A lesbian couple in Nottingham, U.K. shared a kiss while getting late-night takeout, only to be interrupted by “jeering” staff. The police are now investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Alice Bowerman told the BBC she was “shocked and angry” after she and her partner, Terri-Ann Metcalfe, were harassed by staff at the restaurant Marmaris for sharing a kiss. They went to the restaurant in the wee hours of the morning after a night out drinking.
“It was nothing outrageous, just a normal kiss – like any couple would do on a night out,” Bowerman said.
She says the staff told the couple “we don’t want to see that here” and “we have families here,” despite it being 3:30 a.m. Bowerman asked if they would say the same thing to a straight couple, and the staff reportedly said: “No, because that’s normal.”
None of the other customers intervened on the couple’s behalf. Bowerman says the experience was “humiliating.”
“You get lots of people asking why we need Pride nowadays but these kind of things reiterate why it’s so important,” she added.
Bowerman posted about the incident on Facebook. She’s calling for a boycott of Marmaris.
“A hate incident has been reported and officers are continuing to investigate,” the Nottinghamshire Police told the BBC. “We’d like to thank the victim for reporting and we will be providing the appropriate support to them.”
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