A Fayetteville, North Carolina bar owner who kicked a gay couple out because of public displays of affection says she is getting threats from “coast to coast” via social media because of her actions.
Or at least that’s how the local media is covering the story.
Long-time Fayetteville resident Dustin Baker and his visiting boyfriend Andrew Deras decided to hit up Louie’s Sports Pub for a few drinks and to catch the live band.
Related: Gay Couple Kicked Out Of Public Pool For Kissing And It’s All Caught On Video
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What Deras describes as a “minor peck” from Baker prompted bar owner Pam Griffin to approach the couple and ask them to “move apart.”
“You don’t need to be doing that,” she told them, adding “you’re making people uncomfortable.”
So Deras planted a big kiss on Baker in front of Griffin, and that’s when she flipped her lid and made it clear they were no longer welcome.
Local affiliate WRAL interviewed attorney Michael Boose about the incident, who maintained that Griffin had every right to kick the couple out, not because they’re gay, but because they were causing a “disturbance.”
Related: Teens Kicked Out Of McDonald’s For Classin’ Up The Joint With A Gay Date
The story ends with this red flag of a double standard: “Two weeks ago they had a heterosexual couple doing the same thing and [Griffin] asked them to calm down. They did, and they were allowed to stay.”
Somehow we doubt the straight threshold for making Griffin and her regulars uncomfortable is equal to the gay one.
Speaking with the Fayetteville Observer, Griffin said: “I tried to be as nice as I could. This is a straight bar. I don’t mind who comes in — white, black, mixed, Chinese. Everybody’s welcome. But you have to respect the kind of place you’re in.”
But let’s get back to these “threats” Griffin is supposedly receiving on social media.
Here’s a sampling of some of our favorites from Louie’s Yelp page. Nothing we found comes close to constituting a threat:
PARKAVMAN
She says it is a straight bar and she welcomes all, but then mentions ‘white, black, mixed, Chinese’. That’s race, not sexual orientation. Is she a closet racist too?
GayEGO
Frankly, I don’t like to see a man kissing a woman in public but I don’t let it get to me. Someone should tell this idiotic woman that we gays would not want to see her kissing a man in public and see what she says.
Billy Budd
Bitch.
davenbill
It’s a bar not church. How many people could see a quick peck on the cheek anyway that patrons were getting “uncomfortable”? The bar owner escalated the situation then wonders why she got the response she did. I sure any or all heterosexual couple exchanging signs of affection were not asked to leave. I guess at her bar you go in, speak to no one except the ‘bartender’ to ask for a glass of water (no alcohol because that would lead to all that carrying on), you go to you seat and look straight ahead and interact with no one, after 20 minutes you are to leave in single file in an orderly fashion. Wait, church really might have it ‘going on’.
BigG
What a bitch
Steve McSheffrey
No one should threaten another online, especially death threats. If you are offended by a commerce owner’s behavior or actions, stop spending your money there. Threats make the one threatening look bad only…
Desert Boy
Kim Davis has a sister?
billeetee
Why is it the female homophobes are far worse than the male equivalent? I have a feeling that if she knew how many of her ‘straight’ customers are getting their little peepees sucked on a regular basis, she’d ‘soil herself’!
FnameLname
I seriously doubt she told a straight couple anything. She saw the gay couple express a small amount of affection and her ovaries became a pair of seething bowling balls that she used to knock down the gay pins that offended her homophobic eyes. She’s from Fayetville, N.C. Her statement about her welcome wagon is bigoted enough… We allow Chinese……what a bigot.
Stephen Meeks
People who do this crap in public look like the idiots they are. Look at her expression….public orgasm?
josephamillikan
Just another example of intolerance by an obviously backward homophobe who lies to protect her stupid values. The only way to deal with bitches like this is to avoid the venue entirely. Hit her pocketbook. She’s a disgusting pig.
laurent7465
GayEGO,
I’m with you, I don’t like seeing a man and woman kissing (and I’ve seem a lot more than just ‘kissing’). I think next time I see that, I will call the manager over and see what happens.
A peck on the cheeks, or quick kiss of the lips is fine, but when you’re doing the bump-n-grind, gay or str8, there’s a time and a place for that. It’s called your bedroom.
seasailor
Thankfully she doesn’t run a bar in Italy. she wouldn’t have any patrons left with that attitude.
FnameLname
Italians are accepting of gay affection in public? I’m not talking about heavy petting but a peck on the cheek or a caressing of hands could usually go unnoticed for the most part.. Are they more progressive in that sense?
graphicjack
@Steve McSheffrey: where are the death threats? Or any threats? The only threat the journalist found researching this article was a dare for a kiss in. I agree that threats are completely inappropriate at all times, but the only threats seem to be the ones she’s pretending exist.
