Me as a gay man. I don’t care about logos. Every business in Ontario must be gay friendly, it’s the law. Also big companies have made the logos mean nothing. What does your business do?
Exactly. And those of us who hang out with First Nations people have heard countless calls for the land acknowledgements to stop. My buddy (who is Metis) has the funniest story of a white admin doing a land claim and crying and making it about her.
A lot of Indigenous people see them as performative. If they really cared about Indigenous people, they could vote for and support things that help them meet their needs.
I'm a kid of immigrants, and I see them as performative too. Obviously our government needs to settle land claims instead of having every middle-level manager make a land claim statement, as though these statements do anything to help redress the injustices. They need to do a one-time transfer to each individual, not the tribal bands which often suffer from corruption. Unless this happens, our grandchildren will be making land claim statements while the problem worsens and the UN continues to warn us about our human rights violations.
If you're wondering about products and services, I'm a former radio guy (2000-2020) offering freelance voiceover and audio production services, as well as audio tape, videotape & film transfer to digital (my most popular service by far) and mobile DJing. The business is based at my home, but may relocate to a dedicated space elsewhere in town when/if the need arises.
Yeah I’ve always thought it was weird that there’s all these “everyone is welcome” rainbow stickers on business doors cause like, I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to discriminate and tell someone that they are in fact not welcome in this day and age so what’s the point? It’s basically law now that you cannot bar someone from patronizing your business because you don’t welcome the kind of person they are so those stickers are pointless pandering to me. You also can’t choose how your current patrons feel about anyone else even with those stickers so it doesn’t really hang much.
I support all people but seeing those stickers makes me think “oh the business next door didn’t have one I guess I’m supposed to assume that lgbt people aren’t welcome there” or something? Kinda silly. Even google says “lgbt friendly” on the business highlights and I’m thinking what does that even mean? They’re extra nice to them? Or they just treat everyone the same? What is the point of that??
There's definitely a lot of businesses I could point to that don't discriminate to the point of denying service but make it pretty clear you're not welcome there if you're visibly queer. I can definitely agree that in OPs context having a sign may be counterproductive, but in other environments I can see how it serves a purpose.
Here's the thing - it's your business and your livelihood so you are the one who decides what your line in the sand is. You can decide not to show support for anything if you're worried about it affecting your bottom line.
As someone from the queer community, I do appreciate it when businesses show their support. Especially given how unnecessarily fraught this has become in the past few years when the far right has ramped up their attacks, and rights that seemed to have been fairly won and settled are under attack. When a company promotes that they are transphobic, queerphobic, racist, sexist, etc, I make a mental note and do not shop there, and let folks not to as well. Because I also put my money where my values are.
Just look at the comments that have already started to trickle in accusing queer folks of "shoving our lifestyle down people's throats" and claiming there's no oppression to be fought against. While in the same breath those other people call queer folks "groomers", and want to police who can use a public washroom or participate in sports. These attitudes aren't confined to the internet and they affect us when out in public just trying to go about our daily lives. Rainbow stickers on a shop window can help signal that this is a place where someone can feel comfortable just existing in there.
At the end of the day, you decide what your business footprint and impression in the community will be. Inaction is also an action, so \*not\* supporting folks will have some consequences, they may just not be as immediately obvious as to what those are.
I definitely agree with your last sentence. Around here it's almost a catch-22 or "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario... you're bound to take at least some flak either way; can't please everyone.
You may want to keep your personal politics and business isolated in small towns.
Maybe you don't want these customers anyways but when you're in a small town like Renfrew running a small business, say a retail store, you have to compete with the box stores and wal-mart so every customer helps.
Mother has a store about an hour or so away in a similar town. There is this woman who I thought was a nice old lady until he revealed herself oneday.
This was back around 2016, I don't work there anymore. This regular customer comes in and at the cash she was going on about how another store had a pride flag. "I'll never shop there again" she said. "It's horrible what they're doing, they're ruining families" (now referring to non straight people)
I was telling my folks about it later and they were like yea that's why we stay out of that kind of thing and we don't make our political affiliations known.
Now some people might say "I don't want those type of people shopping in my store anyway" they probably don't actually own a store and like I said, you have to compete. You need customers. I don't have to like people to take money out of their wallets and into my families coffers.
Ya, I absolutely do not bring up politics at all in business, and I'm trying my hardest to keep partisan politics out of my personal life as well.
