Issue and Opponent: Two of Dewey’s restaurants, a hamburger chain in Philadelphia, became popular LGBT gathering spots in the mid-60s. However, there were multiple word-of-mouth reports in the community of people being refused service at chain locations due to gender presentation and sexual preference.
Dilemma Action: The widely held belief forming the core of this dilemma action was that people shouldn’t be refused service for being gay, trans, or presenting their gender differently. Three teenagers who were refused service on such grounds staged a sit-in on April 25th, 1965, and were arrested for disorderly conduct. The tactic used was a sit-in. The lose-lose of this situation was to respond violently and lose customers, or not respond at all to the sit-in and allow the service of people who they wanted to bar from the establishment.
Outcomes: Response of the opponent, media coverage, response by the public, and impact on the activists. In response to the arrests of the initial sit-in, the Janus Society demonstrated outside the restaurant distributing fliers to passersby. On May 2nd, a copycat sit-in was staged by three other patrons in response to being denied service. The Janus Society reported that the sit-ins and the resulting controversy prevented further arrests and stopped denials of service on the grounds of sexual or gender identity.