A Canadian restaurant manager was let go from his position for refusing to serve a customer wearing a “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat unless he removed his cap.
Darin Hodge, who used to work as the former manager of the Teahouse in Vancouver’s Stanley Park neighborhood, said Saturday that he does not regret asking the customer to remove his cap because he claimed the headwear represented “racism, bigotry, Islamophobia, misogyny, white supremacy, (and) homophobia.”
“As a person with a strong moral backbone, I had to take a stand against this guest’s choice of headwear while in my former place of work. Absolutely no regrets,” Hodge told Global News in a statement.
The Tuesday incident began when the customer entered the restaurant, and Hodge told him to remove his MAGA hat or he would not be served, according to Eva Gates, who represents the company that owns the restaurant.
“And the gentleman said that he had a right to wear that hat. And [the manager] refused to serve him if he wouldn’t take off his hat, and so the customer had to leave,” Gates said, recalling the incident.
Restaurant staff members told CBC News that Hodge worked at the Teahouse for 18 months before he was terminated.
Other establishments have banned customers from wearing the red hats bearing Donald Trump’s signature campaign slogan. A Chicago bar posted a message on June 23 prohibiting customers from entering the bar if they wore MAGA hats or had face tattoos.
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