Brighton TRAs bullying female small business owner

[SapphosRock]

Urgh. This is happening in my home town and it’s shit.

Happy Maki is a small, vegan cafe and takeaway. It’s a very ethical business. All about sustainability and green energy. They plant a tree and feed a child for each wrap made. It’s a gift economy and the food is free with a suggested donation. All very hippy. You get the idea.

A FTM trans person approached the female owner of Happy Maki and asked for support in fundraising for their top surgery. I believe they wanted a poster in the window asking for money. The owner refused. When pressed the owner said it was against her religious beliefs - she is a follower of the Divine Truth which admittedly sounds a bit ‘out there’ but not entirely unexpected given the nature of her business.

Anyway the TRAs have really gone to town and are posting in every Brighton based Facebook group, Instagram and Twitter accusing the owner of Transphobia and calling for her to apologise:

twitter.com/makiunhappy/status/1314261939833446400?s=21

They seem to be getting a lot of support and gaining a lot of traction too with many saying they are now going to boycott the business.

I’m upset about this for a lot of reasons. Obviously the female owner being bullied and harassed in this way and them encouraging people to email her. The lovely takeaway losing business. It’s also pretty tone deaf to attack the hospitality sector in the midst of a global pandemic for not supporting one individual’s elective, life changing surgery.

Anyway, the reason I’m posting here is in solidarity with the owner Anna. And if any of you lovely lot are nearby then consider getting a Happy Maki takeaway. The food is delicious and I’m sure they could do with some support right now.

www.happymaki.co.uk

@Jugglingalloftheballs

The point is, posters here will obviously take the side of those whom refuse to believe trans ideology. It can be hard to think constructively about a situation when you believe you should be ‘all or nothing’ as is evidenced repeatedly here. When you step back and view the situation as a whole, away from your own beliefs, it can be easier to see the bigger picture and why there is uproar, as opposed to taking the very easy route of ‘she doesn’t have to like trans people’ blah blah

'Refuse to believe'.

@Jugglingalloftheballs

The owner could well have just said ‘no, we don’t put posters in the window/support other charities’ instead, she waffled about how the ‘spirits’ made this person trans.

Replace trans with ‘gay’ and maybe you’ll see why the owners response was out of order. I agreed this was bat shit crazy When I read the OP, until I read what had actually happening.

Which version did you read. The one spouted by the TRAs and a group of workers that were angry with their boss for refusing to break furlough rules or the comments from the women who was truthful in her views on trans, without actually being transphobic?

Disagreeing with someone’s belief does not make them a bigot, otherwise the people currently bullying this woman would be bigots for not believing in her religion. Why does her belief make her a bigot, but their belief that people can change sex (neither Of which have any scientific proof) not make them bigots?

She probably believes that good and bad spirits control every aspect of human life, not just sexuality.

The entire Catholic world believes in the Holy Spirit.

Reincarnation is a common belief.

This stuff is more common than secularism.

It's just risible jibber jabber on a Mickey Mouse phone.

😂

@Aesopfable

The owner could well have just said ‘no, we don’t put posters in the window/support other charities’ instead, she waffled about how the ‘spirits’ made this person trans.

What does make this person trans then? We are told it is not a mental health condition, not a sexuality, there is no physical cause, not to do with societal stereotype for each sex; it seems to be based purely around beliefs and feelings. If your are ‘born in the wrong body’ then what has been born in the wrong body? Your spirit?

Wonderfully phrased question Aesop and I'm keen to hear some answers too!

There are witnesses, why do you assume that she is lying?

I don't, I don't think we can know for sure but the fact the workers were prepared to give up there jobs I feel strengthens their case. Why do you assume the workers are lying?

Incidentally on her blogpost she says this:

"Chinese whispers is a real thing, according to facebook I once broke a staff member's rib!"

What it actually says on facebook is this

"this post only scratches the surface of how truly awful a person the owner is. in 22 years i have never had such an awful boss and i have literally had a rib broken by a boss during shift before"

So Anna tells fibs.

@Jugglingalloftheballs

The point is, posters here will obviously take the side of those whom refuse to believe trans ideology. It can be hard to think constructively about a situation when you believe you should be ‘all or nothing’ as is evidenced repeatedly here. When you step back and view the situation as a whole, away from your own beliefs, it can be easier to see the bigger picture and why there is uproar, as opposed to taking the very easy route of ‘she doesn’t have to like trans people’ blah blah

When you step back and see the bigger picture the conclusion is that everyone has a personality.

She's being hauled over the coals because she has a personality they don't like. They're compelling conformity on her. Or trying to.

Outside of Brighton, from the bigger picture perspective, this looks nasty and spiteful.

Horrible people.

Are you familiar with how chinese whispers works? If you intercept a message at an earlier point it will not be the same as that at the end of the game.

Which cult is best? There's only one way to find out........!!!!

Outside of Brighton, from the bigger picture perspective, this looks nasty and spiteful.

From the bigger picture perspective, up to 10 people have lost their jobs and this campaign of 'terrorism' against their former employer seems to amount to them refusing to work for her anymore, 5 tweets and 2 posts on facebook. I can fully understand why the workers are receiving local support, I think anyone who vaguely cares about workplace rights viewing this objectively would think there is a case to ansewer for.

