Cerca de cien personas se reunieron este sábado en el Burger King de la madrileña Plaza de los Cubos para protestar tras una denuncia de la asociación. La organización afirma que un vigilante de seguridad de ese local expulsó hace unos días a dos jóvenes gays por besarse tras la queja de un matrimonio con hijos.
La protesta consistió en una besada entre personas del mismo sexo dentro del Burger King. Los empleados del local respondieron a la acción con aplausos. La empresa afirma que la expulsión de los jóvenes del local fue “un evento aislado que no refleja la larga historia dedicada a la diversidad de Burger King Corporation”.
Arcópoli contactó con las víctimas y les ofreció su apoyo legal y psicológico y acudió a la hamburguesería para exigir explicaciones. El encargado les comentó que su cadena respeta la diversidad y en ningún caso iba a respaldar ninguna acción homófoba de ningún trabajador suyo.
LES PIDIÓ QUE “SE MODERASEN”
Y explicó que el vigilante de seguridad, sin su consentimiento, pidió a la pareja gay que “se moderasen” puesto que un matrimonio con hijos se había molestado al verles besarse. Asimismo, rogó que las víctimas acudieran al establecimiento para que se pudiera disculpar en persona.
La asociación ha exigido que el Gobierno regioinal legisle una ley contra la homofobia, bifobia y transfobia antes de acabar la legislatura “porque las agresiones e incidentes homófobos han crecido alarmantemente en el centro de Madrid en los últimos meses“.
DOZENS OF LGBT PROTESTERS AND ALLIES FLOOD BURGER KING IN MADRID FOR KISS-IN PROTEST
BY KYLER GEOFFROY
Prompted by a security guard who told a gay couple to leave a Burger King in Madrid last month after the guard noticed the couple kissing, some 100 LGBT protesters and allies staged a kiss-in the restaurant over the weekend.
The Huffington Post reports:
Bk"This type of behavior is unacceptable in our city and we hope that the 'Burger King' chain will take sufficiently forceful measures to make sure it doesn't happen again," Amanda Rodríguez, Coordinator of Arcópoli [a Madrid-based LGBT rights group], said in a Facebook post.
Burger King employees applauded as protestors locked lips, according to El Huffington Post.
The restaurant's manager told The Local that he supports diversity and that the security guard acted without permission. He said he would like the couple to return to the establishment so he could apologize to them in person.
A Burger King corporate spokesperson was not immediately available for further comment. However, Arcópoli received a statement from the company, reading:
BKC has a long history of dedication to diversity, including support for the LGBT community. Diversity is a a driving force for our innovation and to develop an inclusive environment for everyone: employees, franchises, providers, and customers of BURGER KING(r) restaurants. The franchise that operates this BURGER KING (r) restaurant has a zero tolerance police for any type of discrimination and, upon learning of these events, has taken immediate measures to address the incident.
Protesters Fight Burger King Homophobia With an Old-Fashioned Kiss-In
The public has rushed to the defense of a young gay couple after they were kicked out of the fast-food joint in Madrid for kissing
Author: Luke Malone Posted: 12/10/14 11:06 EST
Around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29, a security guard walked up to a couple at a Burger King in Madrid’s Plaza de los Cubos and asked them to leave. The two young men, 18 and 19, had been kissing, and it’s alleged that two families complained that they were setting a “bad example” for their kids.
“He said to us that we couldn’t do things like that,” said Jaime (a pseudonym) of the security guard, “that there were children around.”
Another couple seated nearby came to the defense of the young men. “They told us not to move, that we had every right to be there,” added Jaime.
Embarrassed and not wanting to cause a scene, the young gay couple still decided to leave the fast-food restaurant, but things didn’t end there. As news of the incident spread, people took to social media to call for an organized response, which resulted in a 100-strong, same-sex kiss-in this past weekend.
Employees and diners alike applauded the move, and the chain has since moved to separate itself from the actions of its security guard. “The security guard had acted on his own initiative,” the company said, adding that it has a “policy of zero tolerance toward any kind of discrimination, and, having learned of the facts, took immediate action to deal with the incident.”
Such homophobic acts aren’t isolated in Madrid, according to groups that say anti-gay sentiment has been on the rise in the Spanish capital in recent years—with 38 reported homophobic assaults in 2013. Though Rubén López, secretary of college LGBT association Arcópoli, says the real number is likely to be much higher and goes uncounted because of underreporting.
“The majority have not come out of the closet and don’t want their families or friends to find out,” he said. “Every week a case of harassment arrives at the association.”