Gay Waitress Tipping Controversy

Confirmed 83,233

Overview

Gay Waitress Tipping Controversy refers to a hoax involving an alleged case of discrimination toward Dayna Morales, a waitress at the Gallop Asian Bistro restaurant in Bridgewater, New Jersey, who claimed that she was denied a tip from a family she had served because of her sexual orientation. However, shortly after the story spread across Facebook in late November 2013, the accused patrons stepped forward and debunked Morales' claim with a bank statement supporting that they had actually tipped the server.

Background

On November 13th, 2013, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy Facebook page "Have A Gay Day" posted a photograph of a receipt sent from waitress Dayna Morales claiming that she did not receive a tip from a customer based on her sexual orientation. In the first two weeks, the post gained over 10,000 likes and 4,100 shares.

I'm a server at Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, NJ and THIS is what happened to me today…..

The note says "sorry I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle & the way you live your life"

NEVER in a million years did I think this would happen. Not only was it a family with two kids, but as I introduce myself and tell them my name is Dayna – the mom proceeds to look at me and say "oh I thought you were gonna say your name is Dan. You sure surprised us!"

I am THOROUGHLY offended mad pissed off and hurt that THIS is what her kids will grow up learning and that I served in the Marines to keep ignorant people like them free. Sorry lady but I don't agree with YOUR lifestyle and the way you're raising your kids but you didn't see me throwing that in your face and giving you shitty service. Keep your damn mouth shut and pray we never cross paths again.

Notable Developments

News Media Coverage

On November 14th, Gawker^[13] published an article about the Facebook post, which denounced the family for being bigoted. On November 15th, 2013, NBC New York broadcast a segment about the controversy, noting that Morales had been receiving large tips and donations due to the controversy (shown below).

In the coming days, several news sites reported that Morales began receiving an influx of donations and support following the publicized controversy, including CNN,^[11] Today^[12] and The Huffington Post.^[14]

Hoax Revealed

On November 26th, NBC New York broadcast a follow-up segment reporting that the family had come forward providing proof that they had tipped the waitress and had not left a homophobic note (shown below). In the segment, the news station questioned Morales about the receipt, to which she claimed that the note was not left in her handwriting.

[This video has been removed]

That day, several threads about the hoax reached the front page of Reddit^[2]^[3]^[4] and it was reported on by various news sites, including The Daily Mail,^[5] Mashable,^[1] USA Today,^[7] Fox News,^[8] Gothamist^[9] and CNN.^[10] On November 27th, The Journal News^[6] reported that ex-colleagues and friends of Morales had accused the New Jersey waitress of other lies, saying she claimed to have shaved her head after being diagnosed with brain cancer, that she served in Afghanistan during her career as a marine and that her home was severely damaged following hurricane sandy in 2012.

Termination

On December 7th, Gallop Asian Bistro restaurant announced on its Facebook page^[16] that Morales decided to leave her job following an internal investigation into allegations that the waitress had made up the story. The Facebook announcement was quickly met by hundreds of comments criticizing the waitress. In addition, the restaurant's spokesperson made it clear before the press the money that has poured in as a result of the incident will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project, a veterans service organization, in consideration of Morales' two-year service with the U.S. marines.