The owner of an Enid, Okla., restaurant is under fire after a customer claimed he was discriminated against because he’s disabled, KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City reported.
Gary’s Chicaros’ owner, Gary James, didn’t make things much better when he gave an interview to a local news station: “I’ve been in business 44 years, I think I can spot a freak or a f**got,” he told KFOR.
Matt Gard, who was a regular diner at Gary’s, said James’s treatment of disabled and minority customers has increased over the years. He said he was recently kicked out while trying to enjoy a steak dinner.
“He doesn’t like certain people of race, colour, ethnicity,” Gard told KFOR. “Now, he tried to find a weak excuse not to let me in with my wheelchair or the weak excuse of having loud people with me.”
James denies Gard’s claims, saying he banned Gard for another reason. “He created an issue. You only have one time here. You create an issue, you’re out forever.”
“If you work, you own a business, pay your taxes, you’re more than welcome here,” he said. “[But] if you’re on welfare, stay at home and spend my money, there.”
At least 140 other people took to Gary’s Chicaros’ Facebook page to share their stories of being discriminated against by James.
All of which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the official T-shirts at Chicaro’s. Those shirts say “F**got-Free Zone,” the N-word, and include threats against Muslims and Democrats.
James wears the shirt openly and says he’s proud of it.
“I really don’t want gays around,” he said “Any man that would compromise his own body would compromise anything.”
When KFOR’s reporter, who is Asian, asked James if he’d call her a “ch**k,” he said only if they were drinking and “joking around.”
“If I reached over there and slapped the sh*t out of you, you should be offended,” he said. “But to call someone a ‘ch**k’ or someone call me a bigot, that doesn’t bother me.”
This article first appeared on Gawker.