McDonalds & The Big Payback

Following anti-gay harassment and namecalling from McDonald's employees in Louisville, KY, the restaurant has agreed to pay a settlement to the individuals involved and to fund diversity training for managers at 30 different Kentucky locations. This stemmed from a visit to a McDonald's in 2008 by Ryan Marlatt, Teddy Eggers, and three friends. After placing an order and paying for their food an employee of the store called them "faggot", "cocksucker" and "bitch." They immediately asked for a refund but the supervisor refused.

They tried to contact the general manager of the location were unsuccessful in getting a response. So they organized a protest and members of the LGBT community came out in support. The store has now offered $2000 to each person that was there in July and will give diversity training to Kentucky managers as a result.

Marlatt said "McDonald's could have saved itself a lot of embarrassment if they'd just done the right thing from the start and done something about this, but it's great that so many people stood up for us and came forward to say [that] treating people the way we were treated is wrong. We just hope the trainings keep McDonald's from letting this happen to any of their customers from now on."