A server at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., has been dismissed after stating that she would refuse to serve individuals with political beliefs aligning with the Trump administration.
Restaurant owners, managers and servers detailed their opinions on whether they were able to maintain political neutrality within restaurants in the city as part of a report published by the Washingtonian. One server interviewed by the outlet expressed her discomfort with having to serve active legislators whose stances she views as against her morals.
"I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people," said Suzannah Van Rooy, who works as a server at Beuchert's Saloon on Capitol Hill. "It's not, 'Oh, we hate Republicans.' It's that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don't feel comfortable serving them."
Van Rooy continued to talk about potential acts of "resistance" from restaurants against the Trump administration, including denial of entry or service to individuals closely associated with the President-elect.
"People were a lot more motivated the first time around to do those kinds of shows of passion. This time around, there is kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance," Van Rooy said. "But I hope that people still do stand up to this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior."
The restaurant promptly took measures after the statements were published: "Not only do Ms. Van Rooy's comments clearly violate our zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, but her decision to sign into our social media accounts in the middle of the night to post her own rhetoric in wildly offensive responses to comments is a further breach of conduct and protocol," said Beuchert's Saloon in a statement posted to Facebook, in which they announced Van Rooy's termination, also recalling previous episodes of misconduct. "She has no authority to speak on our behalf, and her comments do not reflect the positions of over twenty other people who make up our staff."
We tried to take the night to review Ms. Van Rooy’s full comments, and any other interviews she may have given, to make an informed decision as to her continued employment based on our employee...
"Our staff and families (many of whom are personally offended by Ms. Van Rooy's comments about them) are still reeling from what Ms. Van Rooy said and did, and we as a restaurant are simply horrified to be associated with base prejudice," the restaurant continued. "None of us saw this coming, and regret deeply that the voices of over two dozen people who work at Beuchert's Saloon are being silenced because of one person's awful behavior."
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