A teenage waiter in Kansas was left in tears after a hateful customer scrawled a homophobic slur on his receipt instead of a tip.
“It was very hurtful. I’m not one to cry at work, but it was definitely a first for me,” Noah Bielig said. I told Kake.
Bierig, 19, was working a customer shift at Bubba’s 33 in Wichita earlier this month when she was confronted by a cruel customer.
There was a negative energy emanating from the group from the start, and Bierig noticed members staring at their damaged nails and their pride bracelets, which his mother had given him when he came out as gay six years ago.
“They gave me a couple of dirty looks when I first approached the table, and then they started laughing a bit as I walked away,” Bierig told the outlet.
The boy ignored the group’s jeers and decided to treat them the same as he would any other customer.
The people at the table responded to his kindness with insults.
“I looked at one of the receipts and noticed a three-letter insulting word written on it,” Bierig explained.
One customer refused to leave a tip, instead writing “fg” in the tip box.
The cruel act left Bierig devastated, as she had received nothing but support since coming out in the eighth grade.
“I’m not used to that kind of blatant homophobia,” he said.
Soon after, one of Bierig’s friends shared the receipt online, revealing the customer’s name signed and printed underneath the slur.
The customer’s account was flooded with angry comments, accusing him of cowardly behavior until he relented and apologized.
“I know what I wrote was incorrect and for that I am very sorry,” he wrote on Facebook. “The overall dining experience was not that great and I should not have said what I wrote.”
Bierig’s friends seized the opportunity to set up an online fund for the scorned server through the city’s LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce, Proud of Wichita, but Bierig humbly said he would not accept any of the money.
“Everything that comes out of there is going to be donated,” Bierig explained.
There is an organization called GLSEN. It is basically an anti-bullying organization. They specifically help LGBT kids who are being bullied in school and help them.”
