More than 200 people have converged on a branch of the UK supermarket Sainsbury’s to stage a ‘kiss-in’ protest, after a same-sex couple were ejected from the premises for holding hands.
Thomas Rees, age 32, and Joshua Bradwell, age 25, were in the Hackney Road store when a customer complained that they were “touching inappropriately”, and they were ordered outside.
Rees told the BBC that the incident had “knocked him for six”, adding:
“We weren’t celebrating good news, we weren’t all over each other, we weren’t in the throes of passion – it was essentially just holding my boyfriend’s hand as I do every day. I’m very much in love and that’s how I express my love.”
Sainsbury’s reached out to offer a £10 voucher by way of apology, but Rees said he’d rather speak to management to find out how staff members are trained to deal with diversity.
To the bigot who complained about my bf & I holdin hands & the security guard at @sainsburys who felt the need to ‘talk’ to us outside????
— Thomas Rees (@doganddinosaur) August 8, 2016
The story quickly went viral, and inspired a ‘kiss-in’ protest at the store, where participants were encouraged to meet up at the premises in order to “hold hands, pucker up and tell Sainsbury’s enough is enough.”
On Saturday evening, UK time, hundreds of people turned up, both outside the store and in the aisles, to hold hands, kiss, dance and generally fight for the right of LGBT people to not be treated as second-class citizens.
‘Big Gay Kiss In’ held in #Sainsburys Hackney rd against #homophobia by #LGBT supporters of Thomas & Joshua. #Gay pic.twitter.com/7lj3xeH70X
— Guy Smallman (@GuySmallman) August 13, 2016
The ‘Big Gay Kiss In’ at Sainsbury’s ?? So many people turned up! ?? pic.twitter.com/maKzLjNWou
— Tom Knight (@TJ_Knight) August 13, 2016
A representative of Sainsbury’s said that the store is “working hard to make sure lessons are learnt”, while Rees himself was overcome by the support, saying:
“When your community come behind and say ‘you were right and you are right’, all that does is amplify your feelings. We were right to complain and do what we’ve done and fight those people who said we were wrong.”
Photo: Supplied.
