Out Actor Prevented From Kissing His Date At Restaurant
Image: Drew Droege (centre) Image: Facebook
Out actor Drew Droege was told he was unable to kiss his date at a Mexican restaurant, Monday evening.
The Los Angeles-based actor took to the social media platform Instagram, on Tuesday morning, to complain about this homophobic exchange.
Droege and his date dined at the popular Mexican restaurant El Compadre in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles. After paying for their meal, the two engaged in a few public displays of affection, putting their arms around one another, and sharing a few kisses.
‘This is a Family Restaurant’
However, shortly after, they were approached by the restaurant manager who told them explicitly that they were not allowed to do that and were told, “This is a family restaurant.”
“Last night, I went on a really nice date. With a really sad, disgusting, hateful moment in the middle…Finishing up our second drinks, we had our arms around each other and kissed a few times. A manager approached our table and said something to the affect of, ‘you guys can’t do that here'”, Droege wrote to his 24 thousand followers.
Droege further explained the exchange between the restaurant manager and the pair, asking him to clarify if any of the other customers had made a complaint to El Compadre.
The manager responded by throwing “his hands in front of us” and stating “I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States, we don’t allow your behaviour here.”
Both Droege and his date were “genuinely shocked” at the comment and promptly left the restaurant.
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Homophobic Restaurant Manager Fired
As reported by CBS, following the homophobic incident, the restaurant has issued a statement of apology for the manager’s actions and have since fired the employee.
El Compadre’s apology statement reads: “We want to sincerely apologise for the actions of our manager the night of December 12th. This is not representative of our core values at El Compadre, and we wanted to let our customers know that the manager has been terminated.”
The Mexican restaurant has been in business for nearly 50 years and stated that they “accept, appreciate, and value every customer that walks through our doors.” El Compare condemned the behaviour of the ex-manager, emphasising that actions like that would “never be tolerated.”
“We take pride in the diversity of our customers who have supported and enjoyed our family recipes handed down from generation to generation- and we are ashamed that this happened,” the statement read.
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Droege: We Went Outside and Made Out in Their Parking Lot After
Droege posted the Mexican restaurant’s apology to Instagram, thanking his followers for “all the support and love” in his caption.
American actor Cheynne Jackson responded in the comments, criticising the statement, and pushing for the restaurant to do more. Jackson wrote, “Wow. No one fucks with my @drew_droege @elcompadrerestaurants needs to make this right in the biggest and most impactful way possible. A statement won’t cut it.”
Another actor, Gregory Michael, was more forgiving, calling the apology a “move in the right direction.” Michael thanked Droege for standing up and speaking out, while reinforcing the importance of taking “accountability and responsibility.”
In Droege’s complaint of the incident, he posed a question asking if people wondered why “gay people often seem nervous?”
Droege condemned the homophobic incident, reminding people that gay people “walk faster” and “work so hard to please others and be good little citizens in this world.”
“I will never be back. I encourage you all to find another place too. Also after this happened to us, we went outside and made out in their parking lot,”Droege said.
