This is beyond disgusting. Proof that, unfortunately, we are still living in a world where ignorance is not only bliss, but if you’re wearing a badge or a suit, you’ve got people to back up your ignorance.
How hard would it be for the El Paso police department to admit fault and put the offending officers on leave? There is absolutely no way someone can be “cited for homosexual conduct”, especially after 2003’s Lawrence v. Texas, or El Paso’s own city ordinance banning sexual orientation discrimination by a public business.
Instead, we’ve got people trying to back up the officers, with the El Paso police trying to wave this off as an issue of a “relatively inexperienced” officer. Regardless of experience, I can guarantee you that as a police officer I would not break the laws I was trying to uphold by discriminating against my fellow man.
I am shocked, saddened, and disgusted by the conduct of nearly everyone involved in this. To the patrons who complained of a kiss: I hope I sit next to you on an airplane with my boyfriend, who I do kiss. To the owners of Chico’s Tacos: I will never, ever, ever set foot in your restaurant, or any other Chico’s franchises. To the security at Chico’s: shame on you for verbally abusing your patrons with baseless slang and not following your own code of conduct. Your conscience should be burning. And to the El Paso police department: you have violated the trust that your citizens have put in you to uphold current laws. Do the right thing and retire the offending officers, and train all of your current officers with a law book that wasn’t printed a decade ago.
