Pink digestives and LGBTQ+++

[WhatterySquash]

I was just in Sainsbury's and there was a staff member with one of those little stalls where they give you samples to try. It was limited-edition digestives with pink raspberry icing. But as it was in the chilled / deli aisle, at first glance I thought it was some kind of ham (don't like ham), until I looked again and realised it was a digestive and stopped to have one.

So I was chatting about this to the guy "I almost gave them a miss, thought it was ham" etc and he said oh that's nothing, I've been getting grief because people think they are LGBTQ/queer/pride digestives. Apparently customers have been telling him they're sick of everything being "prided" and digestives don't need to be LGBT.

In fact they have nothing to do with pride, it's some kind of anniversary celebration and totally unrelated. But it seemed like such an indication that the general public are so sick of LGBTQ being bigged up and forced onto everything all the time. I don't think most people are homophobic and they probably have no issue with LGBT rights existing. But I think most people have a natural sense of fairness and don't get why this one thing is constantly being pushed above all else.

But there must be people who are doing the pushing, in every organisation and institution that does do things like this (aside from the fact that they actually weren't in this case) - why don't these people realise it's actually counterproductive and is really starting to piss people off? Even if you are the most enthusiastic TRA in the world, turning LGBT (or just T in some cases) rights into something that is constantly in everyone's face and is treated preferentially compared to other groups, isn't helping your cause.

Just wondering how long it will take for them to grasp this – or if maybe they don't care.

Yes, to be clear they are not gay biscuits at all.

Well, that would be because there is no such thing as a gay biscuit. Biscuits can’t be gay.

Interesting -- my friend messaged me last week to say Marks and Spencer had a new special sandwich filling for Wimbledon; strawberries and cream.
She said they were ok but she wouldn't fight anyone for the last one on the shelf.

I think it’s probably the most visible of all the consciousness raising events. It’s pride week, pride month, trans pride week… it feels as though it’s right through until September- perhaps because different cities seem to do different months.

Certainly it feels as though the trans flag cluttering up my Tesco shopping app has been there a month already.

I don’t notice disability days/weeks/months. I don’t see much about international women’s day- prayer meetings and lists that usually include some trans women which I disagree with.

I suppose Remembrance season is quite visible and extended- poppies throughout the first half of November.

Apart from that it’s seasonal festivals- Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Spring, Back to school (starting in June, natch).

Do people also complain about fizzy rainbow belts sweet? (Otherwise known as gay bacon by certain teens I won’t identify) Eating them doesn’t magically make you gay, if you were wondering.

Well, that would be because there is no such thing as a gay biscuit. Biscuits can’t be gay.

There are transbiscuits, though --- assigned cake at birth but identifying as biscuits

Gay rights are biscuit rights!

How very dare you. If a biscuit identifies as gay it IS gay 🌈

Gay bacon 😂 Teens I know don't call them that - but I will be from now on.

I can't wait to tell my 17 year old that !
She'll think it's a fantastic name 🌈

“Digestives don’t have to be LGBT” really made me smile, thanks OP
I love a digestive but if there was going to be an LGBT biscuit display it just wouldn’t cut it. It’s too vanilla and heteronormative.

If any biscuit or cake is trans it’s surely a Jaffa cake. Is it a cake? Is it a biscuit? It’s certainly cakegender non-conforming.

CAKE !
This was decided in a Court of Law.
Which is just so British 😂🇬🇧

Completely agree and felt moved to write into Riverford when presented with a rainbowed carrot logo. I don't mind farming and climate change polemic stuff from Riverford - it's all relevant to their business - but sexuality really isn't. I received an answer 'blah inclusion caring blah' but also 'thankyou for letting us know how this logo change is perceived' which I thought was a chink of light. Will see if the carrot gets rainbowed next year.

Jaffa cakes are biscuits that identify as cakes for tax purposes.

And there is no LGB without the Rich Tea.

Er, isn't this just people buying into culture wars stuff?

