A lesbian couple from Los Angeles has been awarded $80,000 by the City of Honolulu to settle a dispute after the two were arrested in a local grocery store following public displays of affection.
Bail conditions had required them to stay on the island of Oahu for five months — and one of them has since decided that she likes it enough to move there.
The Associated Press reports:
Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero were visiting Hawaii from Los Angeles last year when, according to the their lawsuit, they were harassed and arrested because the officer didn’t like their public displays of affection in a Foodland store on Oahu’s North Shore.
They were walking through the aisles holding hands and at one point hugged and kissed, the lawsuit said. Officer Bobby Harrison, who was shopping in uniform, “observed their consensual romantic contact and, in a loud voice, ordered plaintiffs to stop and ‘take it somewhere else.'”
A series of further encounters between the couple and the officer culminated in a scuffle at the checkout line, resulting in Wilson and Guerrero being arrested for assaulting an officer.
Since their bail conditions required Wilson and Guerrero to stay, Guerrero took a local job — though not before enduring some hardship and homelessness. Hotel accommodations in Honolulu are notoriously expensive, and the two resorted to crashing with friends and in local parks.
The two are no longer a couple, according to LAist and KABC, but are still friends.
Guerrero often posts photographs from her new home, where she is clearly making the most of her new life.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new e-book, Leadership Secrets of the Kings and Prophets: What the Bible’s Struggles Teach Us About Today, is on sale through Amazon Kindle Direct. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.