"The Sad Truth About Hate..."

RESTAURANT APOLOGIZES TO HOMOPHOBIC CUSTOMERS WHO CALLED THEIR WAITER A “FAGGOT”

Adrian Garcia
November 19, 2014

A pair of homophobic customers dining at a Texas restaurant were so disgusted after they were attended to by a gay server, they issued a complaint to the manager of Kelley’s Country Cookin.

Instead of defending their young teenage employee, the manager offered the bigots an apology.

The duo also left their server a note on the top of the receipt that said: “Don’t want to listen to a faggot through my whole meal.”

According to ABC13:

Blake Butler, 19, was a server at Kelley’s Country Cookin’ in Meadows Place up until last Wednesday when he says a fellow server got a note on the top of the receipt from two customers. It was about him and read “Don’t want to listen to a (expletive) through my whole meal.”

“I just thought it was disgusting,” said Butler

Butler says it was offensive but just as offensive was how the manager reacted.

“Instead of having my back and be like, you know, ‘That’s my employee. I can’t have you talking about my employees like that.’ She was like, ‘Oh. It’s OK. I’m sorry,’” Butler said.

On Tuesday, the owner told us it was an uncomfortable position for the manager to be in and if he were there, he would have confronted the customers about it.

The teen also came out to his parents as a result of the incident:

“I recently came out to my parents today because I didn’t want them to find out on the news. I just finally said it,” Butler told Eyewitness News of the delicate discussion.

As for the gay slur…

“Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, but instead of leaving the opinion out for everyone to see, just keep it to yourself,” Butler said.

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It's sad to realize how much hate still exists that someone would humiliate and degrade a fellow human being in this way... and it's equally disturbing to find that people still don't know how to react to it.  Yet, the silver lining in this young man's story is that this act of hatred gave him the courage to set himself free and share the truth of his heart with the people who actually matter in his life.

"Fear Eats the Soul"