I just read Patricia Martinez’s WLGTDW/it ‘A Kiss is Just a Kiss’ and while I’m right there with her assertion that couples should not play tonsil hockey in public, and especially not in front of me when I’m trying to eat Chico’s tacos, the digestibility of which is questionable at best, I just have to ask: En serio?
Martinez says, "[...] like the girl who goes out for her high school football team. If she didn't want the attention, why would she bother? Because she knows a girl going against the accepted norm will cause talk, hence, my questioning of these guy's motives."
So the only reason people go against the norm is for attention. Really? That's why blacks sat at segregated lunch counters, at the front of buses, etc. (That's right, I'm going with the race card.) That's why women 'raise a stink' about equal funding for their athletic programs, or about equal pay for equal work? (And the gender one, too.) And as for our hypothetical girl, there's just no way she'd actually want to play on the team, I mean come on, that's just ridiculous. These folks are just a bunch of drama queens, the lot of them, huh? There’s no way they’d just want to have a double order with extra cheese like the rest of us.
IF these men were seeking attention, then they would be following in a long line of protest and change that begins when someone waves their arms and says, 'Hey! Look over here! Don't you see what's going on right under your noses?' And whether they were seeking publicity or not, Chico’s certainly obliged them with the opportunity to be in the spotlight.
The idea, too, that the entire story should somehow be downgraded because their presence at Chico's elicited an anticipated response is ridiculous. That's essentially saying 'They knew they weren't welcome there. They knew they were going to cause a scene. They should have taken the hint the first time and just behaved like good little heterosexuals or gone to the OP where their kind belongs. How dare they want to walk into an El Paso icon that they’ve probably been frequenting since birth and act that way.’
And yes, I'm completely dismissing the kissing question altogether--were they really kissing? for how long? how deeply? with or without tongues?—because the kissing itself was clearly not the issue. It was that MEN were kissing. You don’t follow up a request to patrons, rowdy or otherwise, to stop kissing in public with an eviction from the premises and the word ‘faggot’. That’s not about kissing or about public decency and it’s definitely not about love; that’s about hate and ignorance. Period.
Around the same time as I saw the news item on Chico's yesterday, a friend sent a note about an incident that had just occurred in Philadelphia. A local camp had paid activity fees to a private swim club so their campers could cool off during the summer. When the kids arrived, all of whom were African-American, and jumped in the water, the white children already in the pool got out. The pool staff then asked the campers to leave. Why? “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” said the club president. The pool then refunded the camp their fees.
So, now the question: were those kids just asking for trouble by showing up to a traditionally segregated pool? Was their camp intentionally setting itself up to be on the six-o-clock news? They should have known better than to expect they could swim there; they should have stayed where they belong, right? Sounds like a bunch of attention hungry activists to me, just trying to ruin everyone else’s good time. How dare they expect to be treated equally.
I hope that the family behind Chico’s issues a sincere apology, corrects their policy, retrains their staff, and hires a security company that doesn’t condone homophobic hate-mongering. And I hope they do it soon. Until then, my visits home will be Chico’s-less and I’ll take my money and my craving for oddly satisfying soggy tacos elsewhere.
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Vanessa Torres is an alumna of Loretto High School and UTEP. She currently works as a web project manager and freelance writer in Austin, Texas, and is a regular contributor at BitchBuzz.com.
