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Gay man says he was assaulted by Shake Shack employees after kissing his boyfriend at D.C. location (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

169 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Christian Dingus, 28, was with his partner when, he says, employees told the couple not to kiss inside, and the argument escalated outside.

A gay man accused a group of Washington, D.C., Shake Shack employees of beating him after he kissed his boyfriend inside the location while waiting for their order.

Christian Dingus, 28, was with his partner and a group of friends at a Dupont Circle location Saturday night when the incident occurred, he told NBC News. They had put in their order and were hanging around waiting for their food.

“And while we were back there — kind of briefly — we began to kiss,” Dingus said. “And at that point, a worker came out to us and said that, you know, you can’t be doing that here, can’t do that type of stuff here.”

The couple separated, Dingus said, but his partner got upset at the employee and insisted the men had done nothing wrong. Dingus’ partner was then allegedly escorted out of the restaurant, where a heated verbal argument occurred.

(page 4) 48 comments

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 4 months ago

Glutton for punishment if you're homophobic and working at the Shake Shack in Dupont Circle.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Heh, he's called Dingus.

Sorry, Dingus, people kinda blow sometimes.

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[+] [email protected] -77 points 4 months ago (49 children)

There is never a reason for either party to escalate a verbal disagreement to a physical one, but I would be very shocked if the PDA were as innocent as they imply it was for someone to walk out from behind the counter and calmly ask them to knock it off. There are always two sides to every altercation, and even his description, "kind of briefly - we began to kiss" sounds like downplaying the degree of the kissing going on. It sounds like there was a good chance that it was a pretty excessive makeout session. They really seem to want to make it a homophobia thing, and maybe it was... whether the employees' line for excessive would have been the same for a straight couple as for this gay one, I don't know. But I wouldn't be shocked if the request was at least arguably reasonable for a business that doesn't need people sucking face at the counter. Or maybe I'm wrong and the entire restaurant staff in left-leaning Washington DC are just a bunch of homophobes. Idk.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Dude, you are wrong. Give it up. No guy has ever had the shit beat out of him by a stores employees for straight PDA. This was homophobia, and your bullshit argument just invalidates the very real struggle gay people go through every day. You are clearly not gay. So learn when you don't have the context to speak up, accept you are wrong, and sit the hell down.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago (17 children)

It's saddening to me that the take of "there's probably more to the story here" is so objectionable. Judgment absolutely should be withheld pending investigation.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago

There are always two sides to every altercation

Yes, and in this case it was the side that violently beat a man for an event which started with their queerphobia and the other side that didn't violently beat a man for any reason.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You think a lot about that gay kissing don't you now.

[+] [email protected] -15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

Lol. Dude, I'm a full on socialist pro-choice pro-LGBT rights progressive. Feel free to check my post history. I couldnt give a fuck if two dudes are kissing. I'm not excusing the violence towards these guys. It's not OK. There is a point, though, where macking on one another in public becomes a spectacle, gay, straight, pan or whatever. It is not homophobia for a business owner to ask you to cut it out if you are being excessive in front of other guests just because you are gay. I've seen straight couples make asses out of themselves in public too. It's dumb. Asking that to stop in your restaurant is OK. What happened after is absolutely not. Is that clearer to you?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

you're not excusing the violence towards this couple, but you're sure going out of your way to excuse all of the bigotry and hate which led to it, even going so far as to assert that they're liars overblowing the situation so you can claim the bigots/assaulters are blameless, or, at least , that this bigotry and hate was somehow reasonable.

you can claim to be leftie or whatever, but your words here show how you really feel towards the LGBTQ+ community and about those who would discriminate against us.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

