Vegan Café Defends Server’s “Stray Pride” Shirt

An employee at Florida-based eatery Paisley Vegan Kitchen is the subject of a viral homophobic review on Google. The waitress wore a t-shirt printed with the words “Stray Pride” beneath the silhouette of a cat filled with a rainbow pattern—one that is different from the symbolic Gay Pride flag—while serving a customer who had ordered a meal for takeaway. After the brief interaction, the customer wrote a scathing, homophobic review of the vegan eatery, titled “Heterophobic Staff Offends Customer,” claiming that the eatery was pushing its political agenda onto the conservative customer. “This is disgusting and unessacary [sic]. I didn’t ask for gay propaganda,” the review began before asking why a “straight pride” flag was not flown on the premises. “The gay pride month is a nasty excuse [for] heterophobic employees to misbehave.” The review continued to explain that straight vegans exist and equated Paisley Vegan Kitchen to a gay bar. “If you’re a conservative vegan, keep driving,” the review stated. “Gay families matter more here!” Paisley Vegan Kitchen responded to the complaint by pointing out that the waitress was wearing a “Stray Pride” shirt to support her local SPCA and stated the eatery welcomes all patrons “regardless of orientation or anything else.” In response, the disgruntled customer continued the rant, stating that they were angered by the server’s shirt as it promoted segregation and was offensive to heterosexual diners. “Keep exposing yourself as the heterophobic bigots you are,” the customer wrote. “You allowed this to happen in your restaurant, and now refuse to own up to it, probably because you still want conservative facilities to pay for your red-light district employees.” In response to the disturbing review, Paisley Vegan Kitchen donated 10 percent of the profits it made on Monday to its local SPCA.