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

@Cocothefirst

Good for the owner.

And a hearty welcome to Hartnell who's come to tell us all how to speak.

Totally GC but never been to the Portal of Radicalisation before. Sure, Jan.

Grifters have to grift AKA con merchants.

Can't they just get on those p#== sites like other people to earn money?*

Or perhaps a job?

Oh. Erm.....

*NOT good.

So if the local brownies come around asking for money for a sponsored walk or something to collect money for sick dogs - if I refuse (on the grounds that I am a cat person) I can expect to have eggs thrown at my windows, my car tyres let down and dog poo pushed through the letterbox?

Ok Divine Truth is pretty batshit.
'During one such seminar he wrote, ‘I’m Jesus deal with it’ on a whiteboard.'
Reminds me of something.....oh yes 'Transwomen are women Get over it'
It's entirely her right to refuse a crowd funding ad heaven knows the actual web sites whose sole purpose is to publicise these refuse those they don't like.

@krustykittens

I have to agree with HartnellAvenue. The Divine Truth's views on transpeople would definitely come under the label transphobic. If this is what she believes and it is her religion though, you are not going to change her mind, so I don't see any point in waging a campaign against her except for pure spite. There are nutters everywhere, best off stepping around them. And no, I won't be supporting Anna, with her judgy as fuck, crackpot religion, just like I wouldn't be supporting a business run by evangelical Christians or any other religion that discriminates against others for whatever reason. I don't care how many hungry kids you feed, if you discriminate, you're not about love! And I would be considered as TERF as fuck!

what are the Divine Truth's views on trans gender people exactly? I couldn't find anything about that on an admittedly brief search.

Given that her cafe ethos is about gifting free food and raising funds for charity, it could be that her issue is with the trans person asking for money for themselves. That is in conflict with her business model which seems to be extremely altruistic - at no small cost to herself I'm sure.

If I decided I desperately needed some form of cosmetic surgery and asked for her support in raising funds for me I'm sure I would have had the same answer. Not transphobic and if I lived near Brighton I would be straight over there tomorrow to support her - I would also be ashamed of the people in Brighton that are bullying her.

In my world the conversation would go

hi can I put up this poster?
Sorry, no I'd rather you didn't
Aw ok, no worries. Can I have a brownie to take away?
Yeah - have it on the house since I couldn't help with the poster thing

Everyone hugs it out

I want to live in that world.

Although not Germany, the whole of which is potentially transphobic according to Fizz

"Asking for donations for their cause. If you don't do what is needed to pay up ££££ - we'll trash your business"

"Asking to pay money for protection for your business"

Illegal.

Despite Covid, the Courts are still open. Prisons are still open.

So if the local brownies come around asking for money for a sponsored walk or something to collect money for sick dogs - if I refuse (on the grounds that I am a cat person) I can expect to have eggs thrown at my windows, my car tyres let down and dog poo pushed through the letterbox?

Well really by rights, according to the rule book, you should lose your house, job, be shamed on social media for your browniephobia and die in a grease fire 🤷

directly discriminating on the grounds of someone's gender identity is OK.

She’s not discriminating. The trans man cAn get the exact same service as anyone else at the shop. Which is food.

No one is in obligated to help someone else raise money!!! Are you nuts?

Brownies can be so vicious... you don’t want tangle with the Auchinairn Kelpie sixers.

policeconduct.gov.uk

Those of you local (and others) reporting this to Brighton and Hove Police and feel they are getting nowhere, contact the above.

The stuff about The Divine Truth is neither here nor there. The cafe owner is free to think and to say what she likes within the bounds of the law. I really think this should be brought to the attention of the local MP. It is completely coercive and defamatory. I do not expect my workplace to uphold my opinions, indeed they often don't. I work within these bounds because I want my salary more than I want my opinion supported by my employer. That is life. Feel like saying "oh grow up! " to these kids. Unfortunately though that wont cut it when they are destroying a livelihood.

Does anyone else look at the call to 'donate to the individual's fundraiser' with cynicism? I mean, what a great way to get PR.

Yes, the business owner might have beliefs that push boundaries of well... belief.
No, she doesn't have to put up a poster on her window to advertise anything and particularly not something she disagrees with.
No, if she doesn't discriminate against customers or staff other than disagreeing to put things in window should she be punished by customers or staff.
No, she should not be 're-educated' about telling someone that 'no' she did not want their poster and would not donate. It did not seem that she was forcing her belief onto someone, she was stating why her belief led to her decision. A bit like a vegan saying 'no thanks, I don't believe in using animals for food production' to a friends who offers them a ham and cheese omelette.

