Lesbians kicked out of Waterloo cafe for kissing

Two women were kicked out of Waterloo’s Café 1842 at the Huether Hotel on March 29. Why? They exchanged a kiss.

A note posted on Facebook explains how university student Jenny Kirby and her girlfriend were asked to leave:

“Tonight, as we were getting ready to leave, my
girlfriend and I exchanged a short kiss (no tongues I swear!) and we
heard her [the café owner] exclaim “What’s going on here!” and walk over to us and
angrily say, “Stop that. That’s enough. This is not the place for that.”

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“She
was so loud that the whole café stopped and stared. One man was wearing
a bathrobe (no pants) and actually said, “So it’s ok for me to wear a
bathrobe?” Of course, she had no response and quickly disappeared, but
she made it clear that we (dirty lesbians) were not welcome. In the
past, I have been in there with ex boyfriends and we have engaged in
much more physical activity than just an innocent kiss, so I know that
this is not just about people in her café kissing. It’s a “gay”
problem…”

Wilfrid Laurier University’s TheCord.ca spoke to the owner:

Owner of
Huether Hotel Sonia Adlys saw the situation a little differently.

“I’m walking up to the café, standing beside the dessert fridge, and
I see two young girls necking. I was hoping it would stop, but it
didn’t,” said Adlys.

“We have senior people, families, we’re a family restaurant. I
walked up to them, yes I was maybe a little bit loud, and I said “excuse me, can you please leave?

“Whether it had been two males, a male and a female or two females,
I don’t want to look at that. It makes me uncomfortable,” said Adlys.

“I don’t care who she was with, it’s not appropriate in a family restaurant.” (read more at TheCord.ca)

Gay kissing! In public! Think of the seniors! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

In protest, more than 900 people have joined a Facebook page since it was created on Tuesday: Taking Action Against Homophobia in Waterloo Region. There are rumblings of a boycott or kiss-in.

My two cents: go with a kiss-in, rather than a boycott. One of the first stories I covered for Xtra was a similar incident in Ottawa in 2007, when two men were asked to stop kissing at a restaurant. Ottawa queers organized a kiss-in at the restaurant, and a day later, the gay couple received an apology from the owner. Watch the guys talk about what happened, and read more about the 2007 Ottawa kiss-in:

(As an aside… that Ottawa restaurant closed not long after.)