Restaurant accused of faking homophobic letter received after hanging pride flag

Bonefish Harry's in Beverly, Maine, has denied faking the hate letter after a local newspaper was unable to find any trace of the man accused of writing it

A seafood restaurant has been accused of faking a homophobic letter they say they received after hanging an LGBT pride flag.

Bonefish Harry’s in Beverly, Maine, shared a letter from a man calling himself Owen Donaldson on their Facebook page Wednesday.

Owen claimed to be a loyal customer, and wrote: ‘Imagine our disappointment when we saw a rainbow flag hanging outside your restaurant.

‘It means, simply, that we will not be patronizing your eating place again because you have chosen to publically (sic) support activity which is immoral (against the good for human activity).

The lengthy letter went on to brand homosexuality ‘immoral’ and ‘absurd’, accused Bonefish Harrys of ‘virtue-signaling’ and questioned why they hadn’t hung flags for other celebrations.

Bonefish Harry’s branded the writer a ‘bully’ on Facebook and vowed to ‘continue to fly this flag.’

But they have been accused of writing the note themselves for publicity.

Local newspaper The Salem News could find no trace of an Owen Donaldson living locally, despite extensive searches of public records, property records, phone listings and social media.

Others have also questioned the authenticity of the note, with Bonefish Harry’s sharing another statement insisting the letter was not their work.

A spokesman said: ‘We are aware that there are people questioning the validity of the letter, the author and whether our restaurant had written this letter.

‘We have no idea who Owen is or if he really exists. We 100% did not write this letter or know who did.

‘What we do know is that we support everyone in our community and welcome everyone in our restaurants.’