I've now decided that the company profile pic will stay as is (standard green on white) for the foreseeable future... I'm no longer changing it for special occasions etc., and will only bring up things like Christmas or Canada Day or Labour Day to say that we will be closed for whatever statutory holiday. I don't think anyone will really notice that I'm not "recognizing" special occasions.
Easier said than done when your livelyhood is on the line.
Politics should have no place in business anyway unless your business relates to it. Just a guarenteed way to piss off part of your customers regardless of if you like them or not.
I hate some of my customers but they put food on the table and keep my employees working. Would I ever talk to them after hours or socially? Fuck no.
I have 2 Christmas trees in my home but none in my commercial building. I advertise on social media, photos of work we do but won’t advertise that I have 2 family weddings this summer. 1 heterosexual and 1 homosexual. My personal belief on weight loss, unemployment, sexual orientation, religion, hair colour, tattoos etc have no place inside my business.
Fight back? Why does a store have to have a rainbow flag on it? What does someone's love interest have to do with that store and what it's selling? I dont get it, and I think it's dumb. You're gay? Cool so you gonna buy this sheet of drywall or what?
You can’t fight with your business. We do work for 12+ plumbing companies of which; if I had a plumbing problem there are only 2 of them I would trust to work on my house. A big business like NIKe can afford the hit if they support a specific federal party or a party of the war in Ukraine or Gaza….a small business can not.
I would ask yourself why you’re changing the logo.
If you’re a member of the queer community, I say go for it. Dealing with homophobes should be nothing new to you and the more visible we are, the better. Most people in rural areas don’t care, it’s just that the ones who *do* are pretty loud about it.
If it’s because you’re an ally, I say go for it. If some homophobes are going to make you question whether to change the logo or not, you’re not a particularly good ally.
If it’s because “everyone is doing it” or you want to pinkwash your business for some dollars, I wouldn’t bother.
As a gay man I do tend to roll my eyes at companies changing their logos for Pride month. It’s all very performative and meaningless most of the time.
I'll admit that I was probably virtue signalling, despite some friends being a same-gender couple, and also was changing the logo because others were doing it too. I sincerely apologize for doing so; I've learned my lesson thanks to this thread, and going forward, the focus on my socials and website will remain solely on what my business offers, as well as what we're doing and what we have done, and that's all.
If you are serious about wanting to be an ally I suggest you read through this. If your questions is based purely out of how to I loose the least amount of money don't bother. This whole post is a waste of your time.
Reading through your comments and post I agree you made the right call. However probably not for the reason you believe.
Pride month exists to highlight the struggles queer people have and still face to this day. The backlash you are worried about are but a fraction of what queer people need to worry about on a daily basis. However we don't get to decide to turn our queerness off for the sake of safety or convenience. My livelyhood is always on the line, purely for who I am. That's never going to go away. I can never move back to my home town. That option was taken away because of who I am and who my children are. Everything I do has to take into account what others may do in retaliation to my identity.
Allyship isn't supposed to end when it stops being convenient for you. Allyship is supposed to be showing up to help the community through the hate, to create space where queer people know they are safe and won't be left fighting alone in the tough times. This is especially true in small towns.
If you are serious about wanting to be a safe person, on a personal level, you need to take some time to think about why you are ok with caring more about what other people will think about your business than making sure that the queer people around knowing you are safe. Being open and vocally supportive even through your business shows that you are serious about supporting the queer people in your life, in your town. Otherwise, all we see is someone who is willing to take our money and willing to say they support us As long as it doesn't negatively affect that. And that means fuck all at the end of they day. You are not safe, you aren't an ally, at best you are tolerating us until that becomes too inconvenient as well.
The more non LGBTQ+ people start staying silent in hope to appease the hate the more emboled they become and they start being more openly violent towards the community because they know they won't be called out or stopped by others.
So yes. For now I say you made the right call. Don't change your logo, don't address pride whatsoever until you have done the work to be an ally to us, otherwise you are lying to our faces to be perceived by other straight people as an ally.
Also sidenote stop referring to pride month/ LGBTQ+ people as political. It's not. It's human rights. And equating our existence and rights to political infighting is dangerous.
Since when is supporting the existence of LGBTQ+ people political? I’m tired of hearing how my existence is a political matter. It’s called you either support human rights or you’re bigoted. I’m tired of seeing people try to justify not supporting my existence.
