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I love the new homophobia. In the vein of Chik-Fil-a, bigoted establishments welcome gay dollars, but want to condemn at the same time. In New Bern, NC on December 4, Ariel and Shawnee McPhail walked into The Stingray Café, sat down and had their meal, and had this handed to them by the restaurant’s owner, Ed McGovern after they had paid and were leaving (via WCTI12 ABC, which also has a video report):
“God said in the last days that man and wom[a]n would be lover of self, more [than] the lover of God.
That man and woman would have unnatural [affection] for one another. Then, the coming of the Son of Man, who is Jesus. So please, look at your life. See how it hurt[s] everyone around you. And ask the Lord to open your eye[s] before it [is] to[o] late.
The Love of Christ
P.S. my daughter also was gay. It destroy[ed] her life and my grandson.”
McGovern told the news station that he did indeed give them the letter (“out of love”), and had done this to another lesbian couple before. He claimed the McPhails were kissing outside of his establishment, something the couple denies.
“First of all, we didn’t kiss. We don’t kiss in public. We were holding hands,” said Shawnee McPhail. “Secondly, if I did kiss my wife in public, what married couple would you go to and say, ‘how dare you. You cannot hold hands and you cannot kiss in public therefore you deserve my judgement.’”
One of the commenters at the WCTI article page said it best: “I see he gave them the letter after they’d eaten there and paid the tab. Apparently their money was good enough for him…”
I’ve been to New Bern (the birthplace of Pepsi and the second oldest town in North Carolina), it’s a beautiful, normally welcoming town — I’ve never experienced any problems, but…I’m not surprised this kind of bible-beating goes on.
How about politely sharing your thoughts about this bit of business with Ed McGovern at the Stingray’s guestbook.
And you can help people patronizing restaurants in the New Bern area out by informing them about McGovern’s “customer service.”
The Stingray Café
520 South Front Street
New Bern, North Carolina
28 Comments
It looks like their guest book has been edited a bit.
The saddest thing is that McGovern no doubt thinks he is doing good with these minisermons in letter form. If his daughter’s life was “destroyed,” it was due to his loveless Christian attitude.
Rather than boycott the establishment…first try making it the newest LGBT hangout. En masse. It’ll drive him nuts!
Posting stuff about how bad the food is, that’s just dishonest. Posting Leviticus 11:9-12 is pretty funny though.
You may eat anything that lives in water and has fins and scales. But it would be disgusting for you to eat anything else that lives in water, and you must not even touch their dead bodies.
The fuck.
Anyway, I posted at the guestbook a couple, here:
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Rachel/Crane-Station 07:15 PM on January 11, 2013
Also, Ed, just thinking out loud here, you also crossed a line bringing your own family situation into this, behind their backs. For example, you took your daughter and grandson, judged their situation in a handwritten note, and delivered the note to the passing public. Too much information, Ed. Not okay.
Also asked Ed earlier and politely, what on earth he was thinking or hoping to achieve, with his customers. There are no answers or explanations in the guest book or yelp page, so far.
When I think about it, here is a man, who takes quite a lot of time, not working with food, but hand writing a hateful letter, for his polite and paying customers. Then, he follows them out the door and hands it to them, and this is just beyond it. Snooping and stalking about.
Crazy, in short.
Sorry for the third comment here, but it looks like I have been banned from commenting anymore at the Stingray Cafe site. And I was extremely polite. I never called anyone a name, never commented about the food, just very polite and straight forward.
But, the site won’t take my comments anymore.
So, looks like I have been banned from a stalking bigot site.
Most likely his daughter lives happily with her partner and they are raising their son together. What he thinks “destroyed her life” is her living the “homosexual lifestyle” and of course not growing up to be a close-minded, hateful Christian like him.
It looks like it has been overrun by people who aren’t even close to being polite. Not a way to prove their point. I’m guessing that they will just close it down and cry about being persecuted for their beliefs. That’s what they were taught, isn’t it?
