People Online Step Up After Gay Server Is Left With A Homophobic Message Instead Of A Tip
Interview
If you know anyone who has worked in the service industry or you have job experience in it yourself, you probably have a lot of stories to share that include dealing with rude and entitled clientele. Bored Panda has already covered some stories about “customers from hell”, but it seems that there are plenty of situations where people find ways to make someone’s day harder than it has to be.
Recently, a group on Facebook called Do Good Tour shared a picture of a receipt from a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin. On the receipt, someone marked a dash next to “TIP” and left a message that said: “Service was good, but we don’t tip sinful homosexuals.” Someone decided to leave their server without a tip based on their sexuality.
More Info: Facebook
Demanding and rude clients can turn a job in the service industry into quite a challenge
Image credits: zoetnet
The co-founder of Do Good Wisconsin, Eric Salzwedel, instantly reacted to this incident. The Facebook post encouraged people to participate in #VENMOCHALLENGE where they could donate money to this server and later on, they would be surprised with the tip that was collected by their community.
Facebook group “Do Good Tour” posted a receipt that was left for one of the servers working in a restaurant
Image credits: Do Good Tour
250 people participated in this challenge and raised $4,500 that was later given to the server. Bored Panda contacted Eric and asked a few questions about the whole situation. The author of the post found out about the receipt from his friend who couldn’t believe that someone would actually leave such a note. Eric shared: “Seeing the receipt made me angry both as a person of faith and a person who has spent the last 18 months learning about the challenges facing members of the service industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The message was left to the server who didn’t get their tip because of their sexuality
Image credits: Do Good Tour
This isn’t the first time that the #VENMOCHALLENGE has taken place. It all started in April of 2020 when Eric and his friend decided to create a group called Do Good Wisconsin to support service industry workers.
Up until now, they’ve held 40 challenges and raised $20,000. So even though this project has gained some recognition throughout time, the co-founder of this group reveals that he was quite surprised to see this particular challenge receive so much attention.
After this incident, the co-founder of this group decided to create a challenge where people could donate some money and later give this “tip” to the server
Image credits: Eric Salzwedel
If you’re curious to find out who this server is, they decided not to reveal their identity. To this, Eric added: “Many of the servers involved choose to go public with their identity and some do not. While it is certainly understandable this particular individual chose not to be outed to the world, the sudden negativity around a program we’ve been running for over a year caught me off guard. Our social media has dozens of videos showing those servers who did wish to publicize their story and local news stations have spoken with a number of them when reporting on our work. While I’d certainly heard of the concept of ‘internet trolls’ before, experiencing harassing messages from strangers firsthand has been disappointing.”
Image source: mahalie stackpole
This is the first time that this challenge has received some negative attention. Eric revealed that he’s been working in fundraising for nonprofit organizations for more than 10 years and seeing messages calling him “a con artist” is surprising. “Do Good Wisconsin has followed similar processes for each #VenmoChallenge so it’s interesting this particular challenge is the only one to receive this kind of negative attention,” he stated.
250 people joined the challenge, tipped the server and donated them $4,500
Image credits: Eric Salzwedel
The co-founder of Do Good Wisconsin also shared some details of what was done after the money was collected. After $4,500 was received, they made sure that the sum was secured and would be well-received as well as informed responsible people, such as the general manager of the restaurant, about the surprise. After the server received their money, they decided to donate a portion of the sum to The Trevor Project, this way spreading kindness forward.
Image source: Victoria Pickering
Eric also explained the purpose of this challenge: “When we started the #VenmoChallenge, our hope was to show kindness to an industry being pummeled by a situation out of their control, help some people pay their bills and inspire others to engage in everyday acts of kindness. It’s been really rewarding to see how many members of my community have repeatedly stepped up to participate and keep this program going for so many months.” He is sure that their “mission will continue” as they are already planning a new challenge.
What do you think about this situation? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
Some people online were shocked and in disbelief, as well as criticizing the tipping system
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Pro Tip: A server's sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, political views, race, etc. has absolutely no impact on his/her ability to be a server. It's not like you ordered a bunch of donuts and he served them to you on his penis, ffs.
You might have come up with an idea here. The shop could be called "Loopers" and attract more than just a few, ummm, donut enthusiasts.
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That's what resignation, unionization, and strikes are for.
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I wish people would stop using religion as an excuse for being jerks. And cheap jerks at that!