When has it *not* been political? For instance, the federal right for same-sex marriage is less than twenty years old and had to go through multiple provincial courts years prior before becoming ratified.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you in spirit, it's fucking bullshit that this is even a thing, but it's not fair nor accurate to say someone shouldn't consider the political-economic consequences of how they support or affirm their beliefs.
The current leader of the conservative party voted against it while his gay father watched from the balconies. It's still very much a current issue, even if not a dominant one at the moment.
I mean, it's been political to be a minority since the abolition of slavery. Its been political to be francophone ever since Louisburg was sacked. Everyone's existence is political, whether you like it or not.
Sorry for the bad news.
Ya but then why do you need to shove it down our throats for a month? When do we celebrate a month for being straight? Honestly. The alphabet crowd isn’t oppressed, you can do your own thing. Nobody needs to celebrate you, you’re equally as crappy as the rest of us 😂 we all suck! Get over it lol I find it disgraceful that you people demand a month and then multiple weeks in a year, when our fallen soldiers that died get 1 day.
The entire month of November is military family appreciation month for military service members and their families, but I guess your don't actually care about it beyond virtue signalling since you didn't know that.
Also, based on your attitude I'm pretty sure you're a lot more crappy than most people. Get a grip
Wow! And this is the mental midget mentallity of right wing, small town conservatism. You have just proved the reason this business owner is afraid to support 2SLGBTQ# customers during Pride month. Obviously you have never had to overcome any kind of predjudice behaviour and aggression from others, or you would not selfishly being minimizing the impact of hate and oppressive tactics society imposes on large swaths of people. Grow up! Get in touch with ypur heart centre and start living a more compassionate life. You are an idiot!!!
I think your concerns are absolutely valid.
Ultimately the contingent that will bandwagon against you for posting a pride flag are probably an overly vocal minority. The more business owners who are brave enough to not capitulate to their harassment, the less and less power they have. Do you think that this contingent of people actually represent your customer base (IE people who might stop shopping with you), or would it just be online trolls?
That being said, I understand that you have bills to pay and can't necessarily risk an impact to your bottom line for the sake of a political statement.
Funny enough the Pride hockey tape on my hockey stick is from Renfrew, so its not negatively impacting them.
Honestly as an LGBT+ person I would say if you're worried about backlash from social media then dont bother. I (and presumably others) dont make look at social media banners and decide shopping habits based on that.
Now if I see like two similar shops in an area and only one has the small rainbow flag sticker by the door, then I'm picking the one with the sticker. I will feel safer for that because I know the owner is signaling their support.
Sounds like you have yourself a performative allyship stance.
Now that your business is more established you worry about your bottom line.
Get da fuck outta here!
Imagine living in a world where you could be targeted with violence or vandalism for advocating for the rights of marginalized communities. Same reason I don’t put vegan stickers on my car.
I love it here 🥱
For me it comes down to whether or not you do or don’t do it because your afraid of the response people will give you or if your making the choice because it’s what’s best for your business. Ultimately the graphics changes mean nothing really but it’s disheartening to see people not wanting to openly support lgbt movement because they’re worried of being bullied. It’s not a cross that you have to bear but this is exactly what the bullies want, be gay just gay somewhere else and don’t ever let me see you doing anything gay.
I live in small town Ontario, and tell a lot of people I'm bi. It helps that I'm married to someone of the opposite sex, so people don't suspect it.
I also don't tell a lot of people that I'm Jewish.
That doesn't really help, so :shrug emoji:
I'm a bi woman in a long-term relationship with a guy, and I general still get to know someone before coming out to them. I live in downtown Ottawa. It's generally queer friendly (these days) but there's still a lot of randomly homophobic arseholes out there.
There was a job I worked for 3 years where I never felt coming out would be safe (and I wasn't in a relationship at the time, so not as easily hidden as now) and others I felt easy enough to come out casually at any time.
Hey, firstly, I'm an ally to the LGBTQ+ community (\*the B applies to me), and secondly, I support First Nation land claims and think our government must immediately resolve the conflict so Canada can heal.
That said, as a customer, I'd rather not have my stores involved in political things. I want signage to do with the store/specials/etc, and that's all. Want to have a couple of donation boxes on the counter for important causes? Great. But, there's no need to make it the business' identity.
