Lesbian Couple Asked to Leave MD Restaurant For Hugging, Return to Protest

8/21/09-by Paula Brooks
About thirty-five gay and lesbian citizens turned out last night at the Tastee Diner in Silver Spring, to stage an “eat-in” after a lesbian couple says they were asked to leave the Maryland restaurant last week because they were hugging each other.

The couple also say they have filed complaint against the restaurant with the Maryland Commission on Human Relations.

On August 12, around 2 AM, Aiyi-nah Ford and Torian Brown were at the Tastee Diner in Silver Spring, MD, when the restaurant’s night manager asked them to leave after showing affection for each other by hugging.

“I had my arms around her and she had her arms around me,” said Ford.

That’s when night manager, John Littleton, after conversing with a co-worker and came to the couple and said… “This is a family establishment and people are trying to eat… Can you go outside with that?”

At the same time there was a straight couple in the diner kissing, who were not asked to leave.

“I turned over and looked at him and said are you serious? It’s 2009. I just couldn’t believe that this was happening,” said Ford.

A waitress followed the couple as they exited and apologized for her colleague’s behavior stating, “they do that a lot and it’s embarrassing”. The couple also says they were embarrassed and has not been offered an apology by the management.

The diner owners have been released a surveillance video from that night that they say backs up Littleton ’s decision to ask them to leave for behaving inappropriately, however of that video is grainy and of poor quality. ”

“They had their bodies pressed and rubbed up against one another, and at one point, one of their faces goes down in the other girl’s breast, and we found that to be inappropriate,” General Manager John Littleton said.

“If you start touching each other and going beyond the point of kissing and things start to become a little bit X-rated, we’re going to ask you to stop,” said Lisa Wilkes, whose family owns the diner. “And if you don’t stop, we’re going to ask you to leave.”

The Maryland Commission on Human Relations said it has opened a preliminary investigation into the incident.

There were no incidents reported during the protest.