Aimee Walker
A gay man has slammed a Manchester restaurant after allegedly being ‘denied entry over his outfit’.
Brandon Rogers, who was out celebrating a sibling’s birthday at the time, has claimed he was turned away from 20 Stories after being told his leopard print trousers were ‘too much’.
His sister, Paris Osborne, took to Twitter to blast the venue, accusing them of ‘discrimination,’ and being ‘homophobic’.
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She claimed: “We’ve just been out for my sister’s birthday and my brother, who is the best dressed out of all of us and is extremely expressive and proudly gay, was denied entry to 20 Stories Manchester.
“The bouncer looked him up and down, said his ‘pants are too, too much, the leopard print, no’.
“But then let a man who was seen as more ‘male’ who wore jeans that were discoloured, dirty and wore worn-out trainers, straight in.
“Absolute discrimination and homophobic. This needs to be seriously addressed.”
She added: “Homophobia still exists and very, very strongly.”
After this, Osborne posted several pictures of women wearing leopard print outfits inside the venue.
Rogers himself, who has autism, told Manchester Evening News, that the situation has left him ‘infuriated’.
He said: “Queer people are suppressed and made to feel different our entire lives.
“I’m personally not a very confident person so the way I present myself with dangly earrings and patterned clothing make me feel that little bit more confident and happy within myself.
“Having autism as well makes it really difficult for me to find ways to express myself and feel comfortable within my own skin, so businesses discriminating against me like this could potentially tear down all of that.”
The polices of @20StoriesMCR are backwards and outdated. I will never stop expressing myself in the way I dress. If going out in animal print means that I get denied because it’s “too much”, then I will happily go to a more queer friendly space without the added toxic masculinity
— BrandonRogers:) (@Brand0nRogers) November 8, 2021
It’s not the first time that 20 Stories has been criticised by LGBT+ customers. Last year, a transgender customer was allegedly misgendered by the door staff and the manager.
At the time, they apologised in a statement, adding: “We operate a zero-discrimination policy at 20 Stories and across D&D London and have been doing a great deal of work to implement this by training and educating our staff across the group.
“We have been working with the LGBT Foundation to develop a training programme for all D&D employees which is now a standard as part of their ongoing training and development.”
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