Kentucky Equality Federation received a discrimination report when a person who identified himself as the owner of the Halloween Express store located at 3410 James Sanders Blvd in Paducah, KY called a homosexual customer a freak and asked him to leave the store. I went into the store and was browsing for a costume. When I went to the shoe section the employees walked away laughing and making crude comments about me looking at women's shoes. I then went to the owner and informed him that i was being treated unfairly and all i got was laughed in the face, and told, "Get out of my store you freak".
Halloween Express was given 48 hours to respond......they declined.
Though each Halloween Express is individually owned, the franchiser has an obligation to the customers who visit stores that bear its name. As such, Kentucky Equality Federation recommends all members, allies, and affiliates avoid Halloween Express stores until further notice.
Blatant intolerance or discrimination must be challenged by our entire community.
UPDATE 3:40 PM: Many of you have questions about the complaint. Additional information is below.
Halloween Express (both the owner and corporate) refused to apologize.
Last year an employee at a Steak n' Shake (story) in Louisville called a male customer a faggot.
As a community we must show intolerant people that this type of behavior is unacceptable in a civilized society.
Keep in mind that the American Family Association continues to boycott Ford and Wells Fargo because they support and offer domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Halloween Express misses deadline
Labels: discrimination, kentucky equality, protest
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
As much as I am for all things gay rights. There is not much stated here to force us to believe that the comment was only speaking of his sexual preference. Was the situation explained by the victim? I just dislike the fact that certain details about what occured are left out. I'm not saying that the victim was lying but I think if we are going to publish it for evidence of discrimination we should give much more support to our issues. If not it may look like we are calling every incident that occures to a GLBT individual "discrimination".
Screw them! I will order my comstume from an online company but not halloweenexpress.com!
People can act like likds no matter what you say or do but I agree that we should not shop there and I will not.
interesting... I was in that store about two weeks ago...
~Jody
As a halloween express employee and knowing the owners of the stores, I feel that I need to respond to the aforementioned comments. NEVER in the time that my wife and I have been employed by,has ever been any discriminatory acts by employees to customers. Furthermore, the staff at our store cares about our customers. Best job I ever had. Be there as long as they'll have me.
Alaska -4- Life
Love Halloween, and it is a shame when people behave this way.
Post a Comment
We value your feedback, ideas, and comments!
If possible, please leave a link to your website (Facebook, MySpace, or other) by selecting "Other" when leaving your comment.