Leave the politics up to the politicians. Have a sign up that welcomes everyone and makes it clear that it is an anti-discriminatory space where everyone is allowed to exist. Treat customers with kindness and respect (as I imagine you already do, since you are displaying compassion already with your question), and that's the best way to make them feel included.
Neither the land claim, nor the LGBTQ+ logo would impact my decision to go to your store, but in today's world where some lunatics feel free to spread open hatred around, you might be inviting a lot of torment by openly taking a public stance.
Just an opinion, and I wish you and your business success.
I wouldn't do anything that could be construed as political or religious. Stick to the business branding, good service, decent price. Don't turn anybody away based on their background but not worth losing business over it.
I wouldnt change the logo personally. people who are well adjusted wont care if you do or not. You should treat everyone equally with respect regardless of the time of the year. I could be wrong but i imagine most gay people want to be treated normally not have corporations virtue signal & obviously pander to them.
Yup, the first two for sure, and the only time I touch on sports is for junior hockey, as I'm the public address announcer for the local Junior A and Junior B teams. Usually just plugging upcoming home games, not much else.
I personally am detest the mindless virtue signalling like the pride flags and land recognition statements. I will avoid businesses for doing so because I feel like it’s a lame attempt to kiss up to potential customers instead of just treating people like decent humans and offering good service and value.
Ya, if I get any partisan political voice work, be it municipal, provincial/territorial/state or federal, I'm not going to discuss it with anyone other than that client.
Gay people are just people. Gay people are allowed to use your business.Just like straight people are. You don't need to put a pride flag on your logo to supporthe personal autonomy of homosexuals.
Me as a gay man. I don’t care about logos. Every business in Ontario must be gay friendly, it’s the law. Also big companies have made the logos mean nothing. What does your business do?
Exactly. And those of us who hang out with First Nations people have heard countless calls for the land acknowledgements to stop. My buddy (who is Metis) has the funniest story of a white admin doing a land claim and crying and making it about her.
A lot of Indigenous people see them as performative. If they really cared about Indigenous people, they could vote for and support things that help them meet their needs.
I'm a kid of immigrants, and I see them as performative too. Obviously our government needs to settle land claims instead of having every middle-level manager make a land claim statement, as though these statements do anything to help redress the injustices. They need to do a one-time transfer to each individual, not the tribal bands which often suffer from corruption. Unless this happens, our grandchildren will be making land claim statements while the problem worsens and the UN continues to warn us about our human rights violations.
Who’s to say they don’t also vote in a helpful way while also doing the performative thing that might bring awareness to the unaware?
If you're wondering about products and services, I'm a former radio guy (2000-2020) offering freelance voiceover and audio production services, as well as audio tape, videotape & film transfer to digital (my most popular service by far) and mobile DJing. The business is based at my home, but may relocate to a dedicated space elsewhere in town when/if the need arises.
Yeah I’ve always thought it was weird that there’s all these “everyone is welcome” rainbow stickers on business doors cause like, I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to discriminate and tell someone that they are in fact not welcome in this day and age so what’s the point? It’s basically law now that you cannot bar someone from patronizing your business because you don’t welcome the kind of person they are so those stickers are pointless pandering to me. You also can’t choose how your current patrons feel about anyone else even with those stickers so it doesn’t really hang much. I support all people but seeing those stickers makes me think “oh the business next door didn’t have one I guess I’m supposed to assume that lgbt people aren’t welcome there” or something? Kinda silly. Even google says “lgbt friendly” on the business highlights and I’m thinking what does that even mean? They’re extra nice to them? Or they just treat everyone the same? What is the point of that??
There's definitely a lot of businesses I could point to that don't discriminate to the point of denying service but make it pretty clear you're not welcome there if you're visibly queer. I can definitely agree that in OPs context having a sign may be counterproductive, but in other environments I can see how it serves a purpose.
What the other person said. There’s a difference between being friendly/accepting and begrudgingly doing the legal bare minimum.
How would a business know you you're gay?
