Waitress Picks 'Morals Over Money,' Gets Fired

Brittany Spencer overheard two customers making transphobic remarks
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 19, 2019 11:30 AM CDT
Waitress Picks 'Morals Over Money,' Gets Fired
Brittany Spencer.   (YouTube)

A server who got fired after refusing to wait on transphobic customers says she's OK with choosing "morals over money." It all began last Saturday when Brittany Spencer was working her shift at Fat Joe's Bar and Grill in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin—and a couple made insulting remarks about a transgender customer at the bar, NBC News reports. "They were asking me if I thought it was disgusting and wrong and why we would let someone like that into the establishment," Spencer says of the couple. "To which I answered, 'No, I do not agree with that,' and walked away." She asked her manager to find another worker to wait on the couple, but the manager refused. "She essentially told me to suck it up or go home. To which I said, 'OK, I will leave.'"

Tad Wallender, who co-owns Fat Joe's, says the restaurant planned on talking to her about what happened. Then she posted on Facebook about it, got fired, and urged her followers to post negative reviews on Fat Joe's Facebook page—which the restaurant has taken down. "I was in awe by how many people were disgusted by this behavior and left comments to the point they deleted their Facebook page to keep the reviews from spreading," Spencer tells NBC 26. Wellender defends the restaurant, saying Spencer "refused to do a duty we hired her for. That's the bottom line in a nutshell." But Spencer says it's not so simple: "Turning a blind eye to hate is just as bad as saying the hateful things in my opinion." She's asking anyone wanting to compensate her lost wages to donate to Courage MKE. (More transgender stories.)

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