Something queer's happening here.

Earlier we passed on an unseemly message posted at a NYC Rite Aid, which basically said gay touching ain't cool in the pharmacy's aisles.

Jeremy Hooper over at Good As You gave the store a ring-a-ding this morning and a store representative says the sign wasn't part of their store and Tom Marquez, the alleged manager who signed the statement, is not "in anyway" an employee there.

Sounds like someone had way too much time on their hands this holiday weekend!

[A few questions remain, however: if you look at the original picture, you can see what looks like a security grate behind the flier. If it went up after the store closed, who put it there? If it went up before the store closed, why did it remain?]

Update again! The original reader just wrote in and said not only were there four signs at the Rite Aid in question, but offers this queer detail: …"When I called yesterday to complain the woman at the Rite Aid told me that Tom Marquez wasn't the store manager but the manager for the whole area. so I don't think it's a phony name…I think he's definitely a real person. In the audio link the store employee doesn't say she doesn't know who Tom is, she only says he doesn't work in that store. He's probably regional management, but maybe someone put it up and just used his name." There's obviously some maniac on the loose in Manhattan. Everyone stay indoors!

A DC-based gay couple got more than they bargained for during a recent Rite Aid trip:

Jay Hill and Mike Browne went into the store at 13th and U streets NW last Friday to make a purchase, and they embraced as they browsed an aisle. Hill told MW the manager walked by, saw them and did a double take. The manager then asked the security guard on duty to get them to leave. When Hill asked the guard why they were asked to leave, the guard said, "I don't know, that's just what the manager said. This is private property so y'all got to go."

But, seriously, Hill and Browne have a lot of nerve. Hugging? In public?! We've never heard or even imagined anything more scandalous and twisted.

Read more about this nasty incident over at Metro Weekly.