Trans Folk Refused Service At Nashville, TN IHOP

[Carolyn Marie]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/transgender-activists-with-service-dog-say-ihop-refused-to-serve-them/ar-AAxDG7B

 

Messing with folks from the TLC is not going to end well for this restaurant's staff.

 

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I doubt that I am un-readable by a long shot, but I go to an IHOP restaurant for breakfast about every two weeks with no trouble, and if I miss a usual week the wait staff asks me why I missed a day and are happy when I tell them I had to do an errand in a different direction on those times, and that I have been safe and healthy.  I also go to another store of theirs when I go to early morning doctor appointments at my HMO's local medical center and there the staff is not as sociable with any of the customers and I have heard upset customers getting a little loud at the servers.  Moral of the story is that different stores are different.  It does sound like the incident here was based on local prejudice toward the people, and probably fueled by our political garbage storm.  

[Kirsten]

They are lucky that it wasn’t someone more like me. I would’ve sat in that damn restaurant all day. I would have been on the phone with them while I was in the establishment. And I would have sat there and laughed while they all got blasted by management for being donkeys!!! Then again I am a bit of a loud personality. ??‍♀️

[Ravin]

Like Kirsten, I also would have been inclined to call the franchise owner, the store manager, and corporate, and blasted them on FB and Google while sitting right there. However, that is not a route to go unless you're prepared for them to retaliate by calling the cops and prepared to risk arrest upon police arrival, if the police and immediate management have the same attitude as the wait staff. Not to mention spit in your food. I'd want the whole thing recorded on multiple phones, preferably on a live stream.

 

When all was said and done, if eventually served I would then proceed to notify the server that I'd be making a donation to a local LGBT nonprofit in their name for the amount I'd have tipped them if they had done their job appropriately, unless another server or the manager actually served, in which case I'd have a word with the manager and make sure they don't do tip-sharing that would give a cut of what I tip to the jerks. That tipping piece would largely be for spite, of course.

[DenimAndLace]

I get that each store of any franchise is going to have their own culture but IHOP has been off my radar until now.  They WERE neutral.  Now they're doing damage control.  Compare that to Sephora (being discussed in another current thread) who are actively helping us from the top down.  It's obvious who your friends are if you look closely.

[Ravin]

Sometimes it's a matter of damage control because what happened is off-the-wall and beyond the bounds of corporate culture. The question is, will they do barely-passable damage control, or something large and significant, as has been seen with Starbucks and Denny's regarding race discrimination?

 

It may simply come down to us being too small and powerless a minority to rate more than minimal damage control. Though they really did pick the wrong group of trans folks to do this to--activists for pete's sake! I have no doubt they (the victims in the incident) will see it through to hold IHOP accountable as far as practicable.