Two gay men have received a cash
settlement from McDonald's after the pair and three friends were
verbally abused with anti-gay slurs at a downtown Louisville,
Kentucky restaurant.
Ryan Marlatt and Teddy Eggers took
action against the burger chain after their calls for a remedy were
ignored.
In their complaint to the Louisville
Human Relations Commission, the pair allege that a McDonald's
employee working behind the counter called them “faggots,”
“cocksuckers” and “bitch” during a lunchtime altercation on
July 26.
The two men say they requested to speak
to a manager after they overheard one employee calling them “faggots”
to another. While waiting to make their complaint, the employee
approached the two men and their three friends. An argument ensued,
where the employee repeatedly called them “faggots” and one of
them “cocksucker” and “bitch” in front of other customers.
The on-duty manager said she did not
see any problem and refused to refund $28 – claiming only the
unavailable general manager was at liberty to do so.
Marlatt says staff at the Louisville
restaurant repeatedly ignored his telephone calls to reach the
general manager; they simply hung up on him. A corporate complaint
was also ignored.
Ten months after the men were berated,
McDonald's has agreed to a cash settlement and diversity training for
management at 30 of its Louisville-area restaurants, the ACLU
announced.
“We were hurt and upset, but at least
we're adults and can handle being called names,” Eggers said in a
statement. “We hated thinking that this kind of harassment might
also happen to someone young and vulnerable who would really take it
to heart.”
Both men received $2,000 from
McDonald's.
“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.”