Sign with a homophobic slur in front of Florida business sparks backlash
By: NBC News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
May 31, 2023, 3:21 PM UTCBy Jay Valle
A sign with a homophobic slur outside a Florida auto repair shop has sparked backlash from the local community and social media users.
The sign, which appeared to have gone up over Memorial Day weekend outside Rick's Repair Shop in Tallahassee, said, "Veterans get a day fags and child molesters get a month why," appearing to refer to Pride Month in June.
A sign outside Rick's Repair Shop in Tallahassee, Fla.Courtesy Jackson Peel
Jackson Peel, a spokesperson for the Florida House Democrats, tweeted a photo of the sign and publicly denounced the message.
"This kind of bigotry should have no place in our Tallahassee community," Peel wrote. "It is an embarrassment and the people at Rick's Repair Shop should be ashamed of their foolish, hurtful, and wrong words."
The viral post, which was shared Sunday, has been viewed over 900,000 times and received hundreds of responses.
Tyler Clark-McLendon, the board chair of Tallahassee Pride, shared Peel's tweet and said the shop "chose to have a hate-filled Memorial Day."
Tallahassee City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow also criticized the business, sharing Peel's tweet and writing, "I'm not sure the sad, miserable place a person must be in to take the time to put this up, but I do know the majority of folks in Tallahassee reject this hatred and respect the freedom to be who you are, love who you want and support LGBTQ rights every month of the year."
Shop owner Rick Hughes is known in the community for sharing controversial messages outside his store, according to Peel.
Hughes was unable to be reached for comment.
Since the post, Rick's Repair Shop has received hundreds of negative ratings and reviews on the business-review platform Yelp.
Yelp posted a message Tuesday afternoon saying it had temporarily disabled the posting of new reviews to the shop's page due to "increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news rather than actual consumer experiences with the business."
Earlier this month, drivers in Orlando, Florida, were met with a violent and homophobic message on the road, where a digital traffic sign that appeared to be tampered with displayed the message "KILL ALL GAYS."
Orlando police said the incident is under investigation, NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando reported.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer denounced the hateful message, calling the sign "disgusting" and saying "hate has no place in Orlando."
"To Orlando's LGBTQ+ residents and visitors: you are respected and valued here," Dyer tweeted. "And we won't be deterred in our efforts to ensure that our city is inclusive for all."
Jay Valle
Jay Valle reports and produces digital content for NBC Out.
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This is a man who cares about everyone in his community not just a select few
this act is basically akin to some moron putting a "kick me" sign on his own back and walking around...
Sickening.
He probably won't lose any business since his clients are those that think like him...probably
nope. check out the sign on the building halfway up the left hand side of the picture...
Good gawd...FLA is ripe for something horrific to happen
The Pulse Nightclub Massacre was in Florida and was horrific...
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Imagine needing to be protected from learning that the Pulse Nightclub shooting had nothing to do with homophobia.
You are partly right. We know how extremist Muslims feel about LGBT people:
Why do you think he picked an LGBT night club? Do you really honestly believe that his attack was all about Islamic jihad? I think he had a dual motivation to open fire on these people
And you can stop with the meta
He picked it randomly . He planned on attacking Disney springs but there were too many cops. He had no idea it was a gay club.
The DOJ was very clear about that at his wife’s trial.
You made your point. It's time for you to move on
radical religious extremists seem to have a lot in common...
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I realize that this may have "moved on" by now, but one point of clarification. You do not enter a homosexual bar and not realize it is a homosexual bar. . . immediately. And if one is not smart enough to check it out first (and one wants to kill people) once you see the 'culture' taking place inside. . . leave and go (kill) somewhere else! If that you the intention, that is.
This man chose to kill what he saw in front of him and in front of him was homosexuals. Especially since my understanding is he went so far as to catch people into bathrooms and attempted to check the stalls there before moving on to another room.
meh, he needed to go as soon as he deflected and went off topic.
agreed but we already have a reputation for deleting those we don't like
Currently it has a two star rating. Yelp has temporarily disabled comments as people are posting their views rather than actual customer experiences. Yelp maintains a neutral stance.
And Tallahassee is the capital of Florida, wonderful PR. /s
Florida is loaded with hate groups and in the last year there have been numerous anti-Semitic acts including flyers put in people's driveways and anti-Semitic rallies.
Sounds like the authority of an inquisitor needs to invoked to punish blasphemy. There are a number of historical precedents for how those who held heretical views should be treated.
But it's all okay since there isn't any sort of god involved.
Yep. Fucking year 2023 and this is the right wing attitude...
I guess the rwnj brain trust doesn't believe that anti-choice legislation has done enough damage to the GOP already...
MTG is their brain trust.
star of the new reality series "when confederate cousins inbreed"...
There is NO JUSTIFICATION for this man to display the word "FAG" on a public access way to be viewed by the public. Of course, young children and school-age kids will happen-by and get a 'dose' of bigotry that we (all) thought had been put to rest once and for all. That is the intent of regressive politics (likes and dislikes): to make sure that (petty) bigotry is not ended, but recycled.