Jack White has said he is "really disappointed" two of his female fans were told they couldn't kiss at his concert in Edmonton last Friday.
"It's 2018 now and two people expressing affection shouldn’t have to hide," the rocker wrote on Instagram. "Let’s promote love and acceptance wherever and whenever we can."
Rogers Place management has apologized to Allyson MacIvor and her friend and offered them a dinner and a show of their choice.
Over the weekend, MacIvor shared on Facebook that when she grabbed her female friend and kissed her during the encore, a Rogers Place usher pulled her away from her seat, waved a finger at her and said “that’s not allowed here.”
MacIvor explained: “I looked at her with the most shocked, dumbfounded look, and clarified, ‘You mean kiss her? Im not allowed to kiss her here? Is that what you mean?,’ where she again said, ‘Yes, and if you have a problem with that you can speak to my manager.’
“My good friend pulled me back just as shocked, to finish enjoying the last song, and the beautiful moment, before my broken and shocked spirit blew a fuse. The song finished, we put on our coats, and the young woman marched proudly and righteously in front of us, to the managers office, as if we were being taken to the office at school.”
MacIvor said the usher told her supervisor the two fans “were kissing at their seats … which is inappropriate sexual behaviour.”
She said staff were apologetic. “We still live in a world where I have to watch my back as a ‘gay’ woman, and apparently, I still have to watch whom I kiss.”
White said the night after the incident, at his show in Calgary, he dedicated “Love Interruption” to the two women "and encouraged everyone in the crowd to kiss their loved ones."