Arkansas Restaurant Cancels LGBT Fundraiser, Compares Group to KKK

[dlwickham]

Leaders at an LGBT center in Van Buren, Ark., say a local restaurant owner discriminated against them and compared them to the Ku Klux Klan when he cancelled a reservation the group made to hold a fundraiser there.

Representatives from the River Valley Equality Center told ABC affiliate 40/29TV that the owner of Sisters Gourmet Bistro cancelled the group's reservation to host a fundraiser after he realized it was for an LGBT organization.

"I told them that I do not support their cause," Sisters owner Richard Hodo told 40/29. "That if they want to do that, that's their business. I do not care, but I don't support their lifestyle and their cause."

River Valley organizers say Hodo's refusal to serve them amounts to antigay discrimination, and noted that the owner compared the center to a white supremacist hate-group.

http://www.advocate.com/news/2013/02/09/arkansas-restaurant-cancels-lgbt-fundraiser-compares-group-kkk