Coast2Coast Swingers Blog

GRANDVIEW, MO. -- A group of lesbians hanging out at the International House of Pancakes in Grandview said they got thrown out of the restaurant because they're gay.

The women said they met up at IHOP Friday night around dinner time. When one of the women's partners showed up, they greeted each other with a kiss. They said there was another kiss on the cheek later, but they said it was nothing outrageous. The restaurant's general manager said he got a complaint and asked the women to leave.

The women said they've been going to the IHOP off 71 Highway in Grandview for years and they've never had a problem until Friday.

"We were being disruptive by having a common kiss like any normal straight couple would have," Blair Funk said.

"He said it's just that we've had complaints and it's unacceptable and as a family restaurant we don't accept that and don't accept you and she said maybe we should go," Jackie Smith said. "He said I'm going to have to ask you to leave and not return."

The general manager said me he had a complaint because one of the couples french kissed and were touching each other. He said he told them this is a family restaurant and their behavior was unacceptable. Blair said she and her girlfriend weren't doing anything outrageous




"My significant other had her arm around me on the back of the bench or whatever and we did kiss and then I maybe kissed on the cheek but it was nothing too intense," Funk said.

"And it was after we left, he flat out asked us to leave because we were gay," Smith said.

Smith wrote a letter to IHOP's corporate office and got an email response Tuesday that said, "we're sorry to learn about the difficulties you encountered at this location."

They contact the KC Anti-Violence Project about this and they said the the federal civil rights law doesn't include sexual orientation, so this isn't a legal question. The group, however, said it is a question of bias.

There's an anti-discrimination bill in the Missouri house right now that would protect gay people from housing, employment and service discrimination. Smith and Funk said they'll push to get support for the bill so in the future they won't have to worry about something like this happening again.