Wow, just had a quick read of the handwritten note in the picture. Such horrible spelling and punctuation to match the vile sentiments and intentions of the writer. Suggests a certain lack of intelligence and critical thinking skills.
Yes, it did look pretty awful when I last had access. Lots of anger and name calling. I won’t engage in any of that but I am denied access anyway.
The persecution angle is a recurring theme, but the thing is, you know, at least speaking for me, I was not persecuting the guy. I only wanted to point out how offensive and creepy it was for his to obsess on these other people’s lives, total strangers, and then go the extra mile and follow them outside. Totally unacceptable and creepy, not to mention a seriously flawed business plan.
No, I’m reasonably certain that what did that was the behavior of bigoted assholes like yourself.
Now there’s an interesting idea, so long as LBGT patrons don’t mind risking sabotaged food or worse. Here’s why:
One of the things the owner is no doubt counting on is sympathy from the local homophobe community — a sympathy that would translate into visits and dollars flowing into his establishment.
But that gets short-circuited if each time homophobes try to go there, they find that the place is packed with gays and lesbians.
Doesn’t sound bigoted, it sounds religious. Whoopie doo.
Yeah, it couldn’t be both, could it? Whoopie doo yourself.
Much like way the NRA’s membership goes up after the massacre of children, the numbers of people visiting this establishment will go up after all the attention that’s being given to the stupid thing this asshole did.
Not necessarily. It wasn’t really hateful.
Same difference.
That is apparently a matter of opinion.
In this case you’re making a distinction without a difference. His religion is the root of his bigotry. You imply disparity where none exists.
The guy is an utter tosser! Perhaps someone could write a letter in the ‘restaurant’ and deliver it, personally, complaining about the grammatical errors in the first letter. Our kids has to learn after all.
This comment doesn’t sound informed, it sounds biased.
Big shock there.
I am tired of all these so-called “Christians” who base their homophobe beliefs on two entirely mis-read and mis-translated passages in the OLD testament of the Bible. The one most commonly quoted is the Leviticus one which is only one of a looooong list of ‘abominations’, a long list that they ignore all of but this convenient one. What it says, BTW, is that man shall not lie down with a boy. Get it, a BOY! You know, a child. That is by definition a pedophile – not a gay relationship.
The other commonly quoted passage is a story about two supposedly gay men who were visiting a man and the entire village turned out to stone these men. Because they were gay. And the guy they were visiting refused so he was a gay-loving idiot as well. What all the homophobes conveniently (also) neglect to mention is that the supposed gay guys were actually two angels sent by God to bring a message to the man they were staying with. Not two gay guys. Two angels.
What really pisses me off though is that all these so-called Christians never seem to have read a single word of the NEW testament. If they had, they would know that their Christ never said a single word about, against, for or any other way regarding homosexuals. Nada. Nothing. What he did say was that there are only two rules. Love God. And love everyone else. And he gave no exceptions.
My late husband used to say a couple of things about these people. 1) If they have to tell you they are a Christian – they aren’t. and 2) If they tell you they are a Christian – hang on to your wallet and don’t turn your back on them.
In my experience, I have found that to be good advice as well.
Actually, the saddest thing is that this shitstain let them eat there and took their money and then offered condemnation. This is how you know this scumsucker is the very definition of anti-Christian…and, of course, has not one fucking clue that this is the case.
…For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers…
I don’t think religious people are necessarily bigoted. They believe crazy stuff about sin and ‘God’ punishing you for being gay. It just seems kind of pathetic and ridiculous.
If they preach on about the part of their religion that agrees with their bigotry and not the parts that don’t, chances are they are bigoted.
(eg. Leviticus 11:9-12)
LOST IN TRANSLATION: Many of these Christianists choose to emphasize the word abomination. I recently saw someone who explained that the word (I cannot remember the spelling nor pronunciation) in original language would be more akin to “taboo.” The difference: abomination implies hateful, despicable behavior (pedophilia, mass murder come to mind) while taboo is more aligned with wearing white shoes after Labor Day. There’s a big difference here, but one that is (intentionally) ignored by the haters.
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