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

Winesalot

Could it be that the group of friends met up for a catch up recently with Henry and complained and Henry told them about the letter? Either way, it is putting Henry's crowdfunder out there. It has had plenty of action over the past few days and is not far from the target.

TRAs are grifters. Like pyramid schemes, the early ones will get in and get money (for what exactly, who knows) The later ones have to do more.

Like a lot a money 'beggers', it's best to get the knowledge out there about any schemes and scams and report it to the UK/EIRE authorities.

UK HMRC might be interested in this one as a test case?

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

Doh. The joy of auto correct and not leaving spaces between words

OldeMagick

Yes. Oooopsie.

@PhoebeSnow I’ve just emailed her too, very nice of the TRAs to supply her email address too. Poor woman, hope a few nice messages filter through all the batshit stuff she’s no doubt received.

Hold up - this is a poster asking for money for surgery?! Isn’t begging illegal in the UK? I’ve skimmed her blog and she’s bent over backwards to appease these people. I think she needs to go to the police, they can’t get away with this.

No. These are people demanding money with menaces.

Illegal in the UK.

That was to Toseland

I’ve emailed her to send moral support. I don’t share her views on spirits, as I’m a mainstream Christian, but she is absolutely entitled to decide which posters she will or won’t display in her own windows. The bullying and intimidation by TRAs are disgraceful.

I was going to send her a supportive message, but knowing what those dicks are like they’ll probably hack her website and doxx anyone who dares to agree (have had that happen on here before ) so I’ll just say it here...

Anna, I support you and your right to believe in whatever you choose. I have no idea about spirits or cloaking etc but I fully support your right as a business owner to endorse, or not, whichever causes are in line with your branding and personal beliefs.

I hope you’re able to rise above it and that enough staff and customers are able to see through the TRA bullying and accept that, as the owner of this business, you can choose how you wish to present it.

I am appalled at the acceptance of double mastectomy as a treatment for anything other than breast cancer and would not endorse a plea for funding on my own business page either.

some people are absolute twats, practically begging for people to pay for their surgery wtaf ? you want it done you finance it yourself so fuck right off !

Begging? More like demanding someone else pays for it.

@FairFriday

Begging? More like demanding someone else pays for it.

this

Hey guys... I think I really could so with some Botox and fillers. Maybe some false nails and hair extensions.

Any chance... ?💄👄💅💇‍♀️💆‍♀️

Covid is pushing normal/serious cases away from hospitals.

They'll have spent the money given to them on partying and holidays before they can spend it on any operations.

www.happymaki.co.uk/blog

Very good post by the owner - sorry if its already been posted I couldn't see it.

Fair Someone in Brighton has money for you.

Ah. From the first part of FFSFFSFFSs link.

They didn't like the governments furlough laws. And so chose to give up their jobs.

@FairFriday

Hey guys... I think I really could so with some Botox and fillers. Maybe some false nails and hair extensions.

Any chance... ?💄👄💅💇‍♀️💆‍♀️

We'll start a crowdfunder

The right to one's religious beliefs are protected under the law. If you run a business, it's illegal to discriminate others because of those religious beliefs (i.e. refusing to let a double room to a LGB couple).

However. This business owner wasn't discriminating against her customer. She wasn't refusing to serve food to the customer because of their gender identity. She merely refused to accommodate a poster: the sort of thing that would normally be done as a favour ie not part of the service she's obligated to provide. She's under no compulsion to facilitate someone else's crowd funding event

The only mistake she made was to JADE. Do that and you leave the door open for CFs to push for what they want. It's perfectly acceptable to say no, I don't get involved in fundraising TYVM, and that isn't tantamount to 'making excuses'. She isn't required to give an explanation.

This: That’s a pretty chilling ‘statement’... sounds like they want a round of applause for not being violent!

is what used to be known as a protection racket.

MarkRuffaloCrumble

You can go old school and send a postcard.

@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!

Because you're not being judgemental in the slightest.

I'm being sarcastic BTW in case you're short of critical thinking.

This and the GMB have finally pushed me over the fucking edge I think. Not sure what I will find over here but it's going to involve a shit load of being angry and maybe some stickers...

@Cailleach1

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.

Agree it's really sinister. Every day, we slip closer to Cultural Revolution-style violence and repression to appease a cult that perhaps 0.2% of the population genuinely believe in.

And anyone who accuses me of exaggeration can fuck right off. 5 years ago, I was warning (along with many other GC women) that women would end up being raped in prison and pushed out of sports teams if single sex protections were eroded. We were told we were ridiculous, hysterical, pearl-clutchers. Literally everything we predicted (and more) has now happened.

This week, half the Labour party is calling for an MP to resign for saying that people who have cervixes are women, and people born male can now play rugby against women. This is out of control.