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‘I Have the Right to Refuse Service’: Restaurant Owner Turns Away Group After He Learns What They Advocate

Feb. 8, 2013 4:04pm Becket Adams

Sisters Gourmet Bistro Cancels Gay Rights Groups Reservations, Cries of Discrimination Follow

(friendseat.com )

An Arkansas-based gay right’s organization is claiming discrimination after the owner of a restaurant cancelled the group’s reservations.

“It was a bump in the road, but it wasn’t a slap in the face,” River Valley Equality Center Director Erin Fowler tells ABC 4029, explaining that they had hoped to host a fundraiser at the restaurant.

Fowler claims Sisters Gourmet Bistro in Van Buren, Ark., cancelled their reservations after its owner discovered what the group stood for.

“I called them and told them that I — we’re not going to have that at Sisters, we had no plans for that and there were no reservations to hold any kind of fundraiser or anything like that,” said owner Richard Hodo.

“I told them that I do not support their cause, that if they want to do that that’s their business. I do not care, but I don’t support their lifestyle and their cause,” he added.

Hodo told an organizer with the River Valley Equality Center that he runs a private business and that he reserves the right to deny any group or person service — whether that means saying “no” to white supremacists or a gay rights group.

“What I told the lady on the on the phone, look I said if the KKK came here and wanted to hold a fundraiser rally and all that, I wouldn’t allow that either,” said Hodo.

“It felt like he was comparing us as equals with the KKK and we’re about completely opposite things,” said Sarah Sarrubbo, an organizer with the River Valley Equality Center.

Hodo says he refuses to back down.

“This is a private club and I have the right to refuse service to anyone,” he said.

The River Valley Equality Center says that because of this incident, and the dent it has put their fundraising efforts, they will stage an “awareness event” nearby.

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Featured image courtesy ABC 4029.

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Comments (426)

FightingBear
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:24pm
As it happens, I’ll be driving through Arkansas next month….I will route myself through Van Buren and dine at Sister’s Gourmet Bistro. This is a place I can support. I don’t know if the food is any good, but I will definitely be dining there both on my way and on my way back.

Thank you Richard Hodo for having a backbone and a conviction to your principles. Don’t let this tiny minority dictate to you what you can and can’t do in your establishment. Stand strong, do not back down. I look forward to dining at Sisters Gourmet Bistro next month.

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- derekrobbins
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 8:48pm
  I am gay, and believe in Jesus’ concept of love, like him I choose to love everyone. I believe God created us all for a purpose and I choose to love people, whether they hate me, despise me, or would kill me if they had the chance, just like Jesus.
  
  Report this comment
Azzman
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:22pm
TRANSLATION: He refuses service to any group that is cuckoo for coca puffs.

I don’t discriminate, I refuse service to all cuckoo for coca puffs people at my business.

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Rowgue
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:22pm
He’s partially correct. He actually doesn’t have the right to refuse service to anyone he pleases. The federal civil rights act prohibits the refusal of services or accomidation based on sex, age, race, or national origin. But since he wasn’t refusing service for any of those reasons he was within his rights.

Besides that the civil rights act doesn’t apply in this case anyway. He wasn’t refusing service to individuals, he simply wasn’t going to allow them to hold a fund raising event for a cause he doesn’t support in his establishment. There is a difference in being denied the ability to walk in and eat dinner and the ability to put up signs and banners and advertise all over town and have zealots with microphones ranting about a political cause inside a private business.

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garbagecanlogic
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:18pm
Good for the owner. Someone needs to start standing up instead of rolling over and playing dead all the time. We have plenty of that from the rino’s in Washington.

Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

The U.N. Out Of The U.S.
The U.S. Out Of The U.N.

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nighttrainno9
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:14pm
I agree with the restaurant owner 100%, It’s the same reason I won’t work
for liberals, CHOICE.

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myrwo6
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:08pm
I would equate their group with the KKK. Both groups are intolerant of other lifestyles. Both groups don’t respect other peoples belief system. At least with the KKK, we never have to really hear about them. I’ll put atheist and most liberals in the intolerance group too. Can’t leave them out.

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- RealLiibertarian
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:36pm
  I would equate their group with the KKK. Both groups are intolerant of other lifestyles. Both groups don’t respect other peoples belief system.
  *******************************************
  Puts them right up there with the Christian right, then, doesn’t it.
  
  Report this comment
- Git-R-Done
  Posted on February 9, 2013 at 11:44pm
  Realliberaltarian – At least the Christian right isn’t shoving tolerance and diversity down my throat the way that you social liberals are.
  
  Report this comment
roscoe569
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:08pm
Once more almost no-one is feeling any compassion for the group of people with a slightly different sexual preference but otherwise are exactly just the same as everyone else. Dear posters…..you are bigots! Jesus would be ashamed to be in your presence.

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- chips1
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:24pm
  I don’t think Jesus would approve of these people misusing the equipment that God gave them as a gift. They can’t use their vibrators if the plug doesn’t fit in the receptical.
  
  Report this comment
- Rowgue
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:28pm
  Why should I feel compassion? The guy doesn’t want them holding a fund raiser in his establishment. He didn’t kill a bunch of lesbians or burn crosses in their front yards. Get a grip.
  
  Report this comment
bankerpapaw
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:07pm
I wouldn’t want a bunch of perverted queers eating at my place either. There are families coming in
here and I don’t want the kids seeing their perverted behavior.

