The Nest responds to allegations of assault on lesbian couple

The Nest has now released a full statement regarding social media accusations last month that workers at the Bund-side gastrolounge had physically assaulted a lesbian couple in the bathroom.

These allegations were made on WeChat by a prominent member of the local LGBT community who claimed that on December 17th security guards at the establishment had beat up her “androgynous friend” for “going into the woman’s bathroom with her partner.” The viral posts also accused a manager of making homophobic slurs and called for a boycott of The Nest.

Yesterday, The Nest released a full statement regarding the incident, explaining that a police mediated settlement had been reached and that an investigation had refuted social media allegations, finding that there was “no case for wrongdoing against The Nest or its injured manager.”

Here are the key points of the settlement agreement as outlined by The Nest:

· There were only two individual females involved in the incident: The Nest’s Senior Operations Manager -Nicole Yin and the guest -Yuen Jian Zi. There is no claim by or mention of Lisa Chao Fee Chang. There is no claim against or mention whatsoever of The Nest security.

· Both females waived their rights to claim or receive medical attention. Both females, and only the two females, sustained a similar magnitude of injuries (scratches and bruises), and each female, plus the Police, confirmed that there was no medical attention required.

· Both females waived their rights to take any further action regarding the incident.

There was no official claim made or evidence found whatsoever of any security guards beating any guests. There was no official claim or evidence found whatsoever of any discriminatory or hateful language used by The Nest team. The Nest categorically and vehemently denies these malicious falsifications spread in the media.

The statement also provides an account of the incident which differs greatly from the one that was first spread on WeChat:

Nicole our trusted, three-year senior staff member made an honest mistake of thinking, in passing, that one of the other party was a man entering the female toilets. She responded calmly and professionally, on the basis of protecting the safety of our guests. She sincerely apologised to the guest immediately upon realising her mistake. She was then alone, outnumbered and outweighted, for 4 minutes, 15 seconds in the female washroom until security was alerted to rescue her.

The Nest reiterated that “under no circumstances” does it discriminate against anyone’s “gender, sexual preference, race, or religion,” and has said that it is prepared to take legal action against “individuals, group leaders, media platforms, and others who have falsely slandered, defamed and damaged The Nest and our employees’ reputations, our business and our principles.”

“We hope to build a positive from all this negativity. We are currently exploring ways that this incident can be used to improve understanding, dignity and safety for workers across the Chinese service and hospitality industry, and will be releasing further details in due course,” the statement concludes.

“It’s now 2018, we want to get back to our regular business of spreading warmth and love to all.”

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