A Portland area man has taken to social media this week to share the receipt he received from the Portland Apple Store, which bears the word “fag” in the space where the customer’s email address should appear.
Adam Gregory Catanzarite, an HIV prevention specialist at the Cascade AIDS Project who identifies as queer, alleges the homophobic slur-emblazoned receipt was given to him on July 8 after he purchased a $29 pair of earpods.
As you can see in the photo below, the word “[email protected]” appears under Adam’s name.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Catanzarite writes on Facebook, where the photo had been shared nearly 500 times since yesterday morning:
Being queer and having worked with queer youth, I know first-hand that this is an example of the type of #homophobic beliefs and actions that lead young people to harm themselves. This type of action is NOT OKAY, especially from a company that prides itself on being LGBTQ inclusive and welcoming.
My friends, I please ask that you like this status or share it with your networks to let them know that #homophobia does not have a place in PDX (or anywhere) and that you reconsider where you spend your money. Perhaps the #Applestore is not so deserving.
Catanzarite has also shared the photo on Imgur and Reddit, where outraged users are already calling for a public apology from Apple.
Also on Facebook, Catanzarite says that the Portland Apple Store manager was alerted to the incident when it happened yesterday, and “did not do what he said he would to rectify the situation,” although Catanzarite doesn’t say what that might have been.
Calls to the Pioneer Square Apple Store from the Oregonian were directed to Apple’s corporate headquarters. According to reports, “the company is aware of the incident, but declined to say more.”
Cam
It seems weird that the store employee wouldn’t just write out the entire word, but rather wrote [email protected].
Then again maybe their software blocks the actual word. If this is the case, then I’m guessing that employee has or will soon be out walked out of the store.
Masc Pride
More social media attention-whoring under the guise of activism.
Bottom line: “Please ‘Like’ my post and make sure to leave a comment!”
Stache99
@Masc Pride: You’re the biggest “attention-whore” on this site so I guess you would know something about it. Well, besides Michael Mueller of coarse. You’ll say just about anything as long as it’s negative and nasty for attention.
hephaestion
Apple’s CEO is a gay man. And this idiot employee at the Portland Apple store calls a customer an anti-gay slur???
I hope this moron is fired ASAP.
Masc Pride
@Stache99: And you would certainly know something about “negative and nasty” because that’s all I’ve ever seen from you. If I am attention-whoring, you certainly give it to me every time. 😉 😉
Little-Kiwi
@Masc Pride: thing is, you want attention. but you don’t have the balls to get *real* attention – so you come online, and anonymously say things to rile people up. why? we all know why – you need a distraction from the fact that your dad called you a fag, and wants nothing to do with you. and he never will. because you’re a cowardly wimp.
the apple employee that did this should be fired and publicly shamed.
Jerri Blank
This was almost certainty perpetrated by the alleged victim. Every time I’ve shopped at an Apple Store they’ve required email addresses from customers, which the customer almost always enters him/herself.
Scribe38
@Little-Kiwi: @Stache99: LMAO! Thanks guys. I just wish Masc Pride would go get the sex change operation she so desperately needs, so she could be a complete healthy person. If Masc could just be herself, she could stop hating on the rest of us. MASC is a GOP Congress member tapping her foot in bathroom stalls praying for release, while publicly being a dick to the gay cause. Masc only attacks what he views as inferior femme or transsexual people, because it is what she really what’s to be. Or maybe her dad/grandpa/priest just molested little Masc while wearing a dress.
spiffy
@Jerri Blank: I agree, and I don’t have any slight interest in defending Apple. The guy probably either entered the email himself, or spelled the address to the clerk “F At G Dot Com” and the employee just typed it in as told. They have to do this all day long, they’re not going to spend the time to analyze what every single email address means.
barkomatic
Apple is well known to be very supportive of LGBTQ rights, so this incident comes as a surprise–especially in Portland. Nevertheless, all companies have problem employees from time to time, so I don’t see the need to bash the Apple as a whole.
That being said, I would want to hear the employee’s version of what happened. Whenever I make a purchase from Apple, they already have my email address. I imagine someone at Apple could investigate to see if this guys email was changed to this one at the store–or if it was changed by the customer himself.
blackberry finn
@Masc Pride: I’m surprised by your pessimistic attitude There is no self-aggrandizement in his post. He’s an activist himself, for Christ’s sake. What would you expect him to do. just fold it up and put it in a drawer? The use of social media to expose bigotry is entirely justified unless it is a lie. The proof’s there in black and white…
Sansacro
I don’t know about anyone else, but that character between the letters “f” and “g” looks awfully like the attempted grade change of a 14-year old.
trelin
A lot of the comments here are blaming the victim. We honestly don’t know enough about the situation and it’s easy to skew the details. He is asking for support in a very decisive way, by requesting comments and likes on his facebook posts. He’s only garnered about 65 likes. I’m a bit unsure how to feel.
brokeback gypsy
[email protected] is my REAL email address! I guess this explains all the junk mail i have been getting……
Masc Pride
@blackberry finn: Sometimes people confuse realists for pessimists, but there’s a difference. Look at some of the other comments here. I’m definitely not the only one who’s a bit skeptical. We see so much narcissism veiled as activism in the gay community these days, and especially with guys on social media practically begging for Likes and photo comments. Activism requires a bit more than simply posting a receipt and instructing people to “Like” it.
