A Christchurch man claims he was discriminated against after being kicked out of a central-city pizza spot because the security guard "didn't want to see his tits".
Video of the confrontation was captured by a friend and posted to social media, where it has gone viral and led to the security company's contract being terminated.
Bryn Monk had been performing at an event as part of Christchurch's Pride Week when he and friend Sophia Gotlieb were hoping to grab some Sal's Pizza to finish off their evening.
Gotlieb says the vibe in the Oxford Terrace restaurant was what you would expect at 2am on a Sunday, loud music and people in good spirits just grabbing some food before calling it a night.
That was until Monk's dress shirt caught the attention of security.
"Mate, do your buttons up, that's disgusting" the bouncer said in an aggressive tone according to Gotlieb.
The security guard's actions prompted three other strangers to step into the situation, standing up for Monk whose shirt was unbuttoned midway down his torso.
After more people confronted the security guard about his comments, he then left from behind the counter, telling Monk to exit the store.
The confrontation continued outside the store, with video showing the security guard denying he was being homophobic.
"I don't care if he's gay or not, I didn't want to see his tits, what's wrong with that?" the guard said.
"That's insulting? What? I didn't want to see his breasts or his nipples, so I asked him to leave."
Gotlieb says if Monk was by himself, he would not have stuck up for himself.
This led a "riled-up" Gotlieb to share the encounter on Facebook on behalf of her friend, which has since been shared more than 150 times, and received almost 200 comments.
Managing director of Sal's Nick Turner was "devastated" to wake up to the news on Sunday morning, and terminated the contract with October Protection immediately.
Gotlieb says on behalf of the pair that Turner has gone "above and beyond" in regards to the situation and was super-apologetic for what took place.
Coincidentally, the store manager for the restaurant is a member of the LGBTQ community himself.
"He wasn't there to see the incident, because he was out celebrating Pride Week, so he was pretty disappointed to wake up on Sunday morning to this news also," Turner says.
With the Sal's store backing directly on to Christchurch's most popular bars and clubs, it was a regular occurrence to have security there on the weekend to keep their staff and customers safe. Turner says it was "deflating" to hear it hasn't turned out that way.
Despite trying to talk to October Protection about the incident, Gotlieb and Monk are yet to hear back from the company itself.
However in a statement sent to Newshub, general manager Conor Byrne says the company is taking these allegations "extremely seriously" and has "zero tolerance for discriminatory behaviour or inappropriate conduct" towards staff, clients or their patrons.
It is unclear whether any action has or will be taken against the employee seen in the video.
Gotlieb says in the days following the incident, she has heard from others who have had similar experiences on Oxford Terrace regarding the behaviour and manner of bouncers in the area.
Late last year, a man was kicked out of Fat Eddies, also on Oxford Terrace, for kissing his male friend on the dancefloor.
Gotlieb believes to avoid these situations occurring, bouncers in the area may need more education and retraining on how to deal with people "just trying to have a good night".
"They need better training at de-escalating a situation, rather than provoking things even further."
