stated "No Kissing" they could kick your butt out, no questions asked and there would not be jack squat that you could do about it because it's not discriminatory.
This restaurant, on the other hand, handled the situation badly by making discriminatory comments and may very well get sued for discrimination.
ever eat a hersheys kiss...
....you are too much...!
A simple kiss on the lips? I don't get it. I just don't understand why that bothers anyone.
Try turning your head.
Try keeping it at home.
Want to know what I find unappetizing? Big, fat people in restaurants stuffing food into their mouths as pieces of it falls from between their lips, onto the plate ... saliva and sauce mixings, dripping down their chins.
Disgraceful. I want them to be kicked out ... now!
Ugh me too. All I can think is "shouldn't you be skipping a meal or three and spending that time at the gym fattie?"
The case would've been different if they were refused service based on some cues identifying them as gay. Certainly that would be discrimination.
But they were served and only asked to leave when displayed behavior unacceptable to the establishment.
Everything else is the usual overwrought nonsense.
that's right, ur into tango cheating types, and scre.w fathers day, ehh sport..
Actually, if you read carefully, they weren't served, and in the guards' own slur-filled words, it was for being gay that they were actually kicked out. One suspects that if they were in the habit of kicking straight people out for a simple kiss... they'd be notorious for it.
I suppose that if they're that likely to ruin *anyone's* evening, then maybe straights should boycott the chain. LBGT people will support you in this. :)
And you continue to willingly misrepresent the facts, as usual.
For the last time:
You would be correct in your assertion that the restuarant was within its legal rights to ask the couple to leave, IF--and this is a BIG if--the security guards had not made derogatory remarks about their s3xual orientation.
How do you defend yourself or your business against charges of big0try when you use big0ted language?
Now it jus appears like a simple case of violating public accomodation laws.
If you want to be a big0ted business owner, you ought to at least be a bit more discreet about your feelings.
Guards were wrong to use derogatory language. Guards engaged in lawful behavior to kick out cvustomers whose behavior was inconsistent with restaurants standards.
Sorry if this is too complex for you.
So what you're saying is that if a heterosexual couple had given each other a little kiss before sitting down at their table, you'd consider that unacceptable behavior?
A simple kiss on the lips. Uptight society we have here if a simple kiss on the lips is a reason to even blink twice.
America need more open minded folks. Seriously, we have a bunch of immigrants, yet they are not helpful in advancing this nation civil rights ideals.
It's a red state, where "sex crime" is a redunant term.
Where are the gay civil rights activists?
The States of America..b
That makes no sense.
agreed, lets see if he will sell a joint..
It does to me.
Doesn't the United States have anti-discrimination laws?
So a business can refuse to serve say for example a black man, and that would be OK?
I can easily remember when simply being black was often considered prima-facie evidence of being immoral.
I can easily remember when by being black you were considered three-fifths human.
LBGT people aren't always covered by the anti-discrimination laws, that's why Federal protections are needed, but as it happens, El Paso has a gay-inclusive oanti-disc
Legally, that's true. Any business can refuse service to any customer at any time for any reason, or even for no reason.
Morally, that's completely WRONG. While I don't like to see two men kiss any more than I like to see a man and a woman kiss, that's not an acceptable reason to kick them out.
I think that they might have a discrimination case if they can show that the restaurant did NOT kick out a straight couple for kissing, but I'm not 100% on that!
That is the problem. They would have to prove that other couples were discriminated against and they were singled out. If I saw that junk in a restaurant, I would definitely report it to the manager.
Well, we know this about you, California.
But, actually, it's illegal to refuse service in a public establishment to anyone for their minority status, and it's clear that the motivation of the guards wasn't "PDA's are something we eject people from Chico's Tacos for," but rather the sentiments expressed with the slurs directed at those patrons.
No, that WOULD have been the problem if the tr0glodyte security gaurd hasn't opened his trap and used an anti-gay epithet.
