Outback Steakhouse waitress claims she was fired for wearing Tea Party bracelet

Twenty-three-year-old Megan Geller of Woodstock, Illinois is currently without a job, after she was given the ol' heave-ho from her waitressing gig at the Outback Steakhouse in the very ominous-sounding Crystal Lake back in early October. And Geller claims that her termination was a result of her wearing a yellow Tea-Party bracelet with the words "Don't Tread On Me" printed on it.

According to Geller, a couple she had been waiting on asked her about her bracelet, which her mother, Tonya Franklin, had given to her after receiving it at a Tea Party event. The words "Don't Tread On Me," along with the image of a rattlesnake, appear on the Gadsden flag, which dates back to the Revolutionary War and was a symbol of resistance to British rule. The flag, of course, has been adopted by the Tea Party. When the couple learned what the bracelet represented, they apparently had a visceral reaction and complained to the manager. After arguing with the manager, Geller was fired. 

Geller says she wore the bracelet "for months" without it being an issue. But in a classic case of "he said, she said," Outback's Chief Legal Officer Joseph Kadow explained:

"Megan Geller was not let go because of her Tea Party bracelet. On the night in question, two separate tables complained about her lack of attention. She was not fired because a customer complained about her bracelet. That would have simply been handled by asking her to take off the bracelet."

It's a little unclear what to make of this case. If anyone was complaining, you would expect it to be about the Bloomin' Onions or the Aussie Cheese Fries. Was this a personality conflict, or merely a pretext to give her a pink slip for doing a sub-par job? In the video, you can see that she spent the weekend protesting by the side of the highway with her mother. ("They stirred up the wrong hornet's nest and messed with the wrong mama. When mamas get mad, mamas get to work.") There's no doubt she feels she was wronged. And lucky for her, Outback is not treading on her claim for unemployment benefits.