NYtoSF
Give it time acceptance will follow the brave that stand up for respect like these fine gents did. I was rather Peeved when I heard of this story of two males on a tour bus in SF that the dumb East Indian bus driver made a scene over the two guys holding hands. Wanted them to go to the back of the bus. Of all places lol the back of the bus. Still cracks me up. I wish I was on that bus & I wish I was in that bar. I’m strait but I’m Irish. Let the whooping begin. THAT would make a good story. East Indian male & blonde hag women get their butt kicked for discriminating.
Oh I got your uncomfortable RIGHT HERE and take a LEFT one too !
ingyaom
“This is a straight bar” – I wish I could say “This is a gay bar” at actual gay bars that are filling up with straights these days.
Michael Montanez
Well at least the Chinese are welcome.
Bad Ass Biker
And here,folks, we have another martyr for gees-zus in the making.
Cam
I love how every single time a bigot is caught, they claim that they are being threatened. And yet, funny enough, the police are never called over these threats and they can never provide any proof that these threats exist, and yet the media always repeats the claims.
Mack
@Steve McSheffrey: I agree with you. We can voice our opinion but not threatening. That’s why we’re called the Gay Nazis. We can spend our money else where or boycott outside, but we do need to act like adults against the childish actions of bigots.
Rick Wetzler
Another KIM DAVIS in disguise.!!
SeeingAll
Oh…leave her alone. It’s not like everybody in North Carolina doesn’t suck, anyway.
Cam
@SeeingAll:
And right on schedule, BJ’s other screename to defend anti-gay bigotry.
Cam
@Mack: said…. “We can voice our opinion but not threatening. That’s why we’re called the Gay Nazis. We can spend our money else where or boycott outside, but we do need to act like adults against the childish actions of bigots”
__________________________
Accept that there is no reports that any threats are actually valid.
SeeingAll
@Cam: Hmm…..that’s not why I’ve been called “B.J.”
SeeingAll
@NYtoSF: If you’re Irish then you’ll get even worse treatment in a gay bar.
TheAngryFag
Well, she does have a point to some degree. She asked them to stop with the PDA and they defied her to her face. You’ll note that there is no double standard because when she told the straight couple to knock it off, they actually did.
twinkie1cat
Maybe she should put a sign on her door that says, “Affection between homosexual couples is not welcome here”. Then most of her customers will go somewhere else, the gays and their allies and anyone who believes in human rights. She will have no business and the natural consequences will follow.
twinkie1cat
one thing to remember is that local media tends to blow things out of proportion if they agree with it. With all the lies about persecution of conservative religionists this is a great example. While North Carolina is generally less conservative than most southern states, being near the top with Georgia, they still have major issues with stupidity.
Ogre Magi
Typical christian crap
maxdadmark
It is not only “typical christian crap”, it is typical southern christian crap. I feel sorry for the G&L communities who have to deal with a society that is at LEAST three decades behind the more enlightened parts of the country (that is, not in Dixie).
Will L
I’m not sure what kind of atmosphere this particular “sports pub” has but it may be best to keep it “straight.” Before you hammer on me, let me explain.
Back when I was out drinking and picking up tricks, I had better luck in straight beer joints than I did in gay bars. (And I hit damn near every beer joint in the city.) Closeted men feel comfortable and not threatened there. If done discretely, you can score often. I’m pretty sure the bar owners could all pick up about me but I kept it non-threatening (don’t act too gay) and always tipped them well. As long as you are low key they will let you pick up the guys as long as it’s consensual.
Bar owners are generally pretty liberal – they deal in vice after all. They know their clientele. Some straights might put on a show but most are cool.
There have been articles written about straights in gay bars – that they need to stay out. yadda yadda yadda If you want to get affectionate, go to the gay bars or get a room. Drinking establishments have an atmosphere that the customers are comfortable with. It has NOTHING to do with “Christian beliefs” – it’s about not running off their customers.
DarkZephyr
@Steve McSheffrey: I see no proof of the threats. Been to her facebook page…I see people letting her know that she is scum but I saw no threats. So if she is getting legitimate threats its somewhere the rest of us can’t see it.
SeeingAll
@Will L: I didn’t think of that, but you’re correct about how many posters apparently want straight folks (girls especially) to stay out of gay bars.
DarkZephyr
@Will L: I nave never seen articles decrying heterosexual affection in gay bars. But even if you are right, there is just one problem. Her bar is billed as a Sports Bar, not a “straight bar”. LGBT people are human beings. Apparently that comes as a shock to you.
