Gay diner overhears anti-LGBT conversation, pays for their meal

ADDISON, Texas - A Denton woman's response to a family’s negative discussion of a gay nephew at a public restaurant is going viral.

Natalie Elle Woods says she was eating dinner with a friend at Snuffer’s Restaurant in Addison last Friday when she overheard a conversation from the people sitting behind her.

“This gentleman was discussing how disgusted he was with his gay nephew for being gay and for being liberal,” she recalled.

Woods, who identifies as a gay woman, heard the other family members say how they would pray to Jesus to cure him. At that moment, she recalled something First Lady Michelle Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in July.

“When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level,” the first lady said. “When they go low, we go high."

Woods says she took the first lady’s words to heart and took action.

“I asked our waitress for their check, and she brought it over. I paid it,” she said.

When the waitress gave Woods the receipt to sign, she wrote on it, “Happy Holidays from the very gay, very liberal table sitting next to you. Jesus made me this way. P.S. – Be accepting of you family.” Before giving the receipt back to the waitress to give to the family, Woods snapped a photo of it.

“I wanted them to know that the people around them were affected by their words just as much as their nephew would be had heard them,” Woods said.

After dinner, Woods and her friend left. She thought nothing more of it until her friend urged her to share the picture. After uploading the phot to social media, her simple message is being embraced by thousands of people around the world.

“A lot of Evangelical Christians in this nation miss out on is the actual message of love and acceptance,” she said. “Because if you want to get down to it, Jesus didn't hang out with politicians and religious leaders. He hung out with people in the community who are looked down upon.”

Woods hopes other people who see her message also spread love, whether it’s through buying someone you don’t agree with dinner, volunteering or donating to charity.