SALISBURY, Md.- The owner of a popular Salisbury restaurant and bar apologized Sunday after an offensive sign was created outside over the weekend.
The signage at Market Street Inn was posted to Facebook where it went viral and for all of the wrong reasons. The sign sign, "So if a male can identify as a female, can a bar identify as a grocery store?" The sign was met with online outrage for being offensive to the LGBTQ community.
Less than a day after the original post was created, the owner of the restaurant made a swift apology. In a Facebook post, Rob Mulford wrote, "an employee made a poor lapse in judgment and displayed hurtful and insensitive taste in humor."
Mulford wrote, "A public business is not a platform for political or personal feelings or opinions, and anything displayed in sucha manor is ultimately the responsibility of the person responsible for that organization. This employee had extremely poor judgement and has affected many people. Most importantly it was extremely insensitive and derogatory to the members of the members and allies of our LGBTQ community."
"I have been in contact with our local PFLAG branch, in hopes to better educate myself and become more knowledgeable," Mulford wrote. He went on to say that he wants to learn from the incident to better recognize other insensitivitities which he says is the responsibility of a leader.
Mulford ultimately went on to apologize to the entire city of Salisbury, saying the sign is "not a reflection of the city," as they have "gone to great lengths to make it welcoming and diverse."