Starbucks looks into gay man’s alleged firing
Starbucks Corporation took to Twitter late yesterday and today to address claims that a gay man, “Jeffrey,” was humiliated and fired from his job at one of the coffee chain’s locations on Long Island.
@golfshirt6 Your blog post is very concerning. It doesn’t correspond with our values or who we are as a company.
If you read a blog post about a NY store, we are concerned and are looking into it. We have a zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.
@Rattinger we are in the process of getting to the bottom of this and will make things right.
@HEADA thank you. As we stated, this is unacceptable and completely goes against everything Starbucks stands for.
We have have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind. Pls see this post regarding a report of a recent incident: http://sbux.co/lI3POS
The original blog post appeared on the Lil Family Blog as a letter attributed to Missy Alison. It appears to be the blog of a family headed by married lesbians. The letter tells a tale of a loyal customer and mother who claims to have witnessed a despicable case of homophobia and public humilation (Lil Family Blog):
”Yesterday when I walked into your Centereach, Long Island location I saw one of the most brazen and unapologetic displays of homophobia I have ever witnessed in my entire life. What was most concerning about it was it was perpetuated by not one, not two but THREE of your employees and it was directed towards a fourth employee. I don’t know this man, but I know his name is Jeffrey because the woman (who seemed to be in charge of this circus) loudly scolded, spoke to in a condescending manner, humiliated, and then let go. In the middle of your store.”
The letter does not claim to know what started the alleged incident, but quotes an unnamed manager as saying that Jeffrey was not allowed to talk about his gay personal life the same way other employees talked about theirs. She quotes the manager as saying:
”I’m done. I’m done. Nobody wants to hear it anymore. I don’t care who he is dating. I don’t want to hear about it. He should not get upset at the things people say to him. He should be used to it. It’s not like he turned gay yesterday.”
The legitimacy of this claim has not been verified yet. It could be another red herring like “Gay Girl in Damascus” and the “Really McDonald’s” controversies, but it is notable that Starbucks is addressing the issue directly via their official Twitter account.
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