When local gay D.C. resident Andrew Kloman read about what happened to Jason Morgan and his partner Brendan Harrington at the Safeway store at 1100 4th St. SW, he couldn’t sit still.
”Initially I called the store a couple of times, and asked to speak to a manager but I didn’t get a response,” Kloman says.
Kloman decided to walk to the store, three blocks away from his home and confront the cashier accused of calling Morgan and Harrington ”faggots” as they were waiting to make a purchase at the grocery store on Saturday, June 11.
Kloman was given a comment card to fill out by Safeway’s customer service desk. Instead he picked up an apple and headed to a register, looking for the cashier identified as ”D’Angela” in the complaint filed by Harrington and Morgan with the D.C. Office of Human Rights.
He spotted a cashier with a nametag reading ”Deangelah.”
”I asked her if she was working this past weekend and that if she had made a rude comment, or said those things to a gay couple and she said yes and that she was sorry,” Kloman says.
Kloman then asked he if he could record her apology and she agreed. He then uploaded the recorded apology to YouTube.
Reacting to the video, Morgan said the couple remains “offended.”
“We’re really offended that she’s still working there,” he says, “and that she was kind of laughing through the apology. Had this been some other corporate business, the person would have been suspended until the investigation was found out and clearly that wasn’t done. Somebody was able to walk in and video tape her easier than we were able to walk in and find the general manager which we never found.”
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!