Christian Dingus, 28, was with his partner when, he says, employees told the couple not to kiss inside, and the argument escalated outside.

A gay man accused a group of Washington, D.C., Shake Shack employees of beating him after he kissed his boyfriend inside the location while waiting for their order.

Christian Dingus, 28, was with his partner and a group of friends at a Dupont Circle location Saturday night when the incident occurred, he told NBC News. They had put in their order and were hanging around waiting for their food.

“And while we were back there — kind of briefly — we began to kiss,” Dingus said. “And at that point, a worker came out to us and said that, you know, you can’t be doing that here, can’t do that type of stuff here.”

The couple separated, Dingus said, but his partner got upset at the employee and insisted the men had done nothing wrong. Dingus’ partner was then allegedly escorted out of the restaurant, where a heated verbal argument occurred.

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    I don’t care if they were fucking the burgers and shakes, the employees can ask them to leave if they’re violating the business’ code of conduct, and after that they can call the police if they’re trespassing.

    The customer can sue the shit out of them after the fact if it was discriminatory, and in D.C. that would be a slam dunk if they were just kissing.

    Once the employees decided to resort to violence, they fucked up, regardless of what the customers were doing.

    Either way, you weren’t there, and homophobes blow up about pretty mundane things all the time, so maybe just take the gay men at their word instead of accusing them of inappropriate behavior and revealing yourself to be a homophobe yourself.

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I read his words. It was his words that made me doubt. He and his partner were the victims here, for sure. But that doesn’t mean that they are being honest about the preamble to the altercation. But if not fully believing a person about every single detail of their story, if not taking every single assumption that they made as gospel makes me homophobe because they happen to be gay, sure. Whatever.

      • finley@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        But that doesn’t mean that they are being honest about the preamble to the altercation.

        YOU, again, are the only one implying this, without evidence. And you’re clearly doing it to excuse the bigotry and violence they faced.

          • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            3 months ago

            I said I got a feeling from the way he phrased his story.

            “From the way you phrase your posts, I guess you might have disturbing images on your hard drive. I might be wrong.”

            Would you take offence if I said that? If yes, then think about what you’re doing.

              • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                3 months ago

                I accused them of getting a little too into their makeout session.

                You also say that this does not warrant violence. So why even make that point?

                If one of my female friends is sexually harassed, and I say, “There’s no excuse for that. It doesn’t matter how you were dressed. However, I bet you were dressed provocatively,” am I being a despicable piece of shit?

                weirdo

                I accept I’m ‘weird’, because I’m heavily autistic. But at least I don’t come across like someone who says “Of course you’re not at fault, BUT…”

                Edit: checking your post history, you’ve never said anything interesting. Okay, bye.

                • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  If you female friend wore a shirt so low cut and loose that she was flashing her tits to everyone and was asked to leave the restaurant because of it, so she started arguing and then the employee attacked her… no, her clothing did not excuse the attack. It does excuse her being asked to leave. It is pretty simple how both of those things can be true. It is pretty simple that the fact that she was attacked doesn’t make the employee asking her to leave unjustified. And if she recounted the story and said “he had a problem with my shirt that might have been a little low cut”, and failed to mention she was fully flashing people, she would be lying about the facts even if those facts, again, don’t justify the violence that followed. I don’t know why this is so complicated. Reality has nuance.

                  • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    3 months ago

                    I said “If one of my female friends is sexually harassed,” and you turned that into being ‘asked to leave’.

                    Two gay people were assaulted, and you turned that into a discussion about them being asked to leave.

                    Pretty weird.

                  • finley@lemm.ee
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                    3 months ago

                    Wow, now you’re using offensive tropes about women to justify your endorsement of this homophobic attack?

                    Can you go no lower?

                  • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    3 months ago

                    Weren’t you supposed to do something to yourself?

                    This is the most pathetic question I’ve come across for some time, and I’m a teacher, and being asked pathetic questions is a daily occurrence for me.

                    Nobody is talking to you.

                    No, because we’re typing to each other.

          • finley@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            yet, oddly, you keep asserting - without evidence - that the victims are liars and the bigotry and violence they received was justified.

                • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  3 months ago

                  KryptonianCodeMonkey’s top post:

                  There is never a reason for either party to escalate a verbal disagreement to a physical one, but…

                  They modify a ‘never’ with a comma and a ‘but’. So, not ‘never’, clearly.

                  It’s odd that they’re working so hard to pretend they’re not saying what they’re actually, visibly, verifiably saying.

                  Thanks to everyone who questioned this so capably.