For anyone who has waited tables, you know it can be grueling work, but you have to give it your all to make your tips. Ashton Bindrup knows this all too well as a waiter in a Utah restaurant where he recently received a $5 tip from one of his patrons.
That tip now has landed Bindrup in a viral internet story that is unfortunate, though not shocking given today’s current climate of divisiveness.
It all started with Bindrup serving a table of three adult customers; they were each wearing a Trump 2020 hat. After completing their meal, one of the patrons asked for a pen, and Bindrup obliged.
When he came back to the table, presumably to find his tip, he discovered a $5 bill with an anti-gay message and slur written on the back. The message: “Get out of America, f*g.”
As Bindrup shared with FOX,
“I picked it up and was immediately like, ‘Oh, this is written on my tip,'” Bindrup explained. “It’s shocking. It’s not okay.”
Bindrup shard the ordeal in a lengthy Facebook post showing images of the vandalized currency and hateful words, but rather than be angry he seems to be bizarrely extending out an olive branch to other trump supporters,
“I think if anyone got it, they would think it was hate speech,” he added.
From Bindrup’s Facebook Post:
“I am both family and friend to many kind Trump supporters,” he wrote. “I see you and hear you. I have even experienced and can point out some things I have liked about the Trump Presidency. I love you guys, even if I don’t support your candidate.”
Bindrup lost me there though, declaring he’s friends with many kind Trump supporters and can point out some things he likes about the Trump Presidency? Huh?
He then seems to distinguish good Trump supporters from the bad Trump supporters by telling Fox 13,
“… if you are a Trump supporter, I also believe that you have a responsibility to help check the hate and the anger that you see in other like-minded Republicans, friends, and family…I think you need to ask yourselves why it is so many of Trump’s other supporters speak and act with hate and with discrimination. Because if you believe differently, then these individuals are giving you a bad name.”
Bindrup never elaborates on what are the things Trump has done that he likes so much, but I know that Donald Trump’s administration is the most anti-gay administration in history, rolling back LGBTQ protections in the workplace, supporting a ban on gay adoption, banning trans soldiers from the military and enabling businesses to have the right to deny someone services if they’re gay.
I can’t tell if Bindrup is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome here or if he’s just naive, but he needs to realize Trump supporters support Trump’s policies. So how is he friends with them?
Trump’s supporters have maintained allegiance to Trump despite his past four years of vile acts that include bigotry xenophobia and homophobia. Trump’s administration has emboldened the racists and the homophobes, so they feel free to attack gays with physical assaults and, in this case, leave nasty slurs written on a waiter’s tip.
As Bindrup concluded with FOX 13, he mentioned he thought the incident was a missed opportunity to have a conversation with the men who left the tip. He wishes he could ask them why they have such hate and bias in their hearts. However, as I see it, that’s a waste of time.
If anyone has missed the real lesson of this situation, it’s Bindrup, who needs to understand Trump supporters are not your friend – not now, and not ever.
Read more on the story at FOX 13