I hope the donated funds were not really left as a tip. If that is the case, it's possible the employee's tip would be divided as tips generally are, between all staff members.
Plus paying taxes on what essentially is a donation. They should have given him cash and left it off the receipt.
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If America could catch up with the rest of the world and just pay their employee's that would be fantastic.
So typical that this ignorant bigot misspelled the word sinful. The only sinful behavior here was on the part of the diners who feel like it's their place to judge others for how they were born. People like this make it so easy for me to turn my back on organized religion.
When they say the LGBTQ community is encroaching on their believes. No dipshit what other people do in their lives is according to their believes and you yours. So you are the ones pissing everyone off.
Tipping is OPTIONAL! The restaurant industry needs to pay a decent wage. It is ridiculous that the customer is expected to pay extra so the server is paid decently.
I can assure you for those “Christians” who think this behavior is acceptable, if Jesus himself was the customer in question he would have still tipped. He would have been super kind to the waiter and never brought up his sexuality. I swear Christians have completely forgotten what being Christian means! It’s embarrassing to the ones like myself who actually like to follow the true meaning, to be Christlike. To love all, to accept all, to respect all, to show compassion. That’s literally all there is too it.
How did their sexuality come up during the course of them serving food to someone? I mean, people can assume all kinds, they can see gender and race, but sexuality?? Equally, however (and I know this has been said before), paying a proper wage rather than having your service staff rely on tips would be nice.
Why can't people be human to other humans> It is not any ones business what differences there are between us. They are just people, human beings. People forget we all have little differences, what if your ears stuck out a bit would you want someone calling you on this difference. Just mind your own business and be human to other humans.
Great that others made up for the tip, but I’m wondering how did the people that didn’t tip know the person was gay?
Exactly. Because there is a good chance this is all BS.
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My question still remains. How does one know if a person is homosexual? Unless they're dressed in rainbows from head to toes, it's not visible. I'm genuinely confused
We don't tip … homosexuals, but we'll be happily served by them! A""wipe, hypocrites.
This comes from people who probably also believe heterosexual lovemaking is "sinful". Anyway this reaction is either because some ancient book tells them they should think that (and they're ignorant enough to go along) or they actually spend time imagining the sexual acts they claim repulse them. Their reaction is not just prejudiced but perverse
The real question is how they know his/her sexual orientation in the first place... It not like he/she approach the table and say "let me inform you that I am..." I mean at best it is a guess based appearance or what?
I'm sorry; the photo of the "original receipt" doesn't look right. The print on the receipt is slightly fuzzy but the "hand-written" note is not. Further, the text of the note doesn't seem to follow the wrinkles and ripples on the receipt. Wouldn't be the first time someone tried to garner sympathy this way, like to one server who claimed that a patron (who didn't tip, of course) wrote a racial slur on her copy of the bill. Only later was it discovered that she herself wrote the slur.
Just because someone goes to church and prays, does not automatically make you a good person
Whoever is responsible for the homophobic message on that receipt; BAN them from ever getting service at that restaurant!! That is the only way they’re going to learn the consequences of their disgusting treatment of another human being (who just so happens to be homosexual). Even if they’ve seen this post, I doubt it has changed their attitudes, as they still got away with it & have not been personally shamed for their actions. One other reason I feel angry about this is because my poor uncle who died of terminal cancer was gay & some of my more pious “relatives” told him to REPENT as he was dying, instead of trying to comfort him. My mum was absolutely furious at them & hasn’t spoken to them since. Neither have I, because I myself am bisexual & I regret not “coming out” to my uncle before he died (& my so-called “aunts” have never been supportive of my health issues, despite calling themselves “Christians”). Fake “Christians” are just A-holes! 🤨🤷♀️
Tips are a rubbish idea. Just put up the prices by 15-20% and give the extra revenue to the waiting staff. Saves a heap of crap, and it's what most countries do anyway. Making people work for tips is akin to slavery relieved only by the generosity of the patrons. It belongs to a bygone age, and serves only to reinforce the master-servant relationship for jerks who get off on that sort of thing.
That "To Insure Prompt Service" thing is a myth, a bit of folk etymology (like the "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" one for FU¢K). The word in the sense of "to give a gratuity" first appeared in the 18th century. It derived from an earlier sense of tip, meaning "to give; to hand, pass", which originated in the thieves' cant in the 17th century. ... The word "tip" was first used as a verb in 1707 in George Farquhar's play The Beaux' Stratagem. The F-word is an ancient Germano-Saxon word for sex.
