“You know you are winning when Starbucks is taking down Pride decorations.” Over the past few days, I’ve seen hundreds of comments like this all over Twitter and Instagram, as rightwing bigots felt emboldened to declare victory following the news that Starbucks was no longer allowing Pride decorations in their cafes throughout June. This is happening as other companies like Target and Budweiser face mounting pressure to distance themselves from vulnerable queer and trans communities due to anti-gay and anti-trans political attacks across the country.
As a queer person who has worked at a Starbucks in Oklahoma City for the past five years, I helped organize a union at my store. In late May, we were told by our manager that the Pride flag we had hung proudly in our cafe, along with other colorful decorations, would no longer be allowed. At first, I thought Starbucks was removing all Pride-related material. Then I realized the company was still selling Starbucks branded Pride t-shirts and cups. It was shocking to see that Starbucks would cave in to the transphobic and homophobic turmoil started by rightwing media, unless they could turn a profit from it.
Since I started working at Starbucks, I have been surrounded by a community of queer and trans workers. It was at Starbucks where first I realized I was queer and felt safe enough to come out of the closet. Now, I know how little protection I actually have as the threat of a homophobic and transphobic backlash increases and companies who once proudly stood by their queer workers have pulled back their support.
Here in Oklahoma, we are no stranger to the escalating attacks not just on queer and trans people, but on abortion rights as well. Starbucks, while flaunting its progressive image by offering travel reimbursement to workers who need to access abortion services out of state, used it as a cynical union-busting ploy by denying that same benefit to workers at unionized stores (I wrote about this previously here). Starbucks also reduced their trans healthcare benefits last November.
I never thought I would see Starbucks, a company that applauds itself for its LGBTQ+ presence, suddenly deny us a way to not just show pride but to signal that our workplace is a safe space for queer people. What’s especially upsetting isn’t the prospect of being targeted by conservatives for displaying a Pride flag, but that the bigots celebrating this change now see Starbucks as an accepting place for them and their hateful rhetoric.
Starbucks, after being presented with documented examples of employees having been told to remove Pride decorations, denied that this was happening. Company spokesperson Andrew Trull released a statement claiming that these reports were “outright false,” that there has been “no corporate policy change at all,” and that “store leaders were welcome to continue to decorate for heritage months.” The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that allows businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people shows that safe spaces are needed now more than ever.
Trull’s rhetoric is similar to the gaslighting we’ve experienced with the company’s outright denial that it has engaged in union-busting, despite receiving more than 100 National Labor Relations Board complaints including the firing of union leaders like Lexi Rizzo and the Memphis 7.
But if we take Trull’s claims at face value, it begs the question of where the order to remove the Pride decorations came from, if it wasn’t a corporate policy?
I came across numerous, conflicting answers while looking to figure out why. I have heard of partners—which is the term that Starbucks uses to refer to its staff—being informed by management that the change is to ensure uniformity among stores, that it’s about safety, or a regional decision. I spoke to over ten partners from across the country and they each gave differing accounts about why this change was being implemented. In Boston, baristas were told that if they put up Pride flags, they’d have to put up Proud Boy flags, too. In Seattle, partners were told that the viral videos of district managers taking down flags were all fake, that they were imposters dressing up as managers.
It’s hard enough to exist as a queer person in this country, let alone in the service industry, let alone in the South.
It’s not a coincidence that the Pride changes started taking place after Starbucks stores began to unionize more than eighteen months ago. This company wants nothing more than to maintain control, and the presence of a unionized workforce means they need to share power. But in delaying contract bargaining, and enacting petty but significant acts of control, Starbucks is simply delaying the inevitable. Queer and trans workers have always been at the forefront of labor movements, and we know that our labor rights and our right to exist freely are inseparable.
It’s hard enough to exist as a queer person in this country, let alone in the service industry, let alone in the South. In the current rightwing backlash against our community, it is especially important for queer and trans workers to assert our power as a union, and continue to demand that our employers respect our rights. As the marketability of queerness becomes less trendy, it’s up to us as workers to put pressure on companies to keep us safe in the workplace.
The media backlash that Starbucks has received, along with the pressure of our strikes at more than 150 union stores across the country, has prompted the company to “issue clearer centralized guidelines” on Pride decor by the end of the year.
Starbucks, intentionally or not, has added ammunition to the ongoing “culture war.” But through unionizing, we are ensuring that the company takes responsibility for defending its queer and trans workers, and all of its employees. This includes not only decorating for Pride, but offering living wages, guaranteed hours, accessible healthcare, meaningful policies to address sexual harassment, and essential protections against all forms of discrimination.
In a small concession after the media backlash, our district manager began to allow our Oklahoma City stores to decorate in two small corners during the last week of Pride month. This was nothing in comparison to how we were previously allowed to decorate the whole store with a large Pride flag hanging behind our bar.
We also received support from Oklahoma City PrideFest, which banned Starbucks as a place to walk in the parade in solidarity. PrideFest President Kylan Durant released a statement stating, “Pride is for the people and by the people and cannot be co-opted by companies and organizations that refuse to acknowledge harm.”
If Starbucks truly cares about queer and trans people, then it would sit with us at the bargaining table and negotiate a contract.