Fired For Pride Flag Stunt At Starbucks

NOVEMBER 7--The man who tore a Pride flag off the wall of a Starbucks after throwing his tea on the gay rights symbol has been fired from his job and now acknowledges making “poor decisions that led to my rightful arrest and termination from my career.”

Tucker Kemp, 31, was busted in late-October following an incident at a Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Florida, not far from where he worked as a sales manager for the Dignity Memorial funeral home chain.

Kemp, cops reported, told a Starbucks manager he was “offended by the flag and the fact that they should put up an American flag.” Kemp subsequently “decided to take matters in his own hand,” according to an arrest report. He doused the Pride flag with his drink, ripped it off the wall, and then stuffed it in the trash.

Kemp, seen at right, was arrested for criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and spent a few hours in jail before his wife Kelli posted $500 bond. Police estimated that Kemp caused about $210 in damages to the Starbucks wall and the flag.

After Kemp was collared--and his arrest was first detailed in these pages--he was canned from Dignity Memorial, where he worked for more than a decade. Looking for new employment, he made a handwritten appeal to the judge handling his case, asking that he be allowed to travel outside the county in search for work.

“I made some poor decisions that led to my rightful arrest and termination from my career at the funeral home,” wrote Kemp, adding that he had lined up an interview with an air purifier firm in an adjacent county.

A judge approved Kemp’s pro se motion to travel to other Florida counties for job interviews.

In the wake of his arrest, Kemp’s Facebook page has undergone revisions, with pictures and posts being deleted, as well as the account name being changed to “Patriott Tucker.” The only post left was a wedding photo uploaded last week to mark Kemp’s third anniversary.

As TSG previously reported, Kemp is a registered Republican and lives in Clearwater with his wife and young daughter. His Facebook intro declares, “Priorities: 1.God 2.Family 3.Business.” His updated LinkedIn profile describes him as a “Dynamic sales leader open to career opportunities.” (1 page)