31 level, the appellate court’s ruling, was going to stand. There’s like a four- or five-day window in between the appel- late court finding out that the Supreme Court is not going to hear and them following through with what they started to do in the first place. In that window, they closed down and had all of these ads and had this public wake, and everything else. So, it’s like rather than serve us and comply with the law, they just closed the booths.“We’re not going to do it at all.” So they had a pub- lic wake, with the cameras from the 11 o’clock news and the whole bit. Free drinks.“True romantic dining died on this day.” Ads out. Z: Yeah, it was terrible. D: And they closed it. Z: They, from the very beginning, put the boxing gloves on. Their intent was, we’re going to fight you to the very end, which is what we ended up doing. E: So that was the end of the booths? Z: That was the end of the booths, that was the end of the booths. D: Well, yeah, because we went back, and then they issued the injunction and they issued the motion of sum- mary judgment. We won and they paid the attorney’s fees and gave us our fine, 250 dollars a piece, which was the fine for the local (audience) ordinance. Z: They had to pay the attorney’s fees, which was almost… D: Almost 30,000, almost 30,000 dol- lars. So they closed the booths. It’s kind of like what they did in Mississippi and Alabama. You know. Instead of letting the black kids swim in the public pools, they just closed the pool. E: Right. Pull white kids out of the public school and start an academy... D: Yeah, that’s what they did, they just closed it. E: Was it worth it? Z and D: Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. E: Even though the owner of the Papa Choux restaurant simply carted his romantic booths to the curb, Deborah and Zandra’s case put teeth into the local gay rights ordinance. While their case didn’t actually change California’s civil rights bill to add sexual orientation, the appellate court interpreted the law to include sexual orientation. Also, their high-profile court chal- lenge made national news and showed the impact of prejudice on ordinary citizens who were simply trying to live their lives. 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145