If you want someone to leave your establishment because you're bothered by his or her s3xual orientation, it would be wise to say nothing and just ask them to leave.
When you start making derogatory statements, it becomes a little harder to prove it was simply because they were being "disruptiv
Now you have a case of discrimination.
You mean it is legal to disallow service for not wearing a tie, but not for behavior the restaurant owner may find immoral to themselves and other customers? hmmmm, not very logical.
No, it means you ought to be a bit more judicious with your use of language if you're going to ask a patron to leave your restuarant because you don't like his or her s3xual orientation.
When you refer to someone as "faGg0ty", it becomes harder to prove that you weren't just being a big0ted je rk.
Well, I hope every day a hetersexual couple goes in there. Orders a meal, then kisses their partner on the lips. Lets see how often the reaction is the same.
I consider the behavior of most republicans immoral.
oh, man, they should have taken the ticket! awesome-est bigotry souvenir EVER.
Nothing more romantic than a taco and a diet coke.
whatru the tacOthe town...
All these petulant objections to two men kissing are hog wash, including the supposedly gay-positive people who somehow turn gay-hostile when the possibility of same-sex people kissing arises. I've observed for many years that too many avowed gay-positive people want us to accept a flagrant double standard. I say double standard because for many, many years I have seen opposite-sex couples engage in flagrant displays of "affection" up to and including very crude examples of sucking face, and they routinely get away with it.
If it starts with 'I have gay friends but...' It's probably not a sincere ally.
'I have loads of gay friends but think they're disgusting people if anyone has to look at them.'
Yeah, real LBGT-friendly.
You are absolutely right and now you are FANNED!
Yes, with friends like those, who needs enemies?
oh wait there's more, his i'm AA comment is just pending..
Whenever things start with 'I have lots of gay friends but' ...one wonders if these people tell all those dear gay friends how they seem to suddenly start feeling about them if they ever actually *kiss* or anything.
And you're right, they should NOT get away with it. I don't mind seeing a couple holding hands, or even a small kiss, but making out in public?? I don't want to see that!! Of course, I'm big minded enough to LOOK AWAY!!!
Who said they were 'making out?' Or did you just *assume* that cause of who's involved?
Think that's gross? Try watching straight couples flaunting their lifestyle choices! Ewwww!
tango anyone...
Yes, straight couples can get away with quite a lot, and as far as I'm concerned, anyone who says different either lives under a rock or is making a considerable departure from reality.
Yeah, what grosses me out is that the heteros are perfectly willing to accept straights who perform French Kiss at a restaurant. Those two gay men in the story just kissed on the lips, and they got kicked out. Sometimes the straight community just makes me want to puke.
As soon as i read the title I knew it was Texas!
it's about idio.ts...now go on.
Restaurant clientele want to eat. A simple kiss - no problem - but otherwise the manager was smart to kick them out. - not a gay issue IMO - just plain common sense.
To the voyeuristic patrons (hypocrits
They like to look.....t
Ummm...it was a simple kiss. Straights do it all the time in public and I don't see them being kicked from any restaurant. Sorry, but it is a gay issue.
and u were doing what in the mens room ...
There's no implication that there was anything 'lewd' about the kiss, save that it involved two men. 1) Straight people do it all the time, anywhere they like, without anyone batting an eyelash, and
2) The security guards were clearly the ones out of order, directing slurs at those patrons and making an issue of what it's likely no one else around noticed.
Okay I lied. I do bat an eyelash when it is old people. Yuck.
Get your facts straight, wisecrack, it was a simple kiss on the lips. If straight couples are not kicked out for this, then it is discrimination, plain and simple, according to the local law.
EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS NOW FOR ALL AMERICANS.
I feel sorry for all the uneducated, ignorant people responding to this article.
Who are they? Can you point them out?
Thats a very self-inclusive statement.
Congratulations on your GED.
I love it when YOU try taking shots at people's education.
cool, family reunion online...g
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First Posted: 07- 9-09 11:21 PM | Updated: 08- 9-09 05:12 AM