What does it take to get kicked out of a Baltimore Ravens game? Mary Kate Morris and Nicole Marchetto say it was merely kissing in line at a concessions stand. But reps for M&T Bank Stadium say it was a much larger infraction: stealing a plastic cup.
At halftime during a Sept. 26 Ravens game against the Cleveland Browns, Morris and Marchetto were kissing casually while waiting in line to buy beer and french fries. They grabbed a plastic cup on the counter to pour ketchup into. But then a security guard spotted their PDA, asked them to “stop making a scene,” repeated his warning twice, and then demanded to see their driver’s licenses before insisting they leave, accusing them of also stealing the beer. The police got involved (and shot down the beer theft theory; the women had receipts) and three officers escorted the couple out of the stadium.
“Straight couples were kissing all around us,” says Morris (on left), who was at her first Ravens game. “[S]ome fans were not only approving but cheered us.” But what about that STOLEN CUP!
After checking with security personnel, Jan Hardesty, a media spokesperson for the Maryland Stadium Authority, said the ejection was a result of “unauthorized removal of inventory,” referring to the plastic cup. According to Hardesty, an employee of Aramark, the company that operates the concession stands, witnessed the removal of the cup to pour ketchup. Each item must be accounted for, Hardesty said.
What Hardesty does not mention is that Morris offered to pay for the cup.
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Marchetto went to buy french fries and walked away with a cup for ketchup. Morris says she meant no harm and offered to pay for the cup, but the same security guard who told them to stop kissing wanted them out. “He was like we have a problem. You stole the cup that you’re eating your fries out of. Well Nic was like, ‘Are you kidding? How much do you want for it? I didn’t know cups were this sacred here,” Morris said.
So how are the Ravens dealing with the controversy? They’re not: “We’re aware of the incident, and we’re satisfied with the action taken by the concessionaire, security and police,” reads a statement from Kevin Byrne, senior VP of public and community relations.
Let’s not pretend there is any controversy over a stolen cup. Concession stand workers will hand you an extra cup if you ask for it, so you can share your soda with a friend, or fill it from the water fountain. What’s sad is that’s the best defense the Ravens have: the burglary of a 3 cent piece of plastic. Instead of focusing on the less-than-petty crime, the Ravens had the option of admitting fault — that the security guard should have never intervened, and escorting them out of the stadium was a gross overreaction to a non-issue.
Instead the team decided it would treat gay fans as less than, which professional sports teams already have been getting away with.
Dax
My husband and I live in Baltimore, and we have gone to countless Ravens & Orioles games together. On many occasions we have shown public displays of affection with no problem.
alan brickman
they may be fame whores….just saying…
Bobby in Seattle
F* them – the gays and lesbians in that area should put together a “gay-nite” and then kiss and fondle the hell out of each other, and see what happens.
PS – @ #2- Just how many of your brain cells did it take to formulate that clever thought? All 3 of ’em??
jason
I was OK with these women until they said “some people cheered us”. Sorry, girls, but you lost me there. Your sexuality isn’t a spectator sport for sleazy straight guys to ogle. If you bring yourself down to that level, you’re in the whore business.
Michael
Morris is quoted as saying; “There are certain people that don’t know that I’m gay and this is going to be a big shock to them, but I feel like this is completely worth it.”
“They” know now.
DR
@jason:
Did it ever occur to your women-hating mind that maybe people, both men AND women, were cheering because they were happy at the thought of two women feeling comfortable enough at a football game to kiss in public?
Why must you always think at the lowest common denominator?
jason
DR,
Why? Because women are known to compromise their sexual integrity in the name of money. Just look at the women who do “straight” porn. Many of them perform with other women, not for the benefit of the woman but for the benefit of a third party male.
DR
@jason:
These women, these two women in this article, were at a football game and exchanged a public display of affection which made osme people happy. You have NO proof these women did what they did to titillate and make happy the men around them, so get off your moral high horse for thirty seconds and think about whether or not YOU would have the balls to stand in public and kiss your boyfriend knowing this could happen to you.
Your anti-woman nonsense is getting old, and your generalizations about bisexual women (and lesbians who kiss in public) are beyond tedious.
missanthrope
Jason, take your mommie issues somewhere else.
