Pizza parlor to remove controversial bathroom sign
DURANGO, Colo. (KRQE) – A Durango pizza parlor is getting a lot of attention for a sign in its restaurant.
The owners of HomeSlice Pizza put up a bathroom sign showing a man lifting up a woman’s skirt.
Some claim it promotes sexual assault and harassment. The company told the Durango Herald they will take the sign down, but only to spare employees from the backlash.
The owner, Lynn Kitch, released a statement saying she’s a survivor of sexual assault and doesn’t find the sign offensive.
Kitch also said some have deep-rooted emotional issues and suggest they deal with their pain in a more “productive manner” as opposed to projecting their anger on the restaurant.
She calls the social media comments a form of cyberbullying.
Lynn Kitch, owner of HomeSlice, issued the following statement:
I am responding to the recent concern over my bathroom sign at the Homeslice North location. I am the owner of HomeSlice Pizza and a survivor of sexual assault. While I do not find the bathroom sign offensive, I think that we have totally missed a good opportunity for a meaningful conversation.
I understand that some people have deep rooted emotional issues stemming from sexual impropriety, and for that I have compassion. I would invite them to deal with their pain in a more productive manner than projecting their anger on a bathroom sign, or a pizza restaurant, or certainly a restaurant employee.
I don’t support harassment in any form, and to harass and intimidate someone to remove a bathroom sign that you think depicts harassment is hyper hypocritical. I’m sorry if you choose to see rape and discrimination when you look at my bathroom sign. I would have welcomed a face to face conversation; I do not welcome a cyber lynch mob or harassing phone calls to my employees.
Maybe cyber bullying is the issue that should be heralded here. Furthermore I will not give in to intimidation as a means of censorship. That is something I believe in. This jihad to eradicate everything that may remind someone of a past pain is futile. That kind of change can only happen from within.
I will remove the bathroom signs. Not because of cyber bullying, or harassing phone calls, or bad reviews online, but simply out of respect for my employees whom I will not subject to adverse working conditions at the hands of a very few unhealthy and obviously bored individuals.