Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Orlando Weekly reports:
Yasmin Flasterstein and Dandelion Hill had just one stop left on their way to a “transgender joy” event hosted by the Orlando group they co-founded, Peer Support Space. They walked into Publix at Colonialtown with the intention of picking out a cake and grabbing some flowers.
But when the two asked the bakery associate to write, “Trans people deserve joy,” on their flowery sheet cake, they were met with a face of confusion.
Then the bakery manager told them they couldn’t do that. The manager said “it was taking a stance, and that they weren’t allowed to take a stance on stuff like that,” Flasterstein told Orlando Weekly.
Read the full article.
The reportedly tearful manager told the pair that she also wasn’t allow to produce cakes celebrating Black Lives Matter and gave them icing to add the message themselves. A Publix spokesperson has apologized, saying that the store should have produced the cake.
As I’ve reported in the past, Publix has been supportive of LGBTQ rights and was an early adopter of same-sex spousal benefits, offering them in 2014 to anyone married in states where it was then legal.
The company has earned unfortunate headlines in recent years due to an heiress to its founding family having poured hundreds of thousands into January 6 groups. Publix has repeatedly noted that they have no control over what she does with her money.
In 2021, Publix defied DeSantis’s order against mask mandates and in 2019 they banned open carry in all their stores.
This latest cake incident underscores the chilling effect of anti-LGBTQ laws in which people who would ordinarily be on our side are afraid to the do the right thing.
The bakery manager “said it was taking a stance, and that they weren’t allowed to take a stance.”https://t.co/EBxPSHha6W
— Orlando Weekly (@OrlandoWeekly) May 11, 2023