Acem
Jason is just bitter because no woman ever wanted him…including his own mother.
[email protected]
This is bullshit…. I supervised an entire FLOOR of concessions stands for 8 years at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, 2,000 employees an event, 60,000 people in the stadium, including the Marlins first World Series and the Atlanta-Denver Superbowl for Fine Host Concessions and there is NO WAY a cup would be left sitting on a counter unless it had been sold. & FYI, an employee who hands you a cup on request is quickly going to be out of a job when their totals come up short for the night. Short on cups/baskets/buckets/trays = you get written up for being short on your inventory. (Which is even more reason to know that a clean cup “left out on the counter” is a total lie.) I suggest every gay and lebian in Baltimore write the management of the stadium and demand they apologize to the two women in question.
MetroDC
The story would have been far more amusing if the headline had read: “Two girls, one cup.”
Frederick Carter
It’s the classic double standard-a straight couple kisses in public and nobody thinks anything of it. However, a same-sex couple does the EXACT same thing and WWIII breaks out. I hope these women get a good attorney and sue this homophobic stadium!
alan brickman
They sound rude, arrogant and pretty fame whorish…..
peter
Those two are adorable. How could anyone be offended by their PDA?
jason
Women are known to use their sexuality as a marketing ploy. Men rarely, if ever, do.
The bad thing about many ostensibly straight or bi women is that they use their sexuality as a ploy to appeal to men. Thus, there’s a gender divide and its associated power game.
Not only is there a gender divide but there’s also the hypocrisy of women using their homosexual interactions (fake or otherwise) to appeal to men who often think that gay and bi men are disgusting. Girls, we think your behavior is completely unacceptable and detrimental to the GLBT cause.
In contrast, when gay or bi men interact homosexually, they’re doing it for themselves. There is also no gender divide and, thus, no power implications of the type you see in relationships between men and women.
Women need to grow up and stop harming our community.
Soupy
Jason, you sound like someone who has never known a woman, or was even born of one.
mikey
@jason: why the thumbs down for jason, when really he’s absolutely right. I dunno if this women were genuine or not, but if i was the security guard, I’d have taken a back seat and enjoyed the scene…
DR
@jason: The only thing harming us would be men like you who put down a couple for publicly showing affection and acting like they did it just to get a couple if guys excited. Take your porn issues somewhere else dude I guarantee they have bigger balls than you do.
Chris H
@mikey: Really? You don’t know if this couple was genuine or not? They are lesbians, not straight girls filming a girls gone wild video.
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
-Albert Einstein
Chris H
@jason: As I said in another forum, Jason, you’re clearly the founder of the GayKK.
Hilarious
That’s a really nasty thing to do to paying customers and then pretend it’s over a cup.
Joe
are security guards everywhere (malls, parks, stadiums) required to be homophobic douchebags?
jason
The only reason I have reservations about these women is the part where they said “the crowd cheered us on”. Er, give me a break. Your sexuality isn’t about pleasing voyeurs, ladies.
I know you’ve grown up in a culture in which you are required to accommodate voyeurs but sometimes you really have to put your feet down and refute them. Tell the voyeurs – usually sleazy straight guys – to fuck off.
Cam
Sorry, but if the reason that they were kicked out had anything to do with a cup, then that would have been the first thing the securty guard said. He only brought up the club later when they complained about him bothering them about their kissing.
What is this security guard suddenly decides that Catholics shouldn’t wear cross necklaces in public and starts kicking them out of games? Or maybe he’ll decide that drinking is immoral and start making up reasons to kick out people that buy the $15.00 watered down beer.
Alicia
@jason: You have obviously never walked by an Abercrombie & Fitch store, or a Hollister store or seen a Calvin Klein ad or a Dolce & Gabbana ad. These all feature mostly naked men with “desirable” bodies sprawled in sexual positions. They are meant to appeal to women, in the hopes that women will get their men to shop there or men will hear women cooing over them and shop there in order to try and be the models. That is men using their sexuality as a marketing tool. There are also plenty of male prostitutes and we can’t forget the men in the porn industry. Maybe society sees them as secondary to their female colleagues, but They exist and they use sex to sell products. Last but not least, there’s Fabio, who spent years being sex to sell books (and then a variety of other products) to women.