INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. — A North Carolina restaurant fired its employee after he posted a receipt with an anti-gay message left behind by his customers.

“Our gay waiter made me wanna throw up my food!” the receipt read. “Ruined my experience tongt [sic]. Will not be back!”

When the server posted a picture of the receipt to Facebook, he was fired by the Sun Valley/Indian Trail Hickory Tavern location where he worked.

- - - advertisement - - -

The restaurant has since rehired him, after interviewing him and learning he might have been unaware of the privacy policy that prohibits employees from posting pictures of receipts.

“We strongly condemn the insults directed at one of our team members in remarks left by a patron on their credit card receipt,” Hickory Tavern said when reached by The Charlotte Observer. “We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or for any other reason. We also value the privacy of our patrons, and posting of credit card receipts violates our confidentiality policy.”

- - - advertisement - - -

“Although the team member was initially terminated for violating this policy, after further discussions with the team member, we made the decision to offer his job back. We strive to strike the right balance between supporting our team members and protecting the private information of our guests.”

Last year, a waitress at Zada Jane’s Corner Cafe in Charlotte was “tipped” with a Bible verse calling for the death of gay people. Zada Janes is in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood, which, along with the NoDa neighborhood, has the highest concentration of LGBTQ people in the Carolinas.

39 SHARES Facebook Twitter

- - - advertisement - - -

Posted by Jeff Taylor / Social Media Editor Jeff Taylor is a journalist and artist. In addition to QNotes, his work has appeared in publications such The Charlotte Observer, Creative Loafing Charlotte, Inside Lacrosse, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He graduated from the State University of New York at Brockport and has lived in Charlotte since 2006.@jefftaylorhuman.