From the bigoted Chico's employees who responded to a simple kiss with taunts of "faggot" to an actual police officer who claimed that "homosexual conduct" is illegal in Texas -- this reads like a script straight out of the scary 1950s:
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. . In all, five men were ordered to leave the restaurant. They say they were forced out by homophobic guards.
"It was a simple kiss on the lips," said Carlos Diaz de Leon, a gay man who was part of the group. . De Leon quoted one of the guards as saying he didn't allow "that faggot stuff" in the restaurant.
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. .
De Leon said he and his friends left the restaurant after an officer threatened to issue a citation for "homosexual conduct."
Contact and/or review Chico's here.
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