Grocery chain, Publix has apologized after an employee at an Orlando store refused to write the word “trans” on a cake.
Yasmin Flasterstein and Dandelion Hill, co-founders of the Orlando-based nonprofit Peer Support Space, stopped by a Publix location in the Florida city’s Colonialtown neighborhood to pick up a cake for the organization’s Spread Trans Joy event.
Flasterstein told Orlando Weekly that, a bakery associate seemed confused when she asked him to write “Trans People Deserve Joy” on a blank sheet cake. When she returned to pick up the cake, she found Hill, who is trans, crying. The bakery’s manager apologized and claimed it was against Publix’s corporate policy to write the phrase on the cake.
According to Flasterstein, the manager told her that to do so would constitute taking a stance and that they weren’t allowed to take it. a stance on stuff like that. The manager also claimed they could not write Black Lives Matter on cakes.
Following the Peer Support Space event, Flasterstein posted about the incident on Facebook. Her post drew outrage from the community and attracted the notice of Publix’s social media team. A representative for the company reached out, telling Flasterstein that the store should have agreed to write “Trans People Deserve Joy” on the cake. #Trans Rights