“I Am Not Homophobic, I Just Don’t Like to See Public Affection”

This weekend, I was celebrating my friend Carly’s birthday. She decided to celebrate it in a popular restaurant in my city and have dinner with a group of friends with our partners (most of them from the LGTBQ+ community). At some point during the dinner, Carly’s girlfriend Jane surprised her with a cake and a gift, and out of excitement, my friend decided to kiss her girlfriend. We all thought it was a beautiful moment and were happy for our friend’s joy, and we sang her happy birthday and hugged her after it. However, the rest of the people at the restaurant hated that moment. A little after that, the restaurant manager approached our table. He said that public displays of affection were prohibited in the establishment and that we should separate ourselves from each other and have more “respect” if we wanted to continue in the place. He blamed the situation on the fact that it was a “family restaurant,” and our actions were very inappropriate. There were “children there,” so what we did was wrong. When we asked him why a simple kiss was wrong, he defended himself by saying that it was nothing discriminatory because they do the same with heterosexual couples and that it was simple restaurant policies. Finally, he said that most people who complained “were not homophobic, just didn’t like public afections.” But how true were those words from that manager? Should my friends hold back their feelings because they are doing something wrong? <a href="https://medium.com/publishous/i-am-not-homophobic-i-just-dont-like-to-see-public-affection-569896df4441">Click Here</a>