A waitress has been fired for refusing to serve a transphobic couple
Stock photo of waiter. (Bimo Luki/Unsplash)
A Wisconsin waitress was fired for refusing to serve a transphobic couple who tried to get her to agree that a transgender customer was “disgusting”.
Britanny Spencer, the waitress who had worked at Fat Joe’s Bar & Grill in Fond du Lac for the past couple of months, told local news that the restaurant fired her for standing up for her beliefs.
They were asking me if I thought it was disgusting and wrong and why we would let someone like that into the establishment,” Spencer said. “To which I answered, no, I do not agree with that and walked away.”
Spencer said she then asked her manager if she could switch to serving a different table, as the transphobic couple were making her uncomfortable.
“[My manager] essentially told me to suck it up or go home,” Spencer said. “To which I said, OK. I will leave.”
After posting about the incident on Facebook, Spencer was told she’d been fired – not for the Facebook post, but for refusing to serve the customers making the anti-trans comments.
Tad Wallender, one of the owners of Fat Joe’s, said: “We don’t discriminate against anyone. If you want to walk in our front door and you want to have our food or drinks, watch TV, watch live music we provide, we’re going to serve you as best we can and make you happy to your standards.”
Spencer then posted again on Facebook, stating she’d been fired and inviting her friends to leave a review on Fat Joe’s page.
Initially, the restaurant responded to the reviews but as they became increasingly vitriolic it took the page down.
Spencer said she does not regret her decision to make public the reason for her firing.
“I hope this incident will open people’s eyes that hate like this is still occurring in 2019 and that idly standing by and spreading hate is just as bad as spreading it yourself,” she said.
The US Supreme Court last week heard its first-ever case regarding trans civil rights, in the case of Aimee Stephens, was fired from her job at a Detroit funeral home after coming out as transgender.
