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Oct 1, 2014-2014

United Kingdom

LGBTQ+ Kiss-In Against Sainsbury Markets

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ACTIVISTS/ACT.GROUPS/DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP

Various Students and Local Residents

TARGET

Management of Sainsbury Supermarket; Government of Brighton; Government of UK

WIDELY HELD BELIEF

LGBTQ members have equal rights to demonstrate public display of affection as do the non-LGBTQ members.

CASE NARRATIVE

Issue and Opponent: Two female students were told to stop kissing while shopping in a Sainsbury supermarket in Brighton, UK, and were asked to leave the store by the security guard, after complaints from a fellow customer concerned with the safety of her child. The incident occurred on National Coming Out Day, an annual event that promotes and recognizes the LGBT community. The couple issued a statement saying that the real issue is that homophobic attacks still occur regularly. That in 81 countries it is illegal to be openly gay, and children are being taught by their parents that it’s wrong to love someone of the same gender. Dilemma Action: In October 2014, hundreds swamped the Sainsbury store in Brighton where the two women were threatened by staff, staging a big consensual kiss-in. The supermarket took a determinedly relaxed attitude to the event, insisting it was ‘happy to welcome’ the protesters to the New England Street store. After some minutes, the manager demanded the protesters leave, claiming that they prevented the operation of a business, but the protesters did not leave immediately. Outcome: The supermarket privately apologized to the girls, and made a small donation to a LGBTQ+ charity. No customer was disturbed during the demonstration and some of them even joined and supported the crowd.

PRIMARY STRUGGLE/GOAL

Civil Rights and Equality

DA TACTICS USED

Assemblies of protest or support

CASE NARRATIVE WRITER

SUCCESS METRICS

10 / 12

(CONC) Concessions were made

(EREP) Dilemma action got replicated by other movements

(MC) Media Coverage

(MSYMP) Media coverage was sympathetic to the activists

(OR) Opponent response

(PS) Dilemma action built sympathy with the public

(PUN) Punishment favored the activists

(REFR) Dilemma action reframed the narrative of the opponent

(RF) Dilemma action reduced fear and/or apathy among the activists

(SA) Dilemma action appealed to a broad segment of the public

PART OF A LARGER CAMPAIGN

0 / 3

RESOURCES

Project documentation

Dilemma Actions Coding Guidebook

Case study documentation

Dilemma_Actions_Analysis_Dataset

CC BY 4.0 Deed, Attribution 4.0 International

SOURCES

Addley, Esther. 2014. “Sainsbury’s kiss-in held after lesbian couple told they were ‘disgusting,’” The Guardian. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/15/sainsburys-brighton-kiss-in-protesters-lesbian-couple).

Shuwan. 2016. “Kiss-in protest after lesbian couple told they were ‘disgusting,'” Actipedia. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://actipedia.org/project/kiss-protest-after-lesbian-couple-told-they-were-disgusting).

Segalov, Michael. 2014. “Why we’ll be kissing in Sainsbury’s,” The Guardian. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/15/kiss-in-sainsburys-brighton-gay-rights).

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