LGBTQ people hold 'kiss-in' in a supermarket after a couple was ejected for holding hands
LONDON -- Hundreds of LGBTQ people staged a kissathon in a London supermarket after a gay couple was reprimanded by a security guard for holding hands in store.
On Saturday, people gathered at Sainsbury's in Hackney, east London, to do something other than a spot of grocery shopping: they kissed en masse in an act of solidarity with the couple.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Last Monday, Thomas Rees and his boyfriend Joshua Bradwell were reprimanded by a security guard at the store after a customer complained about the couple's handholding.
You May Also Like
According to Michael Segalov -- who organised the "kiss-in" -- the couple were told by a security guard that "holding hands was 'inappropriate,'and they’d need to stop right away or leave the store."
According to Segalov, people rallied in the store; dancing to disco music and drinking outside the store as they counted down until the kick-off.
"Suddenly we weren’t just talking about homophobia, which is of course vital and necessary, but we were also talking about celebration, about empowerment and about defiance," wrote Segalov.
During the kiss-in, Rees and Bradwell took to a microphone and delivered an "emotional address," stating “no matter how you identify, or who you love, it’s your human right to express that love as you see fit”.
Drag queen Rodent Decay began the countdown, and after ten seconds, the mass kissing began inside the store, continuing out into the street.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
“It’s been a really great event and an important opportunity for the community to show their support," a spokesperson for Sainsbury's said in a statement emailed to Mashable.
"We do our best to make sure everyone feels welcome in our stores but occasionally we make mistakes. We are working hard to make sure lessons are learnt,” the spokesperson continued.
Topics LGBTQ Social Good
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