This kind of thing Definitely happens and if this is at real it's a horrible thing to do. But sometime about this story doesn't sit well. They re collecting money for this person but not revealing their identify. I how this money is actually for this reason.
Load More Replies...
Wonder if they'd have been happy if someone had gone up to them with a coward note saying 'good food here.. but I won't serve any of it to biggots'.. As an aside, who'd have thunk it that there would be gays in the service industry? An industry known for their politeness and patience.
I am a gay man but please note that the person that wrote "We don't tip sin" did not write the word homosexuals. The "s" in sexual is written differently then the other "s" in the sentence. That word is also written with more pressure and is darker. Clearly written by someone else. Possibly the server.
Not sure if I see that, but the handwriting of both receipts is definitely similar. The story is at bare mininum suspicious. Unfortunately that's the consequence of social media outrage like this being very profitable - god knows how many of these are faked for the free advertising and publicity.
Load More Replies... Thing is though about these 'go fund mes' et al......... is it started off well intentioned and novel.. and real. Now it's basically people out with a begging bowl and pan handling without even having to sit on a street corner....... and the golden snitch is whenever any of them realise 'hang on....... claiming the other side are out to get us.... gets us more money in donations than our actual sales ever did....... like in the instance of bakers saying 'oh we were asked to make a rainbow cake....... but our christian values meant we just had to shout them down and tell them they're going to hell........ anywaaaaay....... here's our gofundme page if you're a christian....... you know...... for our legal fees and that' the disclaimer being 'and that' actually means... fast cars and lots of rent boys
You do know servers expect it because they literally can't live on what they make as a base salary right? Not tipping "unless service is outstanding" makes you a jerk
Load More Replies...
Are you really bragging about tipping 10-15%? Oof that's sad.
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Pro Tip: A server's sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, political views, race, etc. has absolutely no impact on his/her ability to be a server. It's not like you ordered a bunch of donuts and he served them to you on his penis, ffs.
You might have come up with an idea here. The shop could be called "Loopers" and attract more than just a few, ummm, donut enthusiasts.
Load More Replies... That's what resignation, unionization, and strikes are for.
Load More Replies... I wish people would stop using religion as an excuse for being jerks. And cheap jerks at that!
I hope the donated funds were not really left as a tip. If that is the case, it's possible the employee's tip would be divided as tips generally are, between all staff members.
Plus paying taxes on what essentially is a donation. They should have given him cash and left it off the receipt.
Load More Replies... If America could catch up with the rest of the world and just pay their employee's that would be fantastic.
So typical that this ignorant bigot misspelled the word sinful. The only sinful behavior here was on the part of the diners who feel like it's their place to judge others for how they were born. People like this make it so easy for me to turn my back on organized religion.
When they say the LGBTQ community is encroaching on their believes. No dipshit what other people do in their lives is according to their believes and you yours. So you are the ones pissing everyone off.
Tipping is OPTIONAL! The restaurant industry needs to pay a decent wage. It is ridiculous that the customer is expected to pay extra so the server is paid decently.
I can assure you for those “Christians” who think this behavior is acceptable, if Jesus himself was the customer in question he would have still tipped. He would have been super kind to the waiter and never brought up his sexuality. I swear Christians have completely forgotten what being Christian means! It’s embarrassing to the ones like myself who actually like to follow the true meaning, to be Christlike. To love all, to accept all, to respect all, to show compassion. That’s literally all there is too it.
How did their sexuality come up during the course of them serving food to someone? I mean, people can assume all kinds, they can see gender and race, but sexuality?? Equally, however (and I know this has been said before), paying a proper wage rather than having your service staff rely on tips would be nice.
Why can't people be human to other humans> It is not any ones business what differences there are between us. They are just people, human beings. People forget we all have little differences, what if your ears stuck out a bit would you want someone calling you on this difference. Just mind your own business and be human to other humans.
Great that others made up for the tip, but I’m wondering how did the people that didn’t tip know the person was gay?
Exactly. Because there is a good chance this is all BS.
Load More Replies... My question still remains. How does one know if a person is homosexual? Unless they're dressed in rainbows from head to toes, it's not visible. I'm genuinely confused
We don't tip … homosexuals, but we'll be happily served by them! A""wipe, hypocrites.