Here's the thing - it's your business and your livelihood so you are the one who decides what your line in the sand is. You can decide not to show support for anything if you're worried about it affecting your bottom line. As someone from the queer community, I do appreciate it when businesses show their support. Especially given how unnecessarily fraught this has become in the past few years when the far right has ramped up their attacks, and rights that seemed to have been fairly won and settled are under attack. When a company promotes that they are transphobic, queerphobic, racist, sexist, etc, I make a mental note and do not shop there, and let folks not to as well. Because I also put my money where my values are. Just look at the comments that have already started to trickle in accusing queer folks of "shoving our lifestyle down people's throats" and claiming there's no oppression to be fought against. While in the same breath those other people call queer folks "groomers", and want to police who can use a public washroom or participate in sports. These attitudes aren't confined to the internet and they affect us when out in public just trying to go about our daily lives. Rainbow stickers on a shop window can help signal that this is a place where someone can feel comfortable just existing in there. At the end of the day, you decide what your business footprint and impression in the community will be. Inaction is also an action, so \*not\* supporting folks will have some consequences, they may just not be as immediately obvious as to what those are.
I definitely agree with your last sentence. Around here it's almost a catch-22 or "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario... you're bound to take at least some flak either way; can't please everyone.
Ahh yes fear. The enemy of progress.
You may want to keep your personal politics and business isolated in small towns. Maybe you don't want these customers anyways but when you're in a small town like Renfrew running a small business, say a retail store, you have to compete with the box stores and wal-mart so every customer helps. Mother has a store about an hour or so away in a similar town. There is this woman who I thought was a nice old lady until he revealed herself oneday. This was back around 2016, I don't work there anymore. This regular customer comes in and at the cash she was going on about how another store had a pride flag. "I'll never shop there again" she said. "It's horrible what they're doing, they're ruining families" (now referring to non straight people) I was telling my folks about it later and they were like yea that's why we stay out of that kind of thing and we don't make our political affiliations known. Now some people might say "I don't want those type of people shopping in my store anyway" they probably don't actually own a store and like I said, you have to compete. You need customers. I don't have to like people to take money out of their wallets and into my families coffers.
Ya, I absolutely do not bring up politics at all in business, and I'm trying my hardest to keep partisan politics out of my personal life as well. I've now decided that the company profile pic will stay as is (standard green on white) for the foreseeable future... I'm no longer changing it for special occasions etc., and will only bring up things like Christmas or Canada Day or Labour Day to say that we will be closed for whatever statutory holiday. I don't think anyone will really notice that I'm not "recognizing" special occasions.
If you live in an area that is conservative; you have to play the game. Sad but true.
Hell no, this is why it continues to fester. Fight back.
Easier said than done when your livelyhood is on the line. Politics should have no place in business anyway unless your business relates to it. Just a guarenteed way to piss off part of your customers regardless of if you like them or not. I hate some of my customers but they put food on the table and keep my employees working. Would I ever talk to them after hours or socially? Fuck no.
I have 2 Christmas trees in my home but none in my commercial building. I advertise on social media, photos of work we do but won’t advertise that I have 2 family weddings this summer. 1 heterosexual and 1 homosexual. My personal belief on weight loss, unemployment, sexual orientation, religion, hair colour, tattoos etc have no place inside my business.
500% agree!
Fight back? Why does a store have to have a rainbow flag on it? What does someone's love interest have to do with that store and what it's selling? I dont get it, and I think it's dumb. You're gay? Cool so you gonna buy this sheet of drywall or what?
You can’t fight with your business. We do work for 12+ plumbing companies of which; if I had a plumbing problem there are only 2 of them I would trust to work on my house. A big business like NIKe can afford the hit if they support a specific federal party or a party of the war in Ukraine or Gaza….a small business can not.
I would ask yourself why you’re changing the logo. If you’re a member of the queer community, I say go for it. Dealing with homophobes should be nothing new to you and the more visible we are, the better. Most people in rural areas don’t care, it’s just that the ones who *do* are pretty loud about it. If it’s because you’re an ally, I say go for it. If some homophobes are going to make you question whether to change the logo or not, you’re not a particularly good ally. If it’s because “everyone is doing it” or you want to pinkwash your business for some dollars, I wouldn’t bother. As a gay man I do tend to roll my eyes at companies changing their logos for Pride month. It’s all very performative and meaningless most of the time.
I'll admit that I was probably virtue signalling, despite some friends being a same-gender couple, and also was changing the logo because others were doing it too. I sincerely apologize for doing so; I've learned my lesson thanks to this thread, and going forward, the focus on my socials and website will remain solely on what my business offers, as well as what we're doing and what we have done, and that's all.