Brian
Imagine if a colored person walked into the bar and there were 5 or so regular bigots drinking there. Imagine how uncomfortable those bigots would feel if the colored person joined them at the bar for a drink. The female bar owner would have every right to remove the colored person on account of him making the regular bar patrons feel uncomfortable.
The last sentence above is sarcasm, by the way. I’m just using it to demonstrate how dangerous is this notion that you can remove people from a bar because they make others feel uncomfortable.
Message to Pam Griffin: grow a pair of cajones, lady. Treat all your customers equally and stop discriminating against the male-male gender combination as you reportedly have done so. You have every right to set a standard for your bar but you have NO right to set a different standard for the male-male combination.
SeeingAll
Are we so 100 percent sure that the gay couple is telling the whole truth that we’ll torment this lady on Facebook and Yelp ? I don’t know any of these people involved, but I do know that al kinds of people lie (especially in N.C.)
darian
@SeeingAll: What’s your beef with N.C.? Did someone break your heart by running away here?
Lvng1Tor
@Steve McSheffrey: every time we aren’t someones good little f@ggot we are labeled something. Standing up for yourself as a gay person or other marginalized group of people are always Nazi this or Nazi that…funny thing is it’s the farthest thing from Nazi…personally any a@@ that would call us that is someone who’s respect I could give two sh!ts about. They are always the tolerate my intolerance and now we’re the victim jagwds…in other words big0ts…so go take you “that’s why were (sure you are part of the “we”?) called gay nazi’s” bs and peddle it somewhere else.
Lvng1Tor
sorry that was meant for @Mack: not@Steve McSheffrey: but I echo everyone else..show me the threats…not just the claims…
Lvng1Tor
@Will L: sorry, you argument is just full of crap
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: “…I do know that all kinds of people lie (especially in N.C.)” Like you know anything about NC or have any evidence… SHUT UP! You’re making an ass…as usual…
youarekiddingme
@youarekiddingme: that is: you’re making as ass of yourself as usual…
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Say hi to John Edwards for me.
Brian
Imagine if a bar owner came out and said “this is a white bar”. There’d be outrage. This woman has no right to call her bar a straight bar. Nobody has a right to call their bars straight or gay. Liquor licenses don’t come with sexuality attached.
By the way, has anybody noticed the large number of women who are homophobic these days? Maybe we’re seeing the very public face of women who feel threatened by the mainstreaming of male homosexuality.
Women feel threatened by male homosexuality in the mainstream because it takes away their power. Male homosexuality becomes competition.
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: ?who?
Karen Piercy
I think these publicity seeking women are purely anti sex and using gays as an excuse. And yes,that does look like fake public orgasm 😉 Now I’ll read the article.
Ron King
Couldn’t make it in porn,another 15 min.fame whore.
Scott McIntosh
Poor poor silly woman, she shows her bigotry when running a publicservice business, says offensive things to customers and then says she isupset because people take the piss out of her……..
charlieeod74
This attitude doesn’t surprise me at all. Heck, it’s North Carolina, Jeebus land, where if you ain’t white Anglo Saxon protestant, preferably southern baptist, you’re really not welcome
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Then say hi to Quinn Matney.
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: Who???
SeeingAll
@charlieeod74: That’s too simple a stereotype. In some parts of NYC you’re not welcome if you’re not white Anglo Saxon Protestant (and they don’t consider Baptists to be that). And in dicier parts of N.C. you’re not welcome if you’re white or Asian, period. And the gays in N.C. are the worst of all ! (Picture a vicious lisping Alan Gurganus).
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: Quinn Mallory…Wasn’t he a character on a TV Show?
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Use your Google.
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Next look up Mike Nifong. Then Jesse Helms.
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: Obviously, they’re good friends of yours…you know them so well. When I have to look them up, you must have an “intimate” relationship with them huh?
Stupid.
Like your other comments.
You and some ot your other right-wing republican boys must be hanging out together huh?
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Next look up Bishop Eddie Long. And…I’d go on, but I think I’ve established a link between liars and N.C. (And learn to spell, for goodness’sake).
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: Yea, religioius, political liars…plenty of them, no doubt! Those are everywhere…You haven’t established a thing about the people of NC being liars however! Your statement (as usual) was broad and all-encompassing, and dealt with “…all kinds of peole lie (especially in NC)..” People in GENERAL!! Not politicians, nor religious, right-wing nuts specifically. Don’t make stupid statements like that and you won’t get called out (again)!
BTW, if you’re trying to make an argument/debate your point…ever hear of a Logical Fallacy? That’s what happens when you make a stupid statement like you made above…(don’t worry about trivial spelling errors–until you learn to put together a coherent argument).
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Well…let’s hear you list as many liars from another state where it’s the same, percentage-wise, to the general population.