This comes from people who probably also believe heterosexual lovemaking is "sinful". Anyway this reaction is either because some ancient book tells them they should think that (and they're ignorant enough to go along) or they actually spend time imagining the sexual acts they claim repulse them. Their reaction is not just prejudiced but perverse
The real question is how they know his/her sexual orientation in the first place... It not like he/she approach the table and say "let me inform you that I am..." I mean at best it is a guess based appearance or what?
I'm sorry; the photo of the "original receipt" doesn't look right. The print on the receipt is slightly fuzzy but the "hand-written" note is not. Further, the text of the note doesn't seem to follow the wrinkles and ripples on the receipt. Wouldn't be the first time someone tried to garner sympathy this way, like to one server who claimed that a patron (who didn't tip, of course) wrote a racial slur on her copy of the bill. Only later was it discovered that she herself wrote the slur.
Just because someone goes to church and prays, does not automatically make you a good person
Whoever is responsible for the homophobic message on that receipt; BAN them from ever getting service at that restaurant!! That is the only way they’re going to learn the consequences of their disgusting treatment of another human being (who just so happens to be homosexual). Even if they’ve seen this post, I doubt it has changed their attitudes, as they still got away with it & have not been personally shamed for their actions. One other reason I feel angry about this is because my poor uncle who died of terminal cancer was gay & some of my more pious “relatives” told him to REPENT as he was dying, instead of trying to comfort him. My mum was absolutely furious at them & hasn’t spoken to them since. Neither have I, because I myself am bisexual & I regret not “coming out” to my uncle before he died (& my so-called “aunts” have never been supportive of my health issues, despite calling themselves “Christians”). Fake “Christians” are just A-holes! 🤨🤷♀️
Tips are a rubbish idea. Just put up the prices by 15-20% and give the extra revenue to the waiting staff. Saves a heap of crap, and it's what most countries do anyway. Making people work for tips is akin to slavery relieved only by the generosity of the patrons. It belongs to a bygone age, and serves only to reinforce the master-servant relationship for jerks who get off on that sort of thing.
That "To Insure Prompt Service" thing is a myth, a bit of folk etymology (like the "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" one for FU¢K). The word in the sense of "to give a gratuity" first appeared in the 18th century. It derived from an earlier sense of tip, meaning "to give; to hand, pass", which originated in the thieves' cant in the 17th century. ... The word "tip" was first used as a verb in 1707 in George Farquhar's play The Beaux' Stratagem. The F-word is an ancient Germano-Saxon word for sex.
This kind of thing Definitely happens and if this is at real it's a horrible thing to do. But sometime about this story doesn't sit well. They re collecting money for this person but not revealing their identify. I how this money is actually for this reason.
Load More Replies... Wonder if they'd have been happy if someone had gone up to them with a coward note saying 'good food here.. but I won't serve any of it to biggots'.. As an aside, who'd have thunk it that there would be gays in the service industry? An industry known for their politeness and patience.
I am a gay man but please note that the person that wrote "We don't tip sin" did not write the word homosexuals. The "s" in sexual is written differently then the other "s" in the sentence. That word is also written with more pressure and is darker. Clearly written by someone else. Possibly the server.
Not sure if I see that, but the handwriting of both receipts is definitely similar. The story is at bare mininum suspicious. Unfortunately that's the consequence of social media outrage like this being very profitable - god knows how many of these are faked for the free advertising and publicity.
Load More Replies... Thing is though about these 'go fund mes' et al......... is it started off well intentioned and novel.. and real. Now it's basically people out with a begging bowl and pan handling without even having to sit on a street corner....... and the golden snitch is whenever any of them realise 'hang on....... claiming the other side are out to get us.... gets us more money in donations than our actual sales ever did....... like in the instance of bakers saying 'oh we were asked to make a rainbow cake....... but our christian values meant we just had to shout them down and tell them they're going to hell........ anywaaaaay....... here's our gofundme page if you're a christian....... you know...... for our legal fees and that' the disclaimer being 'and that' actually means... fast cars and lots of rent boys
You do know servers expect it because they literally can't live on what they make as a base salary right? Not tipping "unless service is outstanding" makes you a jerk
Load More Replies... Are you really bragging about tipping 10-15%? Oof that's sad.
Load More Replies...
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