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MACaTAC
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:06pm
The name of the restaurant is “Sisters Gourmet Bistro “. Oh….the irony. : )

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:06pm
Gays are, at most, 4% of the population. They are trying to get into the ‘protected species’ game like blacks. They want to be given extra rights because of their particular sexual manipulations. They are pushing and pushing but soon a backlash is coming that will surprise them. This Arkansas restaurant is just the beginning.

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Magyar
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:04pm
Yes– do hold an “awareness event” nearby— I hope it’s as successful as the one imposed on Chick- Fil-A..

Yes–go for it!

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bobbknight
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:02pm
“awareness event”
(Bullying Tactic)

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MACaTAC
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:01pm
The restaurant is named “Sisters Gourmet Bistro “. Oh……the irony. : )

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capitalismrocks
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:57pm
Sorry…. nothing they can do, as a private owner and a private company it is their right to deny anyone for any reason, its his right… they are not beholden to any loopholes that Gays or the KKK or any other group tries to use to force their way into things, so move on, nothing to see here…

Non-Conformists, Alternative Lifestyle groups have to learn they don’t get to have their way when they want it, its part of being grown up, welcome to the real world.

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beckinista
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:54pm
OK … sticking my head up as a target here, but … wasn’t “I have a right to refuse service to anyone….” the argument used for banning blacks from white-only restaurants? I don’t agree with the gay lifestyle, but I don’t HATE them. A little pity and a lot of compassion, maybe, but not HATE. I pity the restaurant owner. If he refuses service, he gets lambasted from the left. If he accepts their business, he gets shunned by the right. Neither one is fair. JMnsHO; YMMV.

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- firman
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:18pm
  Big difference between discriminating against someone because of the color of their skin, which they have NO control over, and refusing to help promote a lifestyle that goes against your personal beliefs.
  
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The Big Mick
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:53pm
This was fun, lads and ladies. I feel like I electronically and rhetorically walked into a bar, had a good beer and good conversation and am leaving happy.
Dinner calls.
The Big Mick

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katzmeow44
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:46pm
Great to see a man with balls. And NOT on another mans chin either.

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- Mascot
  Posted on February 9, 2013 at 5:17pm
  I don’t care who you are, that there is just funny!
  
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- Git-R-Done
  Posted on February 9, 2013 at 11:45pm
  ROTFLMAO, Nice. :D
  
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Eric_The_Red_State
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:45pm
This is America – you cant FORCE PEOPLE to do what they don’t want to do.

End of debate.

If you can force people – throw dog poop on their food in front of them – and charge them for it.

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fastgen1
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:43pm
Obammy has just put the restaurant on the drone hit list. That will show them who has the rights….

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Eric_The_Red_State
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:42pm
Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.
– William F. Buckley, Jr.

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:40pm
It’s time for GAYS to get out of our faces.
I don’t care what they do, as long as they leave straight folks out of it.

There are plenty of GAY friendly establishments where they can hold fundraisers.
They just want to bully and push themselves onto the straight community, then cry discrimination when they are turned away.

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- katzmeow44
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:15pm
  LMAO imagining a disgruntled group of bullying fairies running around in their pink too too’s yelling “oh my gosh..we don’t wanna eat here anyway, your so not fabulous and those shoes are like sooooo last season!”
  
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The Big Mick
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:39pm
The Observant Student is invited to note the Cognitive Dissonance here.
The Prhomo is NOT “alright” with the Restauranteur being not alright with HER agenda.
The Thoughtful Student is invited to consider the implications of that.
At bottom being allowed to screw whom she pleases is NOT enough for the Prhomo; what she is REALLY after is to use the POWER of the CENTRAL STATE to SILENCE the Restauranteur when he says “I’m not ok with what you do.”
It’s not about the Freedom to do as SHE wills, it’s about the Power to COMPEL HIM to do as she wills.

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- Eric_The_Red_State
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:46pm
  I feel more like I do now than I did before I got here.
  
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athiest-infedel
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:39pm
Stone the gay’s, be a good christian.

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- The Big Mick
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:44pm
  ahhh, I think you’re confusing us with your Buds the RagaMuzzies.
  I know it’s hard to tell who all they DO hate, they’re such equal opportunity beheaders.
  Still, the Amish got 15 hard time for unauthorized barbering, no rocks involved unless the perps be bustin em.
  Besides, ain’t it the Rooskies, not your model Fundies, who are dissin the Prhomos now?
  
  Report this comment
- Xylliab_of_the_Znarghh
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 5:54pm
  You spelled both atheist and infidel incorrectly.
  
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- MarioSmario
  Posted on February 9, 2013 at 4:15pm
  Your Muslims are good at stoning homosexuals. Christianity in the west is rather liberal.
  
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- Git-R-Done
  Posted on February 10, 2013 at 9:00pm
  Atheist – Be a good atheist, stone the Christians.
  
  Report this comment
The-Monk
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:37pm
MANBLA will be trying to get reservations next….

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- The-Monk
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:40pm
  Ignore, reposted on page one.
  
  Report this comment
lembrandt
Posted on February 8, 2013 at 4:33pm
“Awareness Event”: left wing code for language ugly, anti conservative racketeering.

Mr. Hodo – please do not back down.

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