Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Gay Couple Asked to Leave Mall for Holding Hands, Kissing

Carlos and I aren’t much for the PDA—Public Displays of Affection. I mean, while we lived in Miami, we would often hold hands while walking down Lincoln Road Mall or on the beach, but we weren’t big on kissing in public. I don’t like seeing anyone—straight or gay—doing it, unless it’s a quick peck as maybe a good bye smooch. Save the tongues for when you get home.

So, I was kinda of annoyed to learn about two gay men—Daniel Chesmore and Jose Guzman—who were asked to leave the Westfield Galleria in Roseville, California for doing just that. Not the tongues, but the pecking kind of kisses.

“I kissed him on the cheek. That’s how my boyfriend and I show affection,” said Daniel Chesmore.

And as they kissed—and, well, they say it was just a simple kiss—a security guard confronted them about kissing in public and they started recording the confrontation.
 “If you continue to kiss, you will be asked to leave the mall. Period,” the voice on the recording said. “I counted you guys kissing 25 times. I told you before, we contact any couple [...] about this.”

Chesmore and Guzman’s story caught the attention of Fox40, the local Fox affiliate, who sent their own cameras to the galleria. They filmed dozens of straight couples holding hands and kissing, yet not one was asked to leave. When they tried to speak to mall management, Galleria General Manager Eddie Ollmann would not comment in person, but released this written statement, “Persons that violate the Code of Conduct are asked to leave the property.”

Unfortunately, as FOX40 found, there is nothing in the mall’s code of conduct about public displays of affection.

“It makes me feel like no matter what I do in society, I will always be different.” Chesmore says.

 “I feel like we’re always treated differently because we’re gay. It makes me sad.” Guzman said.

Like I said, I am not big on kissing in public, other than the quick peck, but if you say you have rules against it, then shouldn’t the rules apply to everyone? I do have questions, though, like when the security guard said he counted them kissing twenty-five times; was that an exaggeration or were the two men sitting there kissing and kissing and kissing?
If that even makes a difference.

But then I also wonder how and why, as soon as the guard came over, the men were suddenly audio recording the confrontation. That seemed kind of planned to me, and if so, then the two men weren't just kissing, they were trying to provoke some confrontation.

That said, however, if the mall's Code of conduct says nothing about PDA then these men did nothing wrong. And, as you see on the videotape, the mall manager didn't even want to answer the questions, so, whether or not this was some planned two man kiss-in or not, the mall has some explaining to do.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:54 AM

    They had more than one encounter with the guard. That's why they recorded what I suspect is the 2nd contact.

    Around here the nearest major mall is Providence Place. Be the day one of their drones does that to me. I worked with their boss, a former Providence police officer. And I know a bit about his web habits too.


    But I've even seen two men, two women etc. holding hands in my area. I think it's cute.

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  2. I swear a baby was conceived in front of the locker next mine in high school. I should have been asked to be the godmother or something...

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  3. Anonymous12:06 PM

    I'm on the fence on this one. Twenty-five kisses at a mall? If they want to be treated the same as everyone else, fine. I'll tell them to get a hotel room just like I'd tell a straight couple that's displaying too much PDA.

    On the other hand, there's no rule. Where does one draw the line? Or is there a line to draw?

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  4. Westfield (Westfield Group) is Australian held company and they have an interesting history in the US. It owns 47 major US malls, most of them over 25 years old. In the US, they aren't innovators, but more like caretakers.

    When they started buying US malls, nationwide, they made decision to rebrand them by renaming them "Westfield Shopping Town" followed by the deemphasized mall name. This didn't got over well in local economies. In fact, there seems to be a national aversion to shoppers using the Westfield name. My impression is that they STILL don't know the communities that they serve.

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  5. sounds like mall management has some 'splaining to do over why they h8 teh gays...

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