EL PASO, Texas -- Gay rights advocates asked the city of El Paso on Tuesday to revamp police training for dealing with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities after a group of gay men said they were asked to leave a popular restaurant when two of the men kissed.
Puentes LGBT Resources, an El Paso advocacy group, made the request during a City Council meeting nearly two weeks after five gay men allegedly were asked to leave Chico's Tacos after two of them kissed. A police officer then allegedly told the men they could be arrested for engaging in homosexual behavior.
A complaint filed with the El Paso Police Department by Carlos Diaz de Leon, 31, said he and four friends were ordered out of the restaurant about 12:30 a.m. June 29. A security guard at the taco shop told the men in Spanish that they had to leave because the men kissed, Diaz de Leon alleged.
The men called El Paso police and left the shop after a police officer told them they could be arrested, according to the complaint. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a state ban on homosexual behavior in 2003 in the case of Lawrence vs. Texas.
All American International Security, the security firm whose guards were involved, said in a statement that the men never were asked to leave. But Robert Gamboa, the company's general manager, said guards called police after two of the men "engaged in kissing and other lewd conduct" and a third "started to dance around in the aisle like a ballerina."
Several people at Tuesday's meeting asked for tolerance and increased training for the police department.
City officials did not comment on the request during the meeting.
