Great sign! Students held a “big kiss” protest at a Sainsbury’s in Brighton after two women were asked to leave the store for kissing. pic.twitter.com/bRlsq0SEJA
— The Badger (@TheBadgerNews) October 15, 2014
When a female student was thrown out of a Sainsbury’s in Brighton for kissing her girlfriend, her university rallied around her. Wednesday evening, hundreds of protestors joined a kiss-in to demand tolerance, embracing under rainbow umbrellas and holding homemade signs.
A security guard asked Annabelle Paige, 22, a student at the University of Sussex, to leave Sainsbury’s after she gave her partner a “slight peck on the cheek,” according to the Guardian. A fellow customer had complained to the security guard that the “disgusting” kiss made her concerned for the safety of her child.
.@sainsburys: "Live Well For Lez" 😀 #bigkissin pic.twitter.com/N3MePR8o0q
— Adam McGibbon (@AdamMcGibbon) October 15, 2014
“That word, disgusting, it really resonated and shook me,” Paige told the Guardian. In an op-ed, University of Sussex communications officer Michael Segalov wrote that there would have been no objection to a man and woman kissing in the same way.
Smoochin' with @T0ucanSurf by the tampons lolz #BigKissIn ❤️