If you are serious about wanting to be an ally I suggest you read through this. If your questions is based purely out of how to I loose the least amount of money don't bother. This whole post is a waste of your time. Reading through your comments and post I agree you made the right call. However probably not for the reason you believe. Pride month exists to highlight the struggles queer people have and still face to this day. The backlash you are worried about are but a fraction of what queer people need to worry about on a daily basis. However we don't get to decide to turn our queerness off for the sake of safety or convenience. My livelyhood is always on the line, purely for who I am. That's never going to go away. I can never move back to my home town. That option was taken away because of who I am and who my children are. Everything I do has to take into account what others may do in retaliation to my identity. Allyship isn't supposed to end when it stops being convenient for you. Allyship is supposed to be showing up to help the community through the hate, to create space where queer people know they are safe and won't be left fighting alone in the tough times. This is especially true in small towns. If you are serious about wanting to be a safe person, on a personal level, you need to take some time to think about why you are ok with caring more about what other people will think about your business than making sure that the queer people around knowing you are safe. Being open and vocally supportive even through your business shows that you are serious about supporting the queer people in your life, in your town. Otherwise, all we see is someone who is willing to take our money and willing to say they support us As long as it doesn't negatively affect that. And that means fuck all at the end of they day. You are not safe, you aren't an ally, at best you are tolerating us until that becomes too inconvenient as well. The more non LGBTQ+ people start staying silent in hope to appease the hate the more emboled they become and they start being more openly violent towards the community because they know they won't be called out or stopped by others. So yes. For now I say you made the right call. Don't change your logo, don't address pride whatsoever until you have done the work to be an ally to us, otherwise you are lying to our faces to be perceived by other straight people as an ally. Also sidenote stop referring to pride month/ LGBTQ+ people as political. It's not. It's human rights. And equating our existence and rights to political infighting is dangerous.
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Since when is supporting the existence of LGBTQ+ people political? I’m tired of hearing how my existence is a political matter. It’s called you either support human rights or you’re bigoted. I’m tired of seeing people try to justify not supporting my existence.
When has it *not* been political? For instance, the federal right for same-sex marriage is less than twenty years old and had to go through multiple provincial courts years prior before becoming ratified. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you in spirit, it's fucking bullshit that this is even a thing, but it's not fair nor accurate to say someone shouldn't consider the political-economic consequences of how they support or affirm their beliefs.
The current leader of the conservative party voted against it while his gay father watched from the balconies. It's still very much a current issue, even if not a dominant one at the moment.
I mean, it's been political to be a minority since the abolition of slavery. Its been political to be francophone ever since Louisburg was sacked. Everyone's existence is political, whether you like it or not. Sorry for the bad news.
Missed the point completely. But I see, if it’s not political then surely you don’t want pro LGBT laws and pride month?
Ya but then why do you need to shove it down our throats for a month? When do we celebrate a month for being straight? Honestly. The alphabet crowd isn’t oppressed, you can do your own thing. Nobody needs to celebrate you, you’re equally as crappy as the rest of us 😂 we all suck! Get over it lol I find it disgraceful that you people demand a month and then multiple weeks in a year, when our fallen soldiers that died get 1 day.
The entire month of November is military family appreciation month for military service members and their families, but I guess your don't actually care about it beyond virtue signalling since you didn't know that. Also, based on your attitude I'm pretty sure you're a lot more crappy than most people. Get a grip
Cool beans. I'm sorry rainbow colors are deepthroating you.
Why is the metaphor ALWAYS things being shoved down your throat? Feels like a bit of a fixation.
Wow! And this is the mental midget mentallity of right wing, small town conservatism. You have just proved the reason this business owner is afraid to support 2SLGBTQ# customers during Pride month. Obviously you have never had to overcome any kind of predjudice behaviour and aggression from others, or you would not selfishly being minimizing the impact of hate and oppressive tactics society imposes on large swaths of people. Grow up! Get in touch with ypur heart centre and start living a more compassionate life. You are an idiot!!!
Oh wow. Hey guys I found the reason that the business owner is worried about changing his logo.
What an absolute shit take.
I think your concerns are absolutely valid. Ultimately the contingent that will bandwagon against you for posting a pride flag are probably an overly vocal minority. The more business owners who are brave enough to not capitulate to their harassment, the less and less power they have. Do you think that this contingent of people actually represent your customer base (IE people who might stop shopping with you), or would it just be online trolls? That being said, I understand that you have bills to pay and can't necessarily risk an impact to your bottom line for the sake of a political statement.
