http://www.pinknews.co.uk/aroundtheworld/2...tucky-incident/
McDonald’s Agrees To Training and Settlement After Staff Called Gay Customers “Faggots,” Super-Size Training For Management Offered After Kentucky Incident
Posted on May 6, 2009
LOUISVILLE, KY – Nine months after an employee at a McDonald’s restaurant in
downtown Louisville called a group of gay customers a series of anti-gay slurs,
the American Civil Liberties Union announced today that McDonald’s has agreed to
a cash settlement and diversity training for management at 30 of its
Louisville-area restaurants.
Ryan Marlatt, Teddy Eggers, and three other friends had stopped for lunch at
a McDonald’s restaurant on East Market Street on July 26, 2008 while visiting
Louisville for the weekend. While they waited for their food to be prepared, an
employee behind the counter referred to them as “faggots” to another employee.
When Marlatt and Eggers objected to the slur and asked to speak with a manager,
the employee who had called them “faggots” started arguing with them, repeatedly
calling them “faggots” in front of other customers and calling one of them a
“cocksucker” and “*****.”
“The reason we made such a big deal out of this to begin with was because we
didn’t want it happening to anyone else, so I’m very glad McDonald’s management
is going to be having these trainings,” said Eggers of Indianapolis, Indiana.
“We were hurt and upset, but at least we’re adults and can handle being called
names. We hated thinking that this kind of harassment might also happen to
someone young and vulnerable who would really take it to heart.”
The supervisor on duty refused to refund the group’s purchase, so Marlatt
attempted several times in the following weeks to contact both the general
manager of the McDonald’s and the corporate offices, with no results. Louisville
law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, so the ACLU
filed a complaint in September on behalf of Marlatt and Eggers with the
Louisville Human Relations Commission. In October, representatives of a variety
of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups as well as other civil rights
organizations protested at the downtown Louisville McDonald’s where the incident
took place.
Although Marlatt and Eggers only asked for $28, McDonald’s offered them $2000
each on its own, which they accepted, Sun said. The Louisville Human Relations
Commission has been thoroughly investigating Eggers and Marlatt’s complaint
since it was filed last September and helped negotiate the settlement between
the parties.
“We’re really grateful to the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission for
its investigation, as well as to our friends at the Fairness Campaign, and
common Ground at the University of Louisville, for keeping the pressure on
McDonald’s to do the right thing,” said Michael Aldridge, Executive Director of
the ACLU of Kentucky. “While we’re fortunate to have a law banning sexual
orientation discrimination in Louisville, this goes to show that it’s still
important to speak out and do something about it when your rights are
violated.”
“McDonald’s could have saved itself a lot of embarrassment if they’d just
done the right thing from the start and done something about this, but it’s
great that so many people stood up for us and came forward to say treating
people the way we were treated is wrong,” said Marlatt. “We just hope the
trainings keep McDonald’s from letting this happen to any of their customers
from now on.”
When their Louisville Human Relations Commission complaint was filed, Marlatt
and Eggers asked for a refund of the money they spent on the McDonald’s meal,
and asked that one employee – the cashier who objected to the other employee’s
name-calling – be commended. “She was the only employee in the whole place who
tried to help us,” said Eggers. “I hope she hears about this and knows how much
we appreciated her sticking up for us.”
“While we wish Ryan, Teddy, and their friends hadn’t had to go through this
whole experience to begin with, we’re glad that at least McDonald’s is taking
steps to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future,” said
Christine Sun, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender Project who is representing Marlatt and Eggers. “Businesses should
treat all of their customers with respect regardless of their sexual
orientation.”
A video of Marlatt and Eggers telling the story of what happened to them as
well as their complaint to the Human Relations Commission can be found at
http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/discrim/36781res20080916.html
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