“I want to hold your hand,
I want to hold your hand.”
– John Lennon & Paul McCartney
A dangerous crime
As it’s likely blazed across the Twitterverse by now, it’s no news that two women sitting on a bench at Cameron Village Shopping Center in Raleigh were asked to leave immediately by a security guard. Their crime? Holding hands, exchanging a quick kiss and enjoying each other’s company.
While officials with York Properties (which owns and manages Cameron Village) were quick to offer the couple an apology, the fact of the matter is this never should have happened in the first place. Ignore for a moment that it’s 2010 and gays are granted full benefits by many major corporations and marriage licenses in some states, or that dozens serve as elected officials at the local, state and federal levels, or that Raleigh and the Research Triangle strives to welcome the world’s best and brightest minds, or that Raleigh is now one of the top 25 DMAs, or that one of the nation’s best universities (NCSU) is located not three miles away or that nearly a half dozen teenagers have tragically taken their lives in recent months simply because they were – or were suspected of being – gay.
The reason this should never have happened is that in 2010 is that sensitivity training – in this case, just plain common sense and common decency training – should have been in place before that security guard ever walked out the company door.
In these days of instantaneous celebrity for individuals and companies alike, this lack of prior planning is not only questionable – it’s inexcusable. Let’s hope other companies take note of this incident and take action to educate their employees. Fast.
