Darwell’s Happiness Café in Long Beach, Mississippi promoted itself as offering “real food for real people.” In one promotion they offered free food to couples, making it clear that only heterosexual couples could benefit from the offer. There was a sizable backlash, but the owners initially defended their position saying they were conservative Trump supporters and they had a right to do business according to their values. LGBTQ+ groups criticized the promotion, and some groups called for a boycott of the restaurant.
The owners later retracted their controversial offer and issued an apology saying that they never intended to offend anyone. But surely they knew that same-gender loving couples would be offended, and at least some of their loved ones and allies would take offense. Did they not consider queer couples and their friends and families to be “someone”? Are LGBTQ+ people so invisible to them, or so much less than human to them, that they honestly never considered deliberately discriminating against them would be hurtful? In any case, the community showed that when we raise our voices and speak up for what is right, change does sometimes occur. Well done LGBTQ+ folk of Long Beach, MS. Keep living out loud and confronting oppression wherever and whenever it occurs.