Homophobia is still rife and I hardly think pride or some rainbows is LGBT being "shoved" in anyone's face. (Why is it always referred to in that specific way anyway?)

OTOH if people are worried about pink digestives being "gay" nobody tell them about party rings. They would faint clean away in the aisle.

I do feel it is routinely "shoved" and prioritised above other protected characteristics. In particular LGBRQ++ and the progress pride / rainbow flag rather than just LGB, but they have been force-teamed and it's that more recent movement that has become prioritised.

Of course a flag or logo does me no harm but the extent of it is ridiculous especially in the context that there is no similar flag-draping and logo-plastering for most other protected characteristics. My point in my OP is that people are sick of it and don't like it - but I don't think this is because they're homophobic. It's because it's overkill and getting tiresome and people bridle at the irrelevant things it's attached to.

I could be wrong and this is just homophobia. I don't think so, my point was that perfectly tolerant people are now thinking "oh just shut up about LGBTQ+++ all the fecking time" so it's counterproductive. That includes me, although I am GC so I see the extremes of this movement as anti-women, but I'm not homophobic and don't mind a traditional rainbow.

I wonder if the LGB section will benefit from the nutso overload of T. Most people must be thinking ‘straightforward gay people, thank god, I don’t have to twist my language and mental framework to talk to these people. It’s so much easier.’ Whatever ye olde worlde previous generations thought might be challenging about a lesbian wedding, is now nothing compared to the mental gymnastics of referring to a son as a daughter.

And pride week can return to a general celebration of Love is Love, which is generally accepted and enjoyed.

Good for you. It just comes across as completely cynical and performative. I am happy to watch movies, listen to podcasts or read books about experiences different to my own. But the retail shit - it is like the breast cancer stuff where the candle costs £90 and £2.50 goes to breast cancer research. I guess people buy into this stuff, but when you look beyond the surface....... it actually puts me off brands, rather than the opposite.

Lets see what happens to the rainbow carrots. So cool you called them out.

There is a backlash because it's now part of the establishment and the general feeling that governments are directing people to be part of it.

The rainbow was a symbol of fighting against authorities who kept on harassing gay establishments in New York (but not those owned by the mafia), now those in authority fly the flag and threaten punishment for people who take it down etc.

The counter-culture and anti-establishment thing to do now is to be against it. That's why many of the original gay activists rally against Pride today, because they're still going with the counter-culture.

I’ve found my people!

And yes I’m completely fed up of having the progress flag in my face every time I open my Tesco app.

Not kidding! I'm Irish and we didn't have them when I was a nipper. Sad but true. Still, youse didn't have Mikado biscuits, did you, so I suppose it all evens out
Both Mikado and Jammy Dodgers allow for deconstruction and consumption of disparate elements independently of each other.
Aka 'playing with your food'😃

This wins the internet today Fourlegsandatail - brilliant😂

I'm not saying that objecting or being fed up of rainbow flags is homophobic. (Although of course some people may object because of homophobia). I think my point is that the whole "LGBT is being forced into everything" is an idea which seems very driven by online algorithms/bots/culture war type ideas where there is no possible shade of grey, everyone has to be black and white on a side, we are normal/right and the other side is crazy/evil/stupid.

I'm no fan of corporate platitudes but I didn't get the sense that the post was about corporate platitudes specifically.

Yes. The deciding factor was apparently that they start soft and go hard when stale. Like cakes do.
Biscuits do the opposite. 🍪

It's always struck me as extremely odd that someone's sexuality would be remotely relevant to where they chose to buy their groceries.

Sainsburys Regent Road, Salford. Known to some locals as 'Gay Sainsburys'. As in 'I'm just going up Gay Sainsburys to buy a pizza'.

Just saying...

Also the manufacturers turned up to court with a massive regular cake sized Jaffa Cake and said "still wanna insist it's a biscuit?"
Or words to that effect. Apparently 😂