UPDATE: This post has been updated to reflect the correction appended at end.
A Portland Apple Store customer who self-identifies as queer is taking to social media because he says a store employee typed a homophobic slur on his receipt.
Adam Catanzarite, an HIV prevention specialist with Cascade AIDS Project, posted a photo of an Apple Store receipt bearing his name on Facebook Tuesday morning. The photo shows the characters f@g.com in the space where employees are supposed to list the customer's email on the receipt.
According to the photo of the receipt, Catanzarite had visited the store July 8 to buy a $29 set of earpods.
“Being queer and having worked with queer youth, I know first-hand that this is an example of the type of #homophobic beliefs and actions that lead young people to harm themselves. This type of action is NOT OKAY, especially from a company that prides itself on being LGBTQ inclusive and welcoming,” Catanzarite wrote in the Facebook post, which Portland Queer Monthly first published Tuesday morning.
The photo was also shared on the social image-sharing site Imgur, where it had nearly 400 views as of 4 p.m. Tuesday. The image was also generating interest on Reddit, where it was posted Tuesday afternoon.
A woman who answered the phone at the Pioneer Square Apple Store directed questions about the incident to Apple's corporate headquarters. There, Apple spokeswoman Michaela Wilkerson said the company is aware of the incident, but declined to say more.
On Facebook, Catanzarite said he was compelled to spread the word about his encounter because he was dissatisfied with the store manager's response when Catanzarite complained about the incident.
He asked his social media followers to share the image of his Apple store receipt “to let them know that #homophobia does not have a place in PDX (or anywhere).”
CORRECTION: The receipt was from a July 8 transaction. An earlier version of this post contained the incorrect date.
-- Kelly House