@Little-Broken-Record @Scribe38:
http://www.amazon.com/Midol-Complete-Gelcaps-24-Count-Boxes/dp/B001G7QRLW/ref=sr_1_4?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1407968872&sr=1-4&keywords=midol
I’ve linked you two to the value buy for a reason, so don’t be cheap!
redcarpet30
@hephaestion: I’m sure they will. The company has been pretty clear in its pro-gay stance for years since Steve Jobs came back to the company. No company can be 100 percent free of asshole front-line staff, especially big ones.
So it makes this “activist”‘s pretentious attention campaign all the less sympathetic, maybe even “NOT OK!”.
niles
Fake, fake, fake attention-grabbing stunt. As for someone who refers to themselves as “Queer” getting upset about the Fag word, well enough said.
Little-Kiwi
@niles:
I self-identity as Queer. There’s a big difference between someone self-identifying and a straight person using “fag” – as a pejorative slur.
Jacob23
So this self-hating loser calls himself “queer.” Worse, he has the gall to label gay and lesbian youth as “queer” even if they don’t identify as such. But this fool objects when someone else calls him a f@g? Sorry, no difference. No matter how you try to spin it or dress it up in faux progressive rhetoric, “queer” is inherently anti-gay. Using that term against gay youth against their will is bullying and the guy should be fired for that alone.
BTW, Catanzarite, heckuva job you guys are doing on the HIV prevention front. Maybe stop calling gay kids names and start instilling a sense of dignity, self-worth and belonging, and you’ll actually justify the salary you draw.
Stache99
@Jacob23: Queer youth, Queer nation, etc. It’s commonly used and I don’t really see anyone having a problem with it. Straw man argument.
Imagine instead of fag you get called a ni**er by some white guy at apple. Would that be alright since some blacks refer to themselves by that name?
Masc Pride
@Jacob23: Good point. Never even thought of that. Adam’s a hypocrite on top of being a drama queen. Calls himself and other gays queers but gets mad when he sees fag? That type of logic is all about trying to control others.
pressuredrop
I don’t know where you guys have been in the last ten years, but “queer” is used now in a lot of academic settings as a catch-all term for people who are different from the ‘norm’ in terms of either gender or sexuality. This was determined by – guess who – “queer” people.
So if you take offense, I can’t help but feel like you’re either misinformed, or trying to get offended just so you can argue.
Jacob23
@Stache99 – Queer Nation hasn’t existed in 25 years, so really WTF? And the fact that some people insist on using queer today doesn’t make it right. You may not have a problem with it, but you should consider the impact on a young gay person who is taunted as “queer” in school and then is told by so-called progressives that yes, that is in fact what he is. That he is fundamentally different and apart from his peers and his community and his family and his world. It’s a lie and one we should be refuting, not spreading. Step outside your little box and think about others.
Pressuredrop – Don’t know what the last 10 years has to do with anything. “Queer” was forced on gay people 25-30 years ago. “Queer” activists try to sell it as something new or something related to youth, but it is actually a very old and very stale. It is promoted by certain activist cliques, and because some of those cliques are “queer” academics, it has wormed its way into the names of certain campus groups. None of this makes it right and none of this makes it true or accurate to describe gay people in this manner.
BTW, while we may not agree on “queer” I do like your online name!
Stache99
@pressuredrop: Don’t forget Hollywood with shows like Queer as Folk:)
Saint Law
@Masc Pride: “We see so much narcissism veiled as activism in the gay community these days.”
Um…have you met you?
Saint Law
@Jacob23: Congratz! You have achieved peak stupid on this thread.
Masc Pride
@pressuredrop: Or maybe we just know the definitions of the word:
Queer
1. strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint; unusually different
2. of a questionable nature or character; suspicious; shady
3. not feeling physically right or well; giddy, faint, or qualmish
4. mentally unbalanced or deranged. (LOL)
5. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
pressuredrop
In this case, I think there’s a big difference between bringing back a negative word from a long time ago, and repurposing a once-negative word to mean something that’s positive, or at least decidedly neutral. “Queer” may have been commonly used as a slur at one time, but I think “fag” is far, far more common today and unquestionably offensive. Anecdotally speaking, I can’t really think of the last time I heard “queer” used in a negative sense, as opposed to “fag”. Of course, I live in America, so maybe the rest of the world looks at it differently.
