Florida Publix employees refuse to decorate cake for LGBT party

A bakery in Florida refused to put the word "trance" on a cake they were asked to bake by two social workers. They hoped to bring treats to an event they organized for the local transgender community. The edition told in more detail New York Post.

Photo: IStock

Dandelion Hill, co-founder of Orlando-based nonprofit Peer Support Space, was on his way to the Trans Joy Event and stopped at Colonialtown Publix to buy a cake for the celebration.

Hill, who is transgender and uses the pronoun they, asked if the bakery could write a simple phrase in pink icing on a sheet cake: "Trans people deserve joy."

Hill immediately knew something was wrong as the bakery worker was replaced.

"The man working at the bakery said, 'I'll be back soon,'" Hill said. “I was seething with anxiety because I had this feeling that something was wrong.”

“After waiting for ages, the bakery manager came back, looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘Sorry, we can’t write this,’” he relayed their dialogue.

The refusal shocked Hill.

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“I tried to convey hope to our community, but I felt like I was killed in that moment,” Hill admitted. “It was really just painful.”

Yasmine Flusterstein, co-founder of Peer Support Space with Hill, soon emerged from the restroom of the store and, according to Hill, "took over" the conversation, telling the bakery workers, "You can't take a stand on whether transgender people deserve joy."

Many employees told them that there was nothing they could do as it was company policy.

“I don’t think it was the staff’s fault,” Hill said, as one employee, who also has transgender friends, “tearfully” agreed to write the “people deserve to be happy” part of the sentence.

Then, he said, the girl gave them frosting and left a space at the top of the cake so they could write the word "trance" themselves, which they did in their car.

After the incident, Flusterstein contacted a Publix corporate employee and attempted to determine if there was a company policy that prohibited an employee from writing "trance" on a cake.

“There was a miscommunication somewhere that led the staff to decide they couldn’t write something like that,” Hill explained. “All we want to know, and all we want to get clear, is what exactly went wrong?” What is the narrative that people are afraid to write this and where does this come from?”

In an email from Publix sent by Flusterstein, the company acknowledged that employees had to agree to write the entire phrase.

“Our policy states that employees may write statements that are not copyrighted or trademarked, support charitable causes, are based on facts, and are considered to have a positive connotation,” Publix said in an email.

“As we indicated on Facebook, our partners should have complied with your request,” the company said.

Publix has already apologized.

Flusterstein pushed the company to take further action and demanded an apology for Hill, "who faced the brunt of this incident and burst into tears in front of other customers," she wrote.

According to Hill, the incident came at a particularly "hostile time" for Florida's transgender community.

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Just last week, Florida lawmakers passed a law banning transgender people from using public restrooms linked to their gender identity.

The state has additionally approved a bill that would allow health care providers and insurance companies to deny services "at their discretion."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed the so-called “Don't Say Gay” bill in March, which would ban gender identity teaching in schools through third grade. The new bill would expand the law to prohibit teachers from talking about gender identity until 8th grade.

Peer Support Space is a nonprofit organization focused on the LGBTQ community founded by Hill and Flasterstein in the wake of the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting, a targeted attack on a gay nightclub that left 49 people dead and 53 injured.

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