‘Queer, Low-Income’ Waitress Fired From D.C. Restaurant After Confrontation With Donald Trump Supporters
A waitress working in Washington, D.C. said she was fired in July following a confrontation, that took place while she was working, with two women who were supporters of President Trump, per a report from The Washington Post.
The server, who was not identified in The Washington Post article, said the encounter, which occurred July 26, happened when two women came into the Open City restaurant in D.C., where she had been working for about six months.
The server, identified only as Hannah, said a smile she was wearing turned quickly to a frown when she noticed one of two women was wearing a pin in support of President Donald Trump that said “Keep America Great.” The woman wearing the pin asked the sever what was wrong, and Hannah told the woman that she did not appreciate her Trump swag.
The women, which included a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force named Jacqueline Johanning, later would request a refund from the restaurant following the exchange with the waitress.
The women said it was the first time they ever faced discrimination because of their conservative political views. They told The Washington Post that the discourse following the incident, which Johanning documented on a Facebook Live broadcast, went further than they anticipated. Some advocated for the restaurant to be burned down because of the incident, The Washington Post reports.
The women largely agreed with Hannah’s account of events, and said they believed her political views should not be made known to customers in the restaurant. Hannah said that she told the women she believed it was funny that they thought they faced discrimination, because she said she was a “queer, low-income” woman, according to The Washington Post report.
A disgruntled customer took to Facebook Live and a D.C. coffee shop employee lost her job. https://t.co/uBEMHn7sOS
— Washington City Paper (@wcp) August 5, 2019
One of the women then threatened to leave a bad review of the restaurant, which is located inside the National Cathedral but is not affiliated with either the Episcopal Church or the Cathedral itself.
The restaurant said Hannah was not fired because of the incident with the Texas women, but Hannah disagrees and believes her firing was a result of the incident.
This isn’t the first time political clashes have caused problems at D.C.-area restaurants. A patron was allegedly thrown out of a restaurant in the nation’s capitol on the fourth of July for calling a Trump supporter a Nazi, per a report from PJ Media. In response, that restaurant sent a tweet, asking its customers to please be “respectful and polite” to other patrons.
Kellyanne Conway, who serves as a special counsel to President Trump, said she was assaulted by a woman at Uncle Julio’s, a Mexican restaurant located just outside D.C. in Bethesda, Maryland. The woman allegedly grabbed Conway from behind and shook her, according to Eater.
