Several white women were escorted out of a hotel pool recently after complaining about a Black queer couple kissing publicly. The women grumbled that there were “children present.”
A video of them quickly went viral over the weekend, with clips showing the ladies walking out of the pool area, and sending their final angry thoughts.
In one clip, a woman is seen giving a middle finger to the smartphone camera recording the encounter. In another video, a woman jeers at bystanders asking if they have children and responding, “Good, because you’d be a f—ing terrible dad.”
The incident occurred in Sacramento, California at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel when the group, seated in a cabana, demanded that a Black queer woman and her girlfriend stop kissing.
According to reports, “when confronted by bystanders, ‘the white party’ claimed there’s no way they were racist because one of them was ‘Hispanic’. Like you can’t be both.”
The women were eventually escorted out of the pool area by hotel security in a profanity-laden exit as other Sawyer guests chanted, “Shame!” at them, a scene reminiscent of the HBO medieval drama Game of Thrones.
Daryle Lamont Jenkins, executive director of One People’s Project, shared the video to his Twitter page, writing: “Pride month begins with this from @Theblackbayarea IG. The White women at this Sacramento hotel pool were pissed that a Queer Black woman was kissing her gf in public because there were children present. They were shamed out. This is a #280charactersaintenough moment! Just damn!”
After video of the encounter went viral, a spokesperson for the hotel initially released a statement that read, in part, “This incident had nothing to do with homophobia, racism or even kissing. It involved what appeared to be sexual intercourse and inappropriate activity in close proximity of children. Young children should not be forced to witness explicit sexual activity in a hotel swimming pool in the middle of a summer afternoon irrespective of gender or sexual identity.”
The hotel later issued another statement. It read simply: “The Sawyer does not condone discrimination or verbal assault of any kind. An unfortunate disagreement between guests occurred at our pool over the holiday weekend and the matter has since been resolved.”
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