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

Anna's blog post (in the OP) is very moving.

No-one with even a scraping of brain cells could read her letter to Henry and accuse it of hate.

Just read it in my coffee break. I completely agree.

I like the honesty box approach.

There were people saying on Twitter/Facebook that they were going to order food, pay nothing, and give the money they would have paid to Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence. Sadly I think she will need to rethink this generosity.

itchyfinger I first saw it in the Brighton Vegans Facebook group too. Then on Brighton Girl. Was also really shocked how many people were planning to boycott.

Unfortunately this shit opinion here is very visible to all. Smearing identifiable people in jobs with professional financial responsibility is nasty. If this unfounded maligning is going on here you can guarantee that the same and worse is being said about them elsewhere.

YY.

@itchyfinger

I lived in brighton for a while and always got happy maki sushi rolls on deliveroo when I was feeling lazy but didn't want a greasy takeaway. I saw on the Vegan Brighton group that they were campaigning to boycott her because of this and that all the staff had left (good luck to them getting a new job in these times). I couldn't believe how many people on the group were agreeing to boycott her, absolutely awful. All for not donating to a cause she didn't believe in!

So... not quite the Five tweets, two facebook posts, oh the horror this business must be going through to be criticised on a twitter account with about 40 followers. Won't someone think of the bosses? And their profits!!!

Strange how it gets minimised around post 600 because women won't agree that this woman is a completely phobic monster despite all the 'proof' and accusations being thrown around. Oh, and the 'all business employers are bad because they use people's labour for their own profit.' Even this one with a significant pattern of charity.....

Why? Must be because they are a pesky female.

I see the slurs are still being thrown around.
Fancy spending your days on a feminist board looking for opportunities to launch smear attacks against women & women's groups
Such an unhealthy preoccupation.

We had the fully loaded wraps (mock chicken with sweet potato, avocado, sushi rice and other delicious stuff) popcorn cauliflower and coconut & dark chocolate bites. Lovely lunch.

Sounds wonderful.

The facebook page with the statement has been shared 155 times.

I checked Brighton vegan fb groups and yep, it's been posted in the ones I first checked.

The twitter version has been retweeted without comment 39 times.

They made the accounts to go viral and that's what it's doing.

There were people saying on Twitter/Facebook that they were going to order food, pay nothing, and give the money they would have paid to Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence. Sadly I think she will need to rethink this generosity.

so these charmers would rather give their money to an organisation that promotes the idea that children need surgery and hormones to be happy in their lives instead of supporting the owner of this lovely business to plant a tree and feed a child that needs it.

The owner of this business might have ideas that some disagree with but I think her intentions are very good and she means well which cannot be said for everyone involved in this awful situation.

Is jj the leader of Tooting Popular Front...?

@Outwithreason

Is jj the leader of Tooting Popular Front...?

Foxy!! :¬))

Unless they are women who feel unable to work for an employer anymore do to her bigotry

You mean unless they are women who are so intolerant of others’ beliefs that they are unable to work for them?

Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘bigotry’?

That’s theft though surely? No intent to pay, or ‘humorously’ dropping a penny into the box is just being a thieving little sod.

@Aesopfable

Unless they are women who feel unable to work for an employer anymore do to her bigotry

You mean unless they are women who are so intolerant of others’ beliefs that they are unable to work for them?

Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘bigotry’?

I know 🤣 it's upside down land.

Eresh

She may have to, I agree. Have a regular payment request and then a "Loyalty Family scheme" (or some such) to regular payers who may on some occasions pay-as-you-wish.

I bet the fuckers would eat it too...

There were people saying on Twitter/Facebook that they were going to order food, pay nothing, and give the money they would have paid to Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence

Hold, up, doesn't she donate her profits to a food charity for the developing world? Are they literally stealing food from starving children in the name of righteous revenge? And fucking over a woman who runs her business like a community service, to boot, so that she won't be able to afford to be generous any more?

And donating their ill-gotten gains to groups that... well, we all know what those groups do.

I guess the real baddies never have an "are we the baddies?" moment. Ugh, though. What terrible people.

Seems like a business actually trying to make a difference in the world, bunch of bastards donating to charities committed to feeding children and planting trees, and making their food accessible to those that might not be able to afford it. I think it's the entitlement, she said no and then was asked to justify her decision so she did. The 'relgion' does sound bat shit, but if no had been accepted as it is her business she can display what she wants, and an elective surgery probably isn't high on the list at the moment, then she wouldn't have felt the need to explain herself.

Well let’s hope the new staff are of the ‘take no shit’ variety.