At any rate, you can chalk the repurposing of the word up to “cliques” and “activists”, but what you are really referring to are “scholars” who specifically study “queer” topics. Which, by the way, in the spirit of keeping others’ points of view in mind, the entire reason “queer” was adopted as a broad term was because it could extend beyond simply meaning “gay” to include anybody who, as I already said, has gender or sexuality differences. This discussion doesn’t just have to do with gays and lesbians, but many other types of people as well.
(And the whole LGBT++++ acronym becomes increasingly clunky over time.)
And I also
pressuredrop
forgot to finish this last sentence.
Black Pegasus
Le’sigh………………….
Masc Pride
If you’re not offended by being called queer or self-identify as queer, faggot shouldn’t be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Who exactly decides which words get reappropriated and which are still as offensive as their original intent? Why not just reappropriate fag too? Understandable to be offended by both, but to say “queer is fine, but fag is just too hateful” is silly and inconsistent. EVERY definition of queer is just as unflattering as fag.
pressuredrop
No, it’s not. You are choosing not to acknowledge every definition of queer.
You’re also not paying attention to context at all. It’s not silly and inconsistent to treat both words differently because they are two very different words with a different history.
And also, “fag” does get reappropriated often by gay men in a joking context. (Which is still quite different from the academic uses of “queer”).
Bryguyf69
@Jerri Blank wrote:
“This was almost certainty perpetrated by the alleged victim. Every time I’ve shopped at an Apple Store they’ve required email addresses from customers, which the customer almost always enters him/herself.”
===
Er, your description of a NORMAL transaction is irrelevant because a clerk who wants to do this would have bypassed what’s normal. Why is it so inconceivable that a homophobic cashier simply entered the email him/herself without asking the customer? And surely, the cashier has the ability to edit any field, right?
I’m certainly not saying that the employee is guilty but your dismissive conclusion is simplistic.
Bryguyf69
@Jerri Blank wrote:
““This was almost certainty perpetrated by the alleged victim. Every time I’ve shopped at an Apple Store they’ve required email addresses from customers, which the customer almost always enters him/herself.”
===
I just did further research and sure enough, your conclusion was simplistic. According to The Oregonian, Catanzarite declined to give his email so the employee had to enter something since the EasyPay system doesn’t accept blank fields. So yes, “[email protected]” was entered by the employee. The only question is whether it was an unfortunate random coincidence or a deliberate slur. Some have suggested that the employee chose F and G at random, since they’re next to each other, and the @ was placed there because it had to resemble an email address. I find this plausible since I’ve actually typed “[email protected]” at least once when I needed to enter a fake address.
The bigger question is why Apple requires your email address…
buffnightwing
@Bryguyf69: Apple requires your email so they can email you a copy of the receipt. Everything is checked out through your iPhone with the apple store app. receipt gets emailed to your email address. this is why. i use it all the time for my business.
Jason
@Bryguyf69: Apple asks for your email address for the same reason that this web site does: so they can spam you. (To be fair, Apple doesn’t send much, and it’s easy to stop.)
Also, they want you to have your receipt e-mailed to you instead of printing it, because the sales people doing transactions on their iPods don’t carry a printer around with them, and would have to run to the Genius Bar and back to get one.
David
Personally, I answer to “fag” and “faggot” because I am one. If the user ascribes malice, it’s their problem because I share none of it. I’m okay with it.
If “queer” is okay, why isn’t “fag?”
Is it possible that it’s just a typo?
Jarrod
People will do anything for attention these days. He should just go tell this to someone who gives a fuck! Why the hell does Queerty even endorse this … thing?!
DarkZephyr
I am surprised that people are saying this is an attention getting stunt just because he is asking for likes. You realize of course that the more likes something gets the more visible it becomes on Facebook, right? If he wants that post to be visible so as to inform more people about what happened, its perfectly reasonable and logical for him to ask people to like it. And he probably IS enjoying the attention. So what? Its human nature to enjoy positive attention. That’s no crime. I think most of us would take at least a minor amount of pleasure from getting nationwide attention like that. I think after the incident he deserves a little positive attention.
Masc Pride
@pressuredrop: What planet are you on? Both words have have the same history. They were both meant to be disparaging, and were both used that way and continue to be used that way. Is there some definition of queer you’re aware of that dictionary.com is not? If both offend you, fine. If you want to own both (like David, above), fine. To identify as queer and then get offended by fag is just silly and inconsistent.
