Little Caesars fires employee for writing ‘gay’ on receipt for two men
Two men were given a receipt by a Little Caesars employee that had “gay” written on it. (WTVR)
A Little Caesars employee was reportedly fired from a branch in Virginia after he printed “gay” on a receipt for two customers.
Rosman Harris and Marcus Robertson, who are cousins, visited a Little Caesars restaurant on Friday (February 15) in Henrico County, Virginia.
After ordering their food at the pizza chain, Harris went up to get the bill for their order, before realising that the receipt had “gay” printed on it at the top.
“I was baffled, and it made me semi-angry because I feel like it’s 2019 and we’re still having to deal with this,” Harris told CBS local affiliate WTVR.
Little Caesars employee prints “gay” on receipt
Harris and Robertson allege that customers in the queue before and after them were asked for a name to put on their orders, but that they were not requested to do this.
“It was this preconceived notion of, ‘Oh, these are gay men,’” Harris continued. “So, why would you write that on the ticket? I’m not understanding that.”
“It was this preconceived notion of, ‘Oh, these are gay men.’ So, why would you write that on the ticket?”
—Rosman Harris
The two men said another cousin of theirs visited the store on Sunday to talk to the manager over the incident and spoke to the same server.
The two men complained to the Little Caesars branch. (WTVR)
The employee allegedly implied that he printed “gay” on the receipt because of the two customers’ behaviour.
Little Caesars says it has fired cashier who wrote “gay” on receipt
“[The cashier] said, ‘Well, oh, he was being loud, he was being rude,’” Robertson, who wears a hearing aid, told WTVR.
“So, my cousin was, like, ‘No, he wasn’t being loud or rude. He’s hearing impaired, so when he talked loud that’s for him to hear himself speak.’”
Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, Tina Orozco, director of communications at Little Caesars, said that the employee involved in the incident had been fired.
“This is a highly unusual, isolated situation at a store locally owned and operated by a franchisee,” said Orozco.
“The franchise owner took immediate action to investigate this matter and has terminated the employment of the individual involved in the incident.”
There have been a number of previously reported cases of servers writing anti-gay messages on restaurant bills.
Outside the US, in Rome, a waiter was fired in July for writing a homophobic message on a receipt.
And, in 2017, a couple from north Wales were horrified when a restaurant referred to them as “lesbians” on their receipt.
