Gerrard Kaonga
A 19-year-old server has spoken out after receiving a homophobic message on a receipt from a table he'd served.
Noah Bierig works as a server for Bubba's 33 in front of the Towne East Mall in Wichita, Kansas.
Speaking to local news outlets, he said since coming out as gay in 8th grade, he has received nothing but support, adding that he was 'not used to blatant homophobia like that'.
On Sunday (July 21), while he was working a shift, a customer called Noah a homophobic slur on the receipt.
Advert
Speaking of the incident, Bierig said: “That hurt me, a lot. I’m not the type to cry at work but I have to say that definitely was the first time that had happened to me."
According to Noah, he says that he noticed something was off with a particular table, as they had shot a 'couple of dirty looks at him'.
"And every time I would walk away, they would kind of just start laughing a little bit." he continued to say.
The 19-year-old believes that they were staring at his painted nails and pride bracelet - which was a gift from his mom.
However, despite this, Noah served them as he would any other regular customer.
But it wasn’t until after the group left when he picked up their receipt that he noticed what was written on the paper.
"I looked at one of their receipts and I noticed that it had a certain three-letter derogatory term written on it." he said.
After an image of the bill was shared online, people on social media were able to figure out the customer's identity and found their profile on Facebook to confront them.
The customer then issued an apology: “I know it was wrong of me to write what I did and for that I am very sorry.
“The overall dining experience wasn’t that great and I shouldn’t have dealt with it by saying what I did.
“I did try to call the restaurant to apologize to the guy but couldn’t contact him. I am sorry to anyone who was affected or hurt by my words.
"I have learned a valuable lesson in all of this and nothing like this will ever happen again.”
According to Attitude, Noah's friends teamed up with 'Proud of Wichita' to create an online fundraiser to 'tip' him up to 100 percent.
The donations, which also includes the restaurant's, will go towards GLSEN, an organisation fighting against LGBTQ+ discrimination.
Speaking to KAKE News, Bierig said: “It is not the only time this has happened. I am sure there are things like this that happened on the daily that might not get as much traction as this did.
“I want to show no matter how much this happen, we can always keep our smiles up, we can always be smile and we don’t have to hate anyone we can always just love.”