'Hale and Hearty' is a vegan restaurant in Waterloo which self-describes as a 'Straight Sydney safe zone' and an '@realDonaldTrump safe zone'. The restaurant's social media engagement has recently turned further towards hate-speech, and the safety of the local LGBTI community, including myself, is being threatened.

The social media accounts of this restaurant have regularly directed ableist, sexist, and homophobic hate-speech at anyone critical of their views. Other posts, namely by the owner Mark de Costa, have contained disgusting and discriminatory language. One of these posts includes sharing a Facebook post of an article describing 'tapes of prominent US politicians having sex with minors' and stating 'Finally. New porn...'.

Note: recent backlash has led the restaurant to post pro-LGBTI content. This has included defending itself using its support for Marriage Equality in 2017 ('we put our reputation on the line'), and posting the rainbow flag on instagram. Any future attempts at promoting LGBTI rights should be viewed with scepticism.

Irrespective of how delicious and planet-friendly their food is, the vegan community in Sydney should not be propping up a business which threatens the safety of the LGBTI community. This petition calls for the vegan and queer communities of Inner-Sydney to boycott a restaurant that promotes hate-speech, homophobia, and uses offensive and discriminatory language on social media. It also calls for local representatives and the Sydney community to call-out such behaviour as unacceptable, at the very least until an apology is issued to the affected groups, particularly the LGBTI community.