Gay woman says Family Dollar cashier refused to serve her

NEW ORLEANS --A Family Dollar store here has always been Melissa Langford's go-to for knick-knacks. But she says she'll never frequent the store again after what she says happened to her there Friday.

"The cashier was just loudly stating her opinion on her disdain for gay people," Langford told CBS New Orleans affiliate WWL-TV. "Eventually, I spoke up because I couldn't take it anymore."

But Langford says the situation only got worse.

In a cell phone video of the aftermath of the incident, the clerk can be heard saying, "I'm not serving them two."

Lundford is then heard in the video saying, "She won't serve me because I'm gay... "

"I don't care about you [gay people]," the clerk responds.

Langford says an appeal to the store manager about what she saw as discrimination yielded no results, which led to a shouting match between the clerk and a supportive customer.

Eventually, another clerk did ring up Langford and the other man, but Langford says the damage was done.

"I think everybody's entitled to think what they want, but as a representative of a company, like a national chain, it's completely inappropriate and a blatant disregard for other people's feelings," Langford said.

When WWL called the store Sunday to inquire about the incident, the manager on duty claimed to know nothing about it.

But Langford says she shared the story and video on social media so everyone could know about it.

"Just gets it put out into the air that us gay people are gonna stick together," she said.

Langford says she'll take any kind of response from the company, from firing the clerk and manager to a simple apology, as long as someone acknowledges that how she was treated in this video was wrong.

An email sent by WWL Sunday to Family Dollar's corporate office was not immediately answered.

On Monday morning, Family Dollar issued a statement saying, "We take incidents like this very seriously. We have a Code of Ethics in place that ensures inclusion for customers and associates and helps to ensure good customer care. The code specifically forbids unprofessional conduct and comments on sexual orientation, among other matters. Any activity that goes against this code is simply not how we expect our stores to do business.

"This situation is currently under investigation."