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Red Deer diner’s ‘pick a washroom’ sign sparks outrage

A sign in front of Queen's Diner in Red Deer, Alta.
A sign in front of Queen's Diner in Red Deer, Alta. Twitter / @DougYEG

A sign in front of a central Alberta diner sparked outrage this week after people who saw it complained it was homophobic and transphobic.

The billboard outside of Queen’s Diner in Red Deer, Alta. read “Its [sic] Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve! Pick a washroom.”

Dozens of people took to social media to complain about the sign, which went up on Wednesday, saying it was disrespectful to the LGBTQ community.

You should be ashamed. I will never step foot in your diner again.

Posted by Alexus Daisie Dumont on Friday, September 16, 2016

The owner of the diner, Scott Shaw, appears to have posted an apology to the eatery’s Facebook page, before later deleting the account.

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“It was not meant to offend anybody,” Shaw told Global News in a phone interview. “I have reached out to the organizations I have offended to apologize, and I will be meeting with them next week to see how I can work with those communities.”

“I apologize [for] how it all came across and I understand this is a sensitive issue.”

“I want to make things right.”

Earlier this summer, a sign asking patrons at a Medicine Hat bar to “use the bathroom of [their] gender” sparked similar outrage.

In Alberta, discrimination against transgender people is prohibited by Bill 7.

For information on the Human Rights Commission complaint process, click here

For information on remedies (financial and non-financial) under the Human Rights Act, click here

With files from Jill Croteau.

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