Rome waiter is fired for writing gay slur on trattoria bill

A Rome trattoria owner says she has fired a waiter who added a derogatory term on the bill he gave a gay couple after their dinner.

The Rome-based rights group Gay Center said the patrons, a 21-year-old local and his boyfriend, called its hotline to complain.

Rome daily newspaper Il Messaggero quoted restaurant owner Moira De Luca on Sunday saying she told the couple nothing like that would happen again and that she planned to seek damages from the fired waiter for tarnishing her restaurant's reputation.

The newspaper said the couple enjoyed their meal last week and were shocked to see an anti-gay slur on the computer-generated bill.

Gay Center says it receives some 20,000 complaints about homophobic incidents each year.