Lesbian couple kicked out of supermarket for kissing (peck on the cheek)

Where does society draw the line as to what's acceptable and what is not? There have been plenty of threads on ATS where people believe storekeepers have the right to serve who they choose, as well as threads defending cafe/restaurant owners for kicking out gay people showing affection.

It's happened again in Brighton in England, where a lesbian couple were kicked out of a supermarket for a 'light peck on the cheek'.

www.vice.com...

A CHAIN SUPERMARKET IN ENGLAND KICKED OUT A LESBIAN COUPLE FOR KISSING


When I arrived in Brighton, in southern England, as an 18-year-old, I expected to find some sort of queer paradise: the kind of place where rainbow flags lined the streets and poodles and gimps crawled interchangeably on leads in the hands of beautiful drag queens. Or, at least a bit more of that kind of stuff than what the urinals of a drab Doncaster shopping center had to offer.

However, after a few weeks as a student in the city, the honeymoon was over. Paradise begins to look a bit less fabulous when your friend gets beaten up on his way home with another man. Brighton, like everywhere else, is home to bigots.

Four years later, things haven't changed that much. When I arrived at work on Monday morning and saw the lead story in the local paper—that two young women were told they’d be chucked out of a Sainbury's chain grocery store if they continued to “display public signs of affection”—it stirred a familiar sickness in my gut.

The couple’s eviction from the supermarket was a result of a customer complaining that the couple’s light peck on the cheek was a serious risk to the safety of her child—that it was “disgusting.” Relatively speaking, being asked to leave a store is nowhere near as frightening as a savage physical attack that leaves your life in ribbons, but it’s a small example of the day-to-day experiences many LGBTQ people face, little reminders that we're still a way from being on equal footing with straights.

The story goes on to detail a protest that took place, a 'kiss in', in the supermarket, but that's not the bit I want to focus on. I think it important to question, is it fair for people to be discriminated against for a 'peck on the cheek'? No doubt some people will come out and defend the shop as deciding who they can allow on their premises, but would they discriminate against a straight couple doing exactly the same thing?

It's not like we are discussing people copulating in the aisles of the supermarket, but simple affection that is more or less accepted, unless if this story is correct, among people of the same gender.

Where do we as a society draw the line, and decide what physical touching between people of whichever gender is acceptable, and what is not?

Then the silly cow who complained about the peck on the cheek should NEVER set foot in South Africa with her precious offspring-when I'm in our local supermarket and meet up with an aquaintance that I have'nt seen for a while,we hug and kiss each other on the mouth.Sometimes if it's an aquaintance whose mother also knows and like me-we do each other also.The horror,the horror..a reply to: cuckooold

As regards my 1st reply,I am a white South African-and especially "Afrikaners" are some of The most straightlaced,conservative cultural groups on the planet-yet even they don't make a big fuss over public displays of affection btetween women-in fact being huggy-kissy is a way of life for white South African women,English and Afrikaans speaking,young and old-and there's no way of telling which are lesbian or straight,yet even in the very small,ultra-conservative town outside which I live,it's unthinkable that anyone would be asked to leave a shop-for Way more publicly displayed affection than what happened to the couple in question-it just seems Pathetic to me,how some people are offended by the slightest thing.Almost like they are Determined to find things to be offended by.

I think places like supermarkets should chuck out the whining, whinging morons who want to complain about everything that is not 'their way.'

On the few occasions that I have seen this, I usually respond, and non too kindly.

I just hate the attitude where people cannot accept that others can and should be different.

Could you imagine a world full sanctimonious a/holes in charge.

Oh, dear, there are a lot of those places, aren't there.

P

Wow local news on ATS!

I regulary shop in this supermarket and for balance think it is only fair to say it backs onto an area of deprivation (you are never more than 5 mins walk here from a good to a bad area, in this case it is 30 seconds).

There is a very high chance the person who took offence sadly isn't wordly enough to see just how stupid they are being, that isn't an excuse, but it is a reality.

I am sort of surprised the shop acted in this way, as it is in central Brighton, that said it isn't in Kemp Town, if it had been there I would have been like "Game over!"

The workers in this particular branch are not what I'd call the full ticket at times, which is why perhaps I am not entirely surprised to see this happen.

Amoungst other things this is a branch of a popular national supermarket in a district which is overtly homosexually tollerant and in true Brighton fashion it wasn't long before....

TextA SUPERMARKET at the centre of a homophobia row has said “everyone is welcome” as nearly 1,000 people are set to pucker up and get ready for a “kiss-in”.

www.theargus.co.uk..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Link to article

I would have gone along and joined in, but sadly it was a school night, I had to get home for my son and I'm not sure my 7 year old wants to see mummy snogging lots of strange men.

One thing we can be sure of Sainsbury's is never going to let this happen again!

Oh just to add, I think it is perfectly acceptable for people to kiss on the cheek in public, man, woman, alien!

I even think it is acceptable to kiss on the lips in public and in public places, so long as you are not hoolding up the qeue.

a reply to: cuckooold
I'm afraid the lady is right. The LGBT community still has a ways to go, before acceptance is a given in this world. Even though the UK has a much higher percentage of non-religious and atheists than the US, that doesn't mean they all accept LGBT as normal.

Personally, I see the LGBT community as possibly the biggest step forward in social/sexual evolution that humans have ever had(And I'm straight). Sexual repression is a staple of not only western society, but our world. Government and religion have been in our relationships, and in our bedroom far too long, and it's time we kick them out.

Women in America kiss each other on the cheek all the time and they aren't lesbian. What's the big deal?

a reply to: cuckooold

Honestly, I can't see a problem here at all.

Even if they undressed and started writhing around on the floor, I wouldn't get upset.

I'd just pull up a chair, light a cigar and settle in for the afternoon.

a reply to: cuckooold

Oh for the love of Christ...

Look... I am a straight male. Seeing any couple dry humping one another, giving each other tongue in ANY setting sets my teeth on edge, and it does not matter whether that couple are heterosexual, homosexual, or any other combination of sexual preferences that one can come up with. I see people who cannot control themselves as being utterly incapable of preserving their dignity, or of engaging in proper conduct in polite society.

But a peck on the cheek? Is there any more innocent type of affectionate expression than a simple kiss on the cheek? Chaste is what I call that, and that is to be applauded. Too few couples that I have seen, of any orientation, take the time for such sweetness between one another, its always a mouthful of that, and a handful of this, and no bloody dignity or comportment about either one of them. Its mindless animalistic behaviour, and I for one am sick of it.

However, this situation does not warrant the response these two received, and I think the supermarket in question should be ashamed of themselves.