A night of fun turned to insult at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Allyson MacIvor came home and wrote about her experience at a Jack White concert over the weekend, on her Facebook page:

 

I’m making a toast, and raising my coffee cup.

Last night was a reminder, as I came home speechless, disturbed, and sad from the Jack White concert I was attending at Rogers Place. During the final encore, one of my favourites songs of all time, I grabbed my friend, and kissed her...a fun moment on a beautiful night.

We were immediately interrupted by a young Rogers Place worker, who pulled me to the side, away from my seat, waving her finger disapprovingly, saying “that’s not allowed here.”

I looked at her with the most shocked, dumbfounded look, and clarified, “You mean kiss her? Im not allowed to kiss her here? Is that what you mean?”, where she again said, “Yes, and if you have a problem with that you can speak to my manager.”

My good friend pulled me back just as shocked, to finish enjoying the last song, and the beautiful moment, before my broken and shocked spirit blew a fuse. The song finished, we put on our coats, and the young woman marched proudly and righteously in front of us, to the managers office, as if we were being taken to the office at school. 
“For kissing you? This is so f*cked” I kept saying to my friend.

When we approached the office, the worker told it as she saw it: “They were kissing at their seats during the encore, which is inappropriate sexual behavior.” The manager, taking the reigns, asked her to resume her post, as the young worker walked away, glaring in disapproval at my friend and I. The arena staff were very apologetic, as I wrote an incident report, with tears in my eyes, realizing we still live in a world where I have to watch my back as a “gay” woman, and apparently, I still have to watch whom I kiss, even at Rogers Place.

So today, I’m making a toast to our children, and the next generation. I hope their love, no matter how it looks, is never interrupted.

#loveislove

 

Jack White even mentioned the incident, at his concert in Calgary just after. I got a chance to speak with Allyson about what has happened since her post went viral and she is the picture of kindness and love. Even after hearing from Roger's Place, who apologized for the incident, she begged them not fire the usher. She just asked that they make their policies clear and educate staff to be better equipped to handle these kinds of incidences. They even offered her concert tickets and her only request was that the employee also get tickets, so that they could maybe go to dinner first and enjoy the show together. This way they could get to know each other and hopefully some good would come out of it.

So Airdrie, how do we feel about PDA? Not based on gender but over all.