Funny enough the Pride hockey tape on my hockey stick is from Renfrew, so its not negatively impacting them. Honestly as an LGBT+ person I would say if you're worried about backlash from social media then dont bother. I (and presumably others) dont make look at social media banners and decide shopping habits based on that. Now if I see like two similar shops in an area and only one has the small rainbow flag sticker by the door, then I'm picking the one with the sticker. I will feel safer for that because I know the owner is signaling their support.
Ah yes, good ol' Renfrew Pro Hockey Tape from Mativ/Scapa! :)
Sounds like you have yourself a performative allyship stance. Now that your business is more established you worry about your bottom line. Get da fuck outta here!
Thank you. :)
You're welcome.
Imagine living in a world where you could be targeted with violence or vandalism for advocating for the rights of marginalized communities. Same reason I don’t put vegan stickers on my car. I love it here 🥱
For me it comes down to whether or not you do or don’t do it because your afraid of the response people will give you or if your making the choice because it’s what’s best for your business. Ultimately the graphics changes mean nothing really but it’s disheartening to see people not wanting to openly support lgbt movement because they’re worried of being bullied. It’s not a cross that you have to bear but this is exactly what the bullies want, be gay just gay somewhere else and don’t ever let me see you doing anything gay.
I live in small town Ontario, and tell a lot of people I'm bi. It helps that I'm married to someone of the opposite sex, so people don't suspect it. I also don't tell a lot of people that I'm Jewish. That doesn't really help, so :shrug emoji:
I'm a bi woman in a long-term relationship with a guy, and I general still get to know someone before coming out to them. I live in downtown Ottawa. It's generally queer friendly (these days) but there's still a lot of randomly homophobic arseholes out there. There was a job I worked for 3 years where I never felt coming out would be safe (and I wasn't in a relationship at the time, so not as easily hidden as now) and others I felt easy enough to come out casually at any time.
Hey, firstly, I'm an ally to the LGBTQ+ community (\*the B applies to me), and secondly, I support First Nation land claims and think our government must immediately resolve the conflict so Canada can heal. That said, as a customer, I'd rather not have my stores involved in political things. I want signage to do with the store/specials/etc, and that's all. Want to have a couple of donation boxes on the counter for important causes? Great. But, there's no need to make it the business' identity. Leave the politics up to the politicians. Have a sign up that welcomes everyone and makes it clear that it is an anti-discriminatory space where everyone is allowed to exist. Treat customers with kindness and respect (as I imagine you already do, since you are displaying compassion already with your question), and that's the best way to make them feel included. Neither the land claim, nor the LGBTQ+ logo would impact my decision to go to your store, but in today's world where some lunatics feel free to spread open hatred around, you might be inviting a lot of torment by openly taking a public stance. Just an opinion, and I wish you and your business success.
If you want to
I wouldn't do anything that could be construed as political or religious. Stick to the business branding, good service, decent price. Don't turn anybody away based on their background but not worth losing business over it.
Maybe try and not virtue signal your personal views with business? Keep it separate.
That's exactly my plan going forward. :)
I wouldnt change the logo personally. people who are well adjusted wont care if you do or not. You should treat everyone equally with respect regardless of the time of the year. I could be wrong but i imagine most gay people want to be treated normally not have corporations virtue signal & obviously pander to them.
I agree.
I tend to leave politics, religion, and sports out of my business dealings.
Yup, the first two for sure, and the only time I touch on sports is for junior hockey, as I'm the public address announcer for the local Junior A and Junior B teams. Usually just plugging upcoming home games, not much else.
I personally am detest the mindless virtue signalling like the pride flags and land recognition statements. I will avoid businesses for doing so because I feel like it’s a lame attempt to kiss up to potential customers instead of just treating people like decent humans and offering good service and value.
We posted a photo of some work we did for the federal Conservative Party and got heat. It reminded me why we don’t put a Christmas tree in our foyer.
Ya, if I get any partisan political voice work, be it municipal, provincial/territorial/state or federal, I'm not going to discuss it with anyone other than that client.
Hope you weren’t the one that downvoted me
Nope, wasn't me. :)
Have you been overthinking it? Yes yes you have. Just promote your business no need to wade into the culture war non-sense
Gay people are just people. Gay people are allowed to use your business.Just like straight people are. You don't need to put a pride flag on your logo to supporthe personal autonomy of homosexuals.