@Jarrod: Queerty worships a lot of attention-whores (*cough* Davey Wavey *cough* Laverne Cox *cough* Tom Daley *cough*).
j3rb3r
All you idiots saying the word queer is a pejorative, you do realize you’re on a site called Queerty.
Masc Pride
I didn’t name this site. I just read it. And the English language dictionary is actually the “idiot saying the word queer is a pejorative”. No one’s trying to say these words should be off limits. Reappropriate them if you want, but don’t flip out if other people use them too. Just like when Gwyneth Paltrow was reciting Jay Z lyrics and tweeted “n*gga”. Media tried to create a flame war, but the song was called “N*ggas in Paris”! Even Jay Z told everyone to calm down. You can reappropriate/popularize a disparaging term, but you don’t get to control who can and can’t say it after the fact.
Stache99
@Masc Pride: Fine. Why don’t you go out and test those limits. Travel around calling black people n**gers and right before one of them kicks the shit out of you explain how hypocritical it is for him to be getting upset over it.
j3rb3r
@Masc Pride Look it up again. It either, both a verb and a noun…a word expressing contempt or disapproval.
michael mellor
Apple is not very gay-friendly in my view. It’s a money-making business, that’s all.
Bryguyf69
@michael mellor: Apple, like virtually all Silicon Valley companies, is very gay-friendly. In fact, they were one of the earliest companies to explicitly include gays in employment practices. And if I’m not mistaken, Apple donated $100,000 to fight Prop 8 in 2008. Even more revealing is a 2014 analysis by Nate Silvers, who looked at employee donations for and against Prop 8. Apple ranked second, behind Google, in terms of donations against Prop 8. 94% (13 pro, 189 anti) of Apple’s donors were anti-Prop 8, while a whopping 96% (16 pro, 341 anti) of Google donors were. Google co-founder Sergey Brin personally gave $100,000. So yes, Apple is very gay-friendly. (as an aside, Intel was the sole outlier, where a 60% majority of donors supported Prop 8)
That said, you’re right. Apple is one of the greediest, most litigious, and superficial companies out there, often favoring form over function, and exclusivity over inclusiveness. That’s why I’ve never owned an Apple product, despite owning over 15 computers with many operating systems. Their attempt to copyright the English word, “pod,” was the last straw. Seriously?
http://allthingsd.com/20130228/for-apple-fighting-doma-and-prop-8-is-more-than-business-as-usual/
Here is Nate Silver’s revealing survey
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/how-rare-are-anti-gay-marriage-donations-in-silicon-valley/
pressuredrop
No, dictionary.com is not a valid source of language information. And no, “fag” and “queer” definitely do not have the same history. You don’t seem to know anything about either word.
The Oxford English Dictionary does a better job of explaining “queer” than I do, and it is specifically devoted to tracking the changes in meanings of words in the English language over time.
I would quote it directly, but I’m using my phone.
Cee
Don’t know if I believe the employee did this, but you shouldn’t need this to stop supporting Apple. They’re a terrible company and Steve Jobs was a horrible person. I don’t care if the CEO today is gay.
crankyd
oh, MascPride… i’m totally new here, but your screen name reeks of pathetic faggotry. Nothing you say can be taken seriously, and your reputation here speaks for itself.
No homophobe cares how deep and manly your scream is while you’re getting fucked in the ass. You will always be a little faggot that like penises. Mostly, in your stretched-out asshole.
You are a stereotypical internet troll and should be laughed at for the tiny-dicked paranoid queer that you are.
And everyone KNOWS you’re a faggot, faggot.
I hope that this comment was illuminating to the topic at hand; thank you.
Billabug
That is the email address that a customer provides for their Apple ID. An Apple employee does not or can not create and Apple ID with the customers name right there in front of the customer. I call this a FAKE.
Bryguyf69
@Billabug: What are you claiming? Are you saying that there is no way an employee can put in an email address for the customer, or are you saying that the employee can’t do it without the customer knowing? If you are claiming the latter, then you are unfamiliar with the story. According to The Oregonian, the employee asked Catanzarite for his email, but he refused to give it. Since all fields must be filled, the employee then put in “[email protected].” The question is whether s/he purposely put “f@g” or it was an unfortunate random coincidence. I wrote about this above.
In other words, the customer knew that the employee put in a fake address since he refused to give his. He just didn’t realize what was entered until he looked at the receipt much later. I do this all the time shopping at Radio Shack. So what is it that you are claiming is “FAKE”???
mdbuck67
Interesting he’s offended by the “F” word, yet he “self-identifies” as the far-more-offensive “Q” word. Perhaps he should pick up a dictionary and see what that word means and decide if he still is.
yrtoggafi_pots
That’s the demographic of male Apple buyers, so I don’t understand what the problem is.