Her staff seem to have other complaints and should stick to dealing with those in a professional manner. If the staff were hostile during the meeting, then of course she is going to say she was confronted. The fact that the assistant manager was 'mediating' meant they must have already been talking to her about it. Probably trying to pressure her or shame her. You don't 'mediate' a meeting about a topic unless there has been some pressured discussion prior.

Yes, the people creating a smear campaign including the twitter account have crossed the line. That this is happening to a small business based on rejecting a request of support for cosmetic surgery is absolutely ridiculous and shows the complete intolerance for any nuanced thinking. And these activists keep talking about 'proportionate' actions/reactions. This takes the cake... 'literally'.

Sapphos Thank you for sharing. It is bonkers!

@Cocothefirst

Cara I wasn't referring to Sapphos, she's been here a while. I was referring to KK.

Ah - sorry.

Yes, the old "I'm as GC as the next witch, but I still think this person should be hung drawn and quartered for obvious transphobia" line.

They do seem to think we were born yesterday, don't they?

Still, it's given me an excuse to quote Havel.

This modus operandi is way way more sinister than 'immature children'.

So, allegedly the owner was approached by some random person looking to use their premises to place a poster appealing for people to give them money for their own personal use. A begging appeal, if you like. The owner said the thing the money was going to be spent on was against with their beliefs and why. Why didn't the random person just eff off at that stage.

With the vindictiveness being displayed publicly, it is my opinion that when they approach someone else, the person they approach will see this campaign and may assist to 'hush' or 'have protection' against being vilified if they don't. If they don't they can see that they could be dragged through the coals like this.

'Pour encourager les autres' marks when they are approached.

I love how a poster on here is going on about how the belief system the owner has is batshit. It is my personal belief that is more than a little ironic in the context of the incident.

When two Cults collide..

This will be interesting.

Sometimes I really miss living in Brighton. At times like this I think "Thank fuck I'm out of there".

@PurpleHoodie

"Asking for donations for their cause. If you don't do what is needed to pay up ££££ - we'll trash your business"

"Asking to pay money for protection for your business"

Illegal.

Sounds like a mafia protection racket.

This sounds like the Krays! What a horrible lot! And how exactly is it woke and right in to attack a small business during these hard times. Nasty people. I don't live near here but my hubby knows people in Brighton. Those who haven't fell out with us over being GC(🙄we support the trans widow) , he will recommend her business.

More like the Krankies.

@SapphosRock would Anna be prepared to start a mail-order business? Foods that would survive posting? E.g. vegan cookies.

If she put on her website some realistic costing for producing them plus postage plus admin overheads, I'm sure people would be happy to donate 3 or 4 times her costs to get a delicious packet of cookies through the post.

What's funny is that for the most part, religions in the UK don't try to convert people in this, erm, direct way. It's more a matter of them being open to people who want to join. We used to (pre-covid) get a few Jehovah's Witnesses on the doorstep. I'd tell them I wasn't religious, they'd ask why and if they could leave a booklet, and I'd agree mainly because the pictures are hilarious. The conversation was always friendly and polite. It never turned nasty.

I don't know if the intolerance and zealotry of the trans activists is due to the newness of it as a fairly mainstream (and the insecurity of that), or the fact that it's planted so much in the battles of social media (again with the insecurity of being told by your "allies" how much everyone hates you, and the trendiness of it), or if it's because it's been transported wholesale from the US where evangelism is a big deal.

@krustykittens

titchy you are missing my point. I don't agree with either side. They need to step around each other but everything has got to be a war now. People who don't mind her religious views can continue to work and be patrons of her cafe, people who do, don't have to. Yes, it's wrong that someone has chucked their toys out of the pram and is waging a war against her, but in this case, her views are transphobic. They are right to say she is transphobic but you don't fight bigotry with hate. It never works.

I disagree that her views are transphobic (and with her views on religion), but actually both are irrelevant.

She has the right to decide what posters to put up in her shop window. It's her business, her shop, and as long as she doesn't refuse to serve certain groups, or put up offensive posters, she is perfectly at liberty to say no to displaying free advertising to anything. Whether that's a rival charity, the Conservative party or a request for money for surgery.