On Wednesday, a conservative Christian advocacy group was turned away and denied service at Metzger Bar and Butchery.
Because of their views, Metzger Bar and Butchery refused to serve members of the Family Foundation.
Metzger Bar and Butchery wrote in a Facebook post, “We have always refused service to anyone for making our staff feel uncomfortable and unsafe and this was the driving force behind our decision.”
The establishment claimed that the Christian group’s ideology caused LGBTQ and female employees to feel threatened.
The waitstaff at the restaurant think that the Family Foundation wants to deny women and LGBTQ+ people in Virginia their fundamental rights.
A neighborhood restaurant last week refused to serve a conservative Christian advocacy group from Virginia barely an hour before their reservation.
A Family Foundation representative expressed his frustration when the group was refused entry to Metzger Bar and Butchery last Wednesday. The organization asserts that their religious convictions were the reason for the refusal.
One of the owners of Metzger allegedly called a representative of the Family Foundation an hour prior to the reservation time to inform them that the group would not be dining there, according to Todd Gathje, Director of Government Relations for the Family Foundation.
“We’ve had events at restaurants all over the city and never encountered a situation like this. It’s no secret that we are very much engaged in the public policy debate on a number of controversial issues. But we never expected that we would be denied service at a restaurant based on our religious values or political beliefs.”
