There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Gay man says he was assaulted by Shake Shack employees after kissing his boyfriend at D.C. location

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.

ganksy ,
@ganksy@lemmy.world avatar

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

PyroNeurosis ,

Heh, he’s called Dingus.

Sorry, Dingus, people kinda blow sometimes.

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

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.

Valmond ,

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

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

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?

SphereofWreckening ,

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.

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

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.

SphereofWreckening ,

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.

GBU_28 , (edited )

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.

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

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.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

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

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

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

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

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.

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

Except even if I’m 100 percent right, that still excuses nothing

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Except even if I’m 100 percent right

according to what evidence that you didn’t make up yourself?

that still excuses nothing

except you’re still here trying to excuse iit.

kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    how charming

    EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    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.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    I’m not. But whatever you say

    EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    “nuh-uh!” is rarely a successful debate tactic.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    you’re not some magnificent puzzle-- your intentions are clear, as you keep calling the victims liars and defending the attackers’ actions as justified.

    finley ,

    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.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    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.

    finley ,

    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.

    todd_bonzalez ,
    @todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee avatar

    Lol. Dude, I’m a full on socialist pro-choice pro-LGBT rights progressive.

    Then act like it.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    Act like it… by disregarding the fact that gay people are flawed just like the rest of us and sometimes exaggerate or play down details in their stories to come off better? Fine, sure. Gay people are magic. They can’t lie. Feel better?

    EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    Don’t blame everyone else for your own poor behavior. calling the victims out as liars just so you can side with the bigots is pretty dispicable.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    Being a victim doesn’t nashe you automatically incapable of lying. I’m not siding with the violent assholes either

    EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    yet, you’ll call these victims liars - over and over - to rationalize the bigotry and violence they received. and you keep doing it, like everyone can’t see what you’re doing.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    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.

    todd_bonzalez ,
    @todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee avatar

    I don’t care if they were fucking the burgers and shakes, the employees can ask them to leave if they’re violating the business’ code of conduct, and after that they can call the police if they’re trespassing.

    The customer can sue the shit out of them after the fact if it was discriminatory, and in D.C. that would be a slam dunk if they were just kissing.

    Once the employees decided to resort to violence, they fucked up, regardless of what the customers were doing.

    Either way, you weren’t there, and homophobes blow up about pretty mundane things all the time, so maybe just take the gay men at their word instead of accusing them of inappropriate behavior and revealing yourself to be a homophobe yourself.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    I read his words. It was his words that made me doubt. He and his partner were the victims here, for sure. But that doesn’t mean that they are being honest about the preamble to the altercation. But if not fully believing a person about every single detail of their story, if not taking every single assumption that they made as gospel makes me homophobe because they happen to be gay, sure. Whatever.

    finley ,

    But that doesn’t mean that they are being honest about the preamble to the altercation.

    YOU, again, are the only one implying this, without evidence. And you’re clearly doing it to excuse the bigotry and violence they faced.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    I didn’t say I had evidence. I said I got a feeling from the way he phrased his story. I also said I might be wrong.

    finley ,

    yet, oddly, you keep asserting - without evidence - that the victims are liars and the bigotry and violence they received was justified.

    kryptonianCodeMonkey ,

    deleted_by_moderator

  • Loading...
  • EleventhHour ,
    @EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

    THE VIOLENCE WAS NOT JUSTIFIED.

    then why do you keep trying to justify it?

    catloaf ,

    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.

    foggy ,

    Man that’s an unfortunate last name.

    poo ,
    @poo@lemmy.world avatar

    Some christian dingus is who I’d expect to be the homophobe lol

    Raiderkev ,

    Lol I was reading that bit and felt really bad for poor middle school Dingus.

    MediaBiasFactChecker Bot ,

    NBC News - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for NBC News:
    > MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
    > Wikipedia about this source

    Search topics on Ground.Newshttps://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/gay-man-says-was-assaulted-shake-shack-employees-kissing-boyfriend-dc-rcna167072

    Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

    ianhclark510 ,
    @ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    Was the name changed for privacy? Imagine going through life being named Christian Dingus

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines