Feud Between Gay Restaurant-Owning Couple and Conservative Neighbors Rocks Tourist Town

Accusations of throwing dead rats. Demands that strain the resources of quaint Vermont town. A rainbow flag on one side; "All Lives Matter" signs on the other. A couple that are described in terms of conservative Christianity; a gay married couple, together since 1973, one of whom founded the Victory Fund, a organization that supports LGTBQ+ political candidates.

An ongoing feud between the mismatched neighbors has locals on edge, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper profiled the drama that has unfolded in the town of The Plains, Virginia, between longtime restaurant Front Porch Market and Grill, opened in 2015 by William Waybourn (a longtime LGBTQ+ equality activist) and his husband Craig Spaulding, and a pair of relative newcomers, Mike and Melissa Washer, described as a "conservative Christian couple" who posted photos of themselves at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and inveighed against mask mandates and vaccines on social media during the COVID pandemic.

The Washers purchased what was once a dentist's office and turned it into a home and business. But their home is right next door to, and shares a parking lot with, Front Porch, a busy eating establishment.

It didn't take long for tensions to arise, the newspaper noted, with the Washers taking exception to early morning deliveries to the Front Porch and the smell they said emanated from the restaurant's trash bins.

An exchange of "no trespassing orders" between the two parties involved the Washers marking off spots they owned in the lot to stop customers from parking there. The Washers have also lodged complaints against the restaurant with the local health department, demanded answers about the granting of a special use permit around parking for the restaurant, and filed information requests about the history of the restaurant and its zoning – requests that the town's small cadre of staffers cannot easily deal with.

The Washers say their concerns and requests are genuine, and claim that they are being victimized because they are conservatives.

But the Front Porch owners contend that it's the Washers who are the problem, claiming the Washers have harassed them and their staff, including the hurling of anti-gay slur. The article noted that the Washers' lawyer "started sending letters to Front Porch vendors, including its produce supplier, trash collector and uniform company... [that] said the vendors were prohibited from unloading in parking spaces not owned by the Front Porch.

"At the time, the restaurant owned only two, the ones closest to the back entrance. These spots were often hard for delivery drivers to access, because Mike parked his large GMC Sierra Denali truck next to them, Waybourn says."

The article also referenced a security camera video that allegedly shows Mike Washer throwing a dead rat onto the restaurant's property and then taking a photo of the rodent. Washer claimed that the rat had been tossed onto his property first and he was simply throwing it back; the restaurant's general manger, who found the act recorded on security video, "assumed [it] was a staged effort to flag health officials about an infestation."

As for the Washers' claims of health violations related to the restaurant's rubbish bins, the Post relayed that the county investigated but found with no basis for the claims. "Are they properly kept?" a county official said of requirements around trash bins. "Do they have tightfitting, closed lids? Those types of things, which, when we inspected, were the case every time."

The feud has dragged in the locals, some of whom "fear the Washers' actions could break the town financially with hearings, lawsuits and paperwork," the Post detailed. "They even fear the couple's legal challenge could end up compromising The Plains' ability to maintain its old-world charm," and some theorize that the couple – and their son, described as "a Republican nominee for the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors" – are looking to being unwanted development to the town.

The Washers say "they love this tiny town," the Post notes. "They're not out to destroy it, or remake it."

But one local business owner, Lynne Wiley, spoke to the Post about the drain on the town from the ongoing challenges and demands, and opined that "a successful challenge to the Front Porch's operating permit – which was in place for years without complaint – would take away 'the bricks that hold up the foundation of the town,' " the article said.

The Washers hold fast to the claim that they are being treated unfairly, and point to another business – a small eatery that is a tenant in another property they own – as proof. The business "seats only 20 people but is required to have 15 parking spots," the Post relays, whereas the Front Porch was granted an exemption from parking requirements years ago.

"We, a conservative family, the Washers, are subjected to a set of rules that's the by-the-book rules," Mike Washer told the Post. "But if you're not conservative, you are subjected to the town council letting you have special-use permits that accommodate whatever they want. That's why we're doing what we're doing. It's not right."

The Washers are still pursuing the question of the restaurant's special use permit with regard to parking with a lawsuit, but the question may soon be moot: Waybourn and his husband have "put the Front Porch up for sale," the Post reported.