Chico’s Tacos restaurant doesn't like homosexuals eating their fast-food tacos

Carlos Diaz de Leon and four friends visited the popular Chico's Tacos chain in Montwood for dinner late on June 26, when security guards at the establishment noticed two of the men kissing and said the behavior meant they would have to leave. De Leon called the police, who sided with the security guards, citing a state law against homosexual activity that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.

"It was a simple kiss on the lips," said Carlos Diaz de Leon.

De Leon quoted one of the guards as saying he didn't allow "that faggot stuff" in the restaurant.

Police declined to identify the officers who responded, but department spokesman Javier Sambrano described one officer as relatively inexperienced.

De Leon said the officer told the group it was illegal for two men or two women to kiss in public. The five men, he said, were told they could be cited for homosexual conduct -- a law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.

Chico's Tacos just celebrated their 56-year anniversary this past Fourth of July. Now a planned protest is aimed at the popular El Paso restaurant chain.

"I have had over 67 text messages this morning, people asking if we need anything they're there for us," said Carlos Diaz de Leon.

Part of that support is people threatening to boycott the popular El Paso establishment Chico's Tacos.

"I'm not trying to get people not to go to Chico's, we love the food at Chico's, everybody loves Chico's," said Diaz de Leon.

But after Carlos and his friends were kicked out of the restaurant after two of his friends - both men - kissed on the lips, he says he's a little disappointed with Chico's. "We are, however, a little bothered that the management didn't step in."

Chico's Tacos owner Bernie Mora says he was out of town when it happened. He rarely addresses the media but tells ABC-7 he serves up tacos, not discrimination.

Mora says, "We are here to sell tacos, not to offend anyone."

"The security guard received a complaint from some of the customers there," El Paso police Detective Carlos Carrillo said. "Every business has the right to refuse service. They have the right to refuse service to whoever they don't want there. That's their prerogative."

Briana Stone, a lawyer with the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, disagreed.

She said the city anti-discrimination ordinance protects people on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation in public places. Perhaps more troubling, she said, was that the police officer chose not to enforce that ordinance and might have contributed to discrimination.

"This is such a blatant refusal to uphold the law on account of discrimination," she said. "The result is devastating. The Police Department is allowing that and even participating in it by refusing to enforce an anti-discrimination ordinance, which is what their job is."

Lisa Graybill, legal director for the ACLU of Texas, said that businesses can ask patrons to leave for lewd conduct, but that those standards would have to apply to all customers.

"If a straight couple wouldn't have gotten kicked out for it," she said, "a gay couple shouldn't."