Dude sometimes people exaggerate. No strike that. USUALLY people exaggerate. Especially to escape blame in their own story. They aren't to blame for the violence. Period. Full stop. But that doesn't mean that they weren't to blame for drawing an employee out to ask them to stop what they were doing. I'm not even saying that they definitely are. I. Don't. Know. I haven't seen security footage or anything. But suggesting that they might have been a little more extra in their kissing than they suggested is not tantamount to hating LGBT people. My suggestion doesn't even have a thing to do with them being gay. Believe it or not, there are times where people jump to the minority card to explain how others feel about them or act towards them when, sometimes, they have legitimate reasons to feel things about someone or act a certain way irrespective of their minority traits. Are we all antisemites for preferring Walz over Shapiro as VP or being against the Palaesrinian genocide? We were accused of it, so it must be true, right? Does suggesting that Jewish people might be wrong about me being an antisemitic also make me antisemitic? Because you're suggesting I'm a homophobe for not taking this one guy's belief that the entire restaurant was itching to beat gay people as gospel.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

My suggestion doesn’t even have a thing to do with them being gay.

but they are, and you're still doing all these mental gymnastics to rationalize the bigotry and hate that was unleashed towards them.

Dude sometimes people exaggerate.

apparently, only LGBTQ+ people when being attacked and not, perhaps, the Shake Shack employees who assaulted them.

your automatic victim-blaming and vehement defense of the bigotry, even making up stories to rationalize it, shows who and what you really are.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And then one of the men, pretty forcefully, like, pushed me out of the way on my shoulder,” Dingus said. “And then, you know, next thing I know, that kind of just, I think, sparked the rest of them. ... They all just kind of started attacking me at that point, dragging me back through the floor and continuously punching me in my head.”

They essentially gang assaulted Mr. Dingus, and you believe it's only because of some PDA? I highly doubt it, and believe fully that this is a case of homophobia. And almost certainly a hate crime too.

[+] [email protected] -13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I assumed it happened because of the "heated verbal argument" he said his partner started. Words get exchange, tempers rise and fists come out. Again, I said I may be wrong. Maybe they were all homophobes that wanted to get a few licks in on some gay guys. Or maybe they were all assholes and turned a request into an argument into a fist fight. I don't know. I just think his retelling of the story seems suggest there was more to it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

YOU are the only one suggesting there's more to it, and you're doing it so you can side with the bigots/attackers while indirectly calling the victims liars.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Multiple employees beat up a gay man after he had some PDA with his partner. No matter how you look at it the optics are horrible. Short of Mr. Dingus having a weapon or shouting slurs or something like that: there's no justification for the employees to beat and attack him.

I feel like you're jumping through several hoops to put the blame back on the person who was beaten by multiple people.

[+] [email protected] -10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I've said multiple times that the violence was not okay and there was no excuse for it. No matter how much pda happened. I have also said multiple times that they are absolutely not to blame for the violence assuming neither threw the first punch. I only suggested that he might have downplayed a single detail in his retelling about what caused the employee to talk to them in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’ve said multiple times that the violence was not okay and there was no excuse for it.

yet you're bending over backwards to make excuses for it

[+] [email protected] -6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I really havent. Suggesting that the restaurant may have been justified I asking them to stop what they were doing is not excusing the violence even a little and it's ridiculous for you to conflate the two things

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I really havent. Suggesting that the restaurant may have been justified I asking them to stop what they were doing is not excusing the violence

when you invent excuses for bigoted violence that's what you're doing, especially if you have to completely invent the accusation that the victims were liars and, therefore, deserved it.

THAT is what you keep doing, and your denials just make it more obvious how much trouble with the truth when you deny the things you've already said here for everyone to see.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Trying to understand codemonkey, I believe they agrees there's no justification. What they mean is that once a verbal fight started, tempers could have flared, and violence was inevitable, but not acceptable.

That said, I agree the optics are very bad, and more importantly, society should start from the default position of first assessing if a hate crime happened.

First thing should be "were these folks targeted based on their orientation?"

After that is thoroughly vetted, only then can it be considered "did a bunch of folks get heated in a shake shack after the customers were firmly but non discriminatorily told to knock it off?"

Edit if a reader thinks I took a side other than "hate crime bad, determine hate crime FIRST" with this comment you really need to think again.