SeeingAll
Next look up Duke University professor Frank Lombard and what he was convicted of doing with his adopted son. Then writer Alan Gurganus and his op ed about the Blue Devils in the NY Times. Then Victoria Peterson. Then Crystal Mangum.
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: Really?
1. I did’t make the assertion…
2. I’m not going to waste the time “COMPARING PERCENTAGE-WISE” to the General Population to find the number of liars…
Are you serious?
I have no time to debate such lunacy. You made the assertion. You defend it. That’s how debates work. You would know that if you ever took a debate class. Oh, that explains it.
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: I made the assertion and you, being fixated with me, jumped right in. And I provided evidence that everyone else here, with generalizations and assertions, can’t seem to be able to back up with any links.
youarekiddingme
@SeeingAll: Everyone else here? Now you are speaking gibberish.
Talking in circles. No one needs to back up anything with any links. No one other than you made any generalizations or assertions (commonly known as logical fallacies).
You are quickly losing touch with reality. You are debating with yourself. You are the one who needs to provide proof of YOUR assertion/generalization. I (nor anyone else) made such an assertion about an ENTIRE STATE!
Go back into your world. Enjoy yourself. Have a wonderful evening.
MacAdvisor
Would someone please advise the editor or writer when a state name follows a city, as in “A Fayetteville, North Carolina bar owner who kicked,” the state has a comma following it. Thus, the sentence should start, “A Fayetteville, North Carolina, bar owner who kicked…”
SeeingAll
@youarekiddingme: Uh…if you don’t like my providing evidence, then don’t single me out for the asking next time. Instead debate the guy who says NC is WASP-friendly “Jeebus land” or somebody else with an unsubstantiated statement.
msfrost
@Steve McSheffrey:
I doubt, that anyone is.
darian
@youarekiddingme: You just generally have to let him have his half thought out assumptions. If not you’ll end up looking at your screen wondering it’s this for real.
youarekiddingme
@darian: Yea, or doing something really important. Like sleeping.
scotshot
@Brian: “Colored”? What decade are you from?
Billysees
@Desert Boy:
” Kim Davis has a sister? ”
Hahaha…
gaym50ish
Someone will organize a gay kiss-in at that bar — or, if they don’t, they should!
Craig Christley
How does this make news when there are so many other relevant situations that should be!! this is fake
Jane Elliott
she owns a bar how often do people kiss in bars they cuddle hold hands and kiss she either wants to run a bar or she doesn’t get over yourself, and posing as if you are waiting for divine intervention won’t help because he is more tolerant than that
Gary Harryman
It’s about the most fundamental of Human Rights and American Values – Equality for We The People.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”.
Homophobia is a sickness – a mental illness. Homophobic people like this are pathologically perverse in their hatred of human sexuality, respect, and love. They are mentally ill un-American bigots trying to use superstition and religion as a cover story for their sickness and their criminal actions – which are the political expression of their sickness.
Cam
@SeeingAll:
Oh look, BJ’s other screen name did what it always does.
1. Try to defend the anti-gay bigot
2. If that doesn’t work, try to change the topic to something that some liberal somewhere has done or other similar deflection technique
Giancarlo85
@SeeingAll: Wow. Full of irrelevant red herring fallacies today aren’t you? If you are going to do that au contrarian crap you are failing miserably. You have no clue what you are talking about.
As far as this bar owner, I demand proof that she received death threats. Yet another business owner crying about death threats that don’t exist. She is probably seeing a decline in business.
SeeingAll
@Giancarlo85: I’d want to see proof of any death threats too. Like I said, there’s a large percentage of liars in N.C.
Faggot
@seasailor: “Thankfully she doesn’t run a bar in Italy. she wouldn’t have any patrons left with that attitude.”
Why do you say that?
Billysees
@Will L:
” Back when I was out drinking and picking up tricks… ”
Good account of the bar scene, straight and gay.
John
Gays are just as mean spirited, judgemental and bully just as much as their counterparts. As a gay man it frustrates me to see the same actions as the counterparts and then try to say “can you believe that person said or did that?” ummm your words/actions were equally as bad
Barefootboyz
I grew up in Fayetteville and as soon as I graduated I joined the Marine Corps to get away from this town and the people who live there. Everytime I go back to visit family I feel my IQ drop 50 points and I lose a little piece of my soul. In the 80’s and early 90’s there were at least 3 gay bars there, the military base helped, but now I have no idea if they have one and do not care. Move away immediately, Raleigh where I live is only an hour away.
WEBOne
Somebody threaten to throw a bucket of water over her?
Chuck
I think she just made up the threat part, because she knows that KARMA is going to bite her in the ass. She just needs an excuse to why her business failed,and she lost everything.