I think it's been said before, but asking why the café owner didn't just say a simple no is disingenuous. Many of us have worked hard for years on the concept that "No." is a sentence. It's clear from the various accounts that the non-employee non-customer with the rejected begging poster asked "Why not?" and persisted until an honest answer was forthcoming.

The begging poster holder may or may not have been set up to extract that answer so that a furore of synthetic outrage could be weaponised against the café owner.

Either way, it's a lesson to all of us that we don't need to justify our decisions to anyone who pesters. "You asked and you've had my answer," is sufficient.

@jj1968

Outside of Brighton, from the bigger picture perspective, this looks nasty and spiteful.

From the bigger picture perspective, up to 10 people have lost their jobs and this campaign of 'terrorism' against their former employer seems to amount to them refusing to work for her anymore, 5 tweets and 2 posts on facebook. I can fully understand why the workers are receiving local support, I think anyone who vaguely cares about workplace rights viewing this objectively would think there is a case to ansewer for.

There isn't. She hasn't harassed a bisexual person. There's no constructive dismissal.

There isn't.
She hasn't harassed a bisexual person.
There's no constructive dismissal.

How on earth can you possibly know? This is what I mean about a lack of objectivity.

JJ I think you will find that the government has, in no uncertain terms, stated that it is unacceptable to cancel people because of their beliefs or having an opinion with which you disagree.

You excitedly trawling Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc, in order to find something to beat this women over the head with, because she disagrees with trans ideology, is exactly what the government is talking about.

She disagrees with the trans ideology.

Finished.

You have systematically tried to make her out to be biphobic (whilst being wholly unable to even define what you mean), a liar, a shit boss, violating employment law, a capitalist, a bully, and crazy.

Do you have even the slightest concept of which of the two of you this is showing up?

So that datun. So that

It's not even gaslighting. It's just risible jibber jabber on a Mickey Mouse phone.

This is the best comment I am likely to read all day. Am going into a meeting shortly so I really need to compose myself

If your are ‘born in the wrong body’ then what has been born in the wrong body? Your spirit?

Current medical and psychiatric opinion is that there is a mix of genetic, biological, psychological, environmental and cultural factors that can lead to a person to develop a gender identity that conflicts with their physical sex. Even 4th Wave Now recognises this to some extent.

That is the current medical/ health service/ psychiatric/ World Health Authority position.

You can find all sorts of reasons to discredit any of the above. Just like anti vaxxers do. There should be room for continual review and critical reflection of course. But this can be done respectfully, pragmatically and compassionately.

World Health Organisation
No feckin edit button

@jj1968

*There isn't. She hasn't harassed a bisexual person. There's no constructive dismissal.*

How on earth can you possibly know? This is what I mean about a lack of objectivity.

Haha!

You couldn't even describe hypothetical biphobia!

You're accusing of women of not knowing what's happened, when you have no chance of even coming close to defining the concept of what you think might have happened.

I'm not even vegetarian or vegan. As an aside, I think the Happy Maki menu looks absolutely delicious and wished I lived near it. And, it all goes towards a good ethical cause.

Rolling laughing emoji, Datun

@jj1968

*There isn't. She hasn't harassed a bisexual person. There's no constructive dismissal.*

How on earth can you possibly know? This is what I mean about a lack of objectivity.

30 years working in Employment Law.

What's your credentials for telling me I lack objectivity?

@Datun

I think claiming that people are bisexual due to unresolved trauma is biphobic, as is her apparant belief that bisexuality doesn't really exist and bisexual people just haven't found their true soulmate yet. She is entitled to her beliefs and her religion but she is not entitled to inflict those views on her workforce who have a right to go to work without having to spend the day listening to their boss's cranky theories about their sexuality. I also think her religion is biphobic if that is what they teach.

I don't, I don't think we can know for sure but the fact the workers were prepared to give up there jobs I feel strengthens their case. Why do you assume the workers are lying?

The key point here also is that they did 'give up their jobs'. You feel that this strengthens their case. Again, you did not address just how unprofessionally this group was in dealing with their grievance and how unprofessional they have been since.

I don't assume they are lying necessarily. Are they lying? Are they misinterpreting words and actions? Willfully or unintentionally? I believe that they may be causing significant harm to a business due to their own personal belief (and their belief that people cannot express an opinion that they disagree with and that they have the right to then use the 'phobic' card).

This group may have also deliberately contrived for Anna to express her belief about trauma being a cause for people to be bisexual (and frankly their may be some studies that support this, just like there are papers that attempt to explain the categories of sexual reproduction as being on a spectrum!). It all depends on how this was done and if it was Anna repeatedly saying this or did she mention it one time to one person who then told the others their own interpretation.

However, all this fades in comparison to the hate campaign that they are waging against her (which of course puts their ex-colleagues jobs at risk too!) .

And let us not forget the fact that the very first thing they mention in their tweets is about how transphobic she is in denying their friend the opportunity to put their poster up. That is their first consideration above all else it seems.