Considering moving to Lexington— Red Hen Restaurant incident?? (Appalachia: hotel, colleges)

[mountainrose]

We are considering retiring and moving to Lexington. We love the town and rural areas with so much to do and see for a small town.

But we are concerned about the Red Hen Restaurant incident where the owner rudely kicked out Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her eight friends because she worked for Trump. She and her employees rudely told Sanders she was immoral and asked her to leave, which Sara politely did.

Is Lexington an angry intolerant liberal town with those kind of bigots there, or was this a very isolated incident?
Does the rest of Lexington businesses support this behavior? We know RE agents won’t tell us the truth about all this, so asking any residents of Lexington area for their feedback.

We are Independents and don’t want to live in an extremist political environment left or rightwing —especially now with all the protesting and rioting.
We lived in Asheville NC which is VERY liberal, but everyone is friendly, tolerant, and not extreme, hostile or politically angry. So hoping this was not something the town of Lexington supports.
Thanks for you help.

[Bigfoot424]

The town is liberal, mostly and the county is strongly republican. We live north of Lexington in the valley but we were in town this day when this happened. We were staying the night in a local hotel for our anniversary. We ate out in town but we visited an antique shop before dinner. Turns out the owner and I had a common interest with our former jobs which tends to be filled with those leaning right. The Red Hen incident from that day came up and this owner said he loved the Red Hen but would never step foot in there again. Same as his wife. The Red Hen survived obviously but they apparently still get hate mail as a result. I only bring this up as there are plenty of conservatives in the town but more liberals. But in reality the town is fairly quiet politically although the town council just voted recently to change the name of the Stonewall Jackson cemetery. I do not think you'll have an issue there but obviously check it out a little closer.

[mountainrose]

Thank you Bigfoot for your response.
It is sad for a whole town when there is aggressive rude bigotry like the Red Hen displayed.
Twice now when I’ve talked to people about moving to Lexington it has been brought up. So I feel bad for the town having that happen to its reputation, but glad it’s not indicative of most of the people there.

[Serious Conversation]

I’ve stopped in Lexington several times on travels this summer. While the town itself may lean left, it is not far left IMO, and the surrounding rural areas are like elsewhere in Appalachia.

[Watchful]

If you were happy in Asheville, I think you will be happy in Lexington It's not Berkeley LOL!

Lexington can be a magnet for discussions and debates due to traditions associated with the two colleges there.

But no...it's not extremist

[16 Acres]

Even though Lexington has it's Liberals the Red Hen incident put a big black eye on the town.

[Bigfoot424]

Over 60% of Lexington went for Hillary in 2016 while over 70% went for Trump in the surrounding county. Pretty big disparity. But I would not let that scare you away. I think you'll be fine there but you'll see the Confederate flags around and you'll see the Biden/Bernie signs and so on around as well as Trump's. (Bernie's being left over) Go into someplace downtown like the Red Hen and start bragging about Trump you may hear some blowback and go into a BBQ joint in the county and start bragging about Obama then expect some blowback. But it really is a nice area and the people friendly.

[Shabba Snacks]

I second everything Bigfoot424 said

[nva06]

Originally Posted by mountainrose

Thank you Bigfoot for your response.
It is sad for a whole town when there is aggressive rude bigotry like the Red Hen displayed.
Twice now when I’ve talked to people about moving to Lexington it has been brought up. So I feel bad for the town having that happen to its reputation, but glad it’s not indicative of most of the people there.

If the business owner disagreed with her politics and didn’t think he or she could serve her then that’s not bigotry.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by nva06

If the business owner disagreed with her politics and didn’t think he or she could serve her then that’s not bigotry.

Maybe not but it was a horrible business move. While she may not have suffered, if the media is to be believed, she turned off a sizable number of people which makes no sense considering the business she is in.