Florida bakery refuses to write the word 'trans' on a cake
Two customers at an Orlando location of the grocery chain Publix wanted a cake for an event they were holding late last month celebrating and supporting the transgender community, which has been feeling targeted as the Florida legislature advances a raft of anti-trans laws. "Trans people deserve joy" was the inscription they asked to be written in icing decorating a colorful sheet cake.
But the bakery worker taking the order hesitated. "After a loooooong waiting period a manager comes up & looks me - a Trans Non-binary person dead in the eyes and says, 'yeah, we can't write that we aren't allowed to take stance either ways on this issue,'" wrote Dandelion Hill, co-founder of the nonprofit group Peer Support Space, in a Facebook post describing the incident, which they say left them in tears.
According to Yasmin Flasterstein, a fellow co-founder of the organization, the bakery eventually sold the pair a cake that read "people deserve joy" and left room above that lettering for them to pipe the word "trans" on it themselves. In an interview, Flasterstein said she spoke to a bakery manager and a store manager, both of whom insisted that corporate policy prevented them from inscribing cakes with language that "took a stance" on political matters.
Both Flasterstein and Hill expressed outrage that a simple statement could be considered controversial. "Proclaiming that Trans people deserve joy is a divisive stance?" wrote Hill, whose organization is aimed at offering support to marginalized communities throughout Central Florida. "It's literally NOT controversial - we obviously deserve freedom, joy, abundance - 'neutrality' is not neutrality here, there's no riding the fence."
After commenters to the post joined them in their disappointment, the corporate account for Publix responded to Flasterstein's Facebook post with an apology - and an offer to make the cake they wanted after all. "We are sorry that our associates did not handle your request appropriately," the grocery chain wrote. "Please message us for more details, and we will gladly make the cake."
Flasterstein later got an email from the public affairs department at Publix offering another apology and an explanation of the company's policy on what bakeries can write on cakes. "Our policy indicates that our associates may write statements that are not copyrighted or trademarked, support a charitable cause, are factual and considered to have a positive connotation," read the email from Publix, which Flasterstein shared with The Washington Post. "As we indicated in our Facebook conversation, our associates should have fulfilled your request."
But Flasterstein has pressed the company in subsequent correspondence about why multiple people at the store had such a misunderstanding - and she says she and Hill still aren't satisfied with the response. She hopes that Publix will take responsibility as a company, she says, rather than simply pass it off as a one-time error. "We'd like to see more empathy for our transgender colleague who faced the brunt of this incident and broke down in sobs in front of other shoppers," Flasterstein wrote in a letter to Publix. "Dandelion is owed a direct apology, our community is owed an apology."
In an interview, she says she hopes to make sure something like that doesn't happen to another customer. "This isn't about trying to embarrass a company or put them on blast," she said in an interview. "I'd like for something good to come of this. The door is open."
In a statement to The Post, Publix noted the steps it had taken. "We will never knowingly disappoint our customers," the statement read. "Once alerted to the situation, we apologized to the customer and offered to make it right by remaking the cake as requested."
The cake was destined for an April 26 event the Peer Support Space held, at which volunteers put together care packages and wrote supportive notes to members of the trans community.
The incident, which was first reported on the LGBTQ news site Watermark, unfolded as Florida legislators and its Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in recent weeks have enacted a handful of anti-trans bills. This month, the legislature passed a bill banning transgender people from using many public bathrooms that match their gender identity. It also approved a bill allowing health-care providers and insurance companies to deny services "on the basis of conscience-based objections," and another measure asking Congress to stop the military from "overemphasizing" diversity and inclusion.
Legislation is also now advancing that would expand the state's 2022 law - which critics refer to as the "Don't Say Gay" bill - barring discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with students through third grade. The new bill would make it illegal for educators to discuss those topics though the eighth grade.
Hill said the "hostile" environment created by those bills made the event they were holding feel necessary - and made what happened in Publix so jarring. "Genuinely, it's been difficult to find the motivation to get up in the morning in the wake of the hostile legislation here in Florida that is vilifying my very existence," they wrote in an email. "On the day we held the Trans Joy Event I felt a glimmer of hope because we were cultivating an event where our Trans siblings could feel joy, where we could write messages of hope and affirmation to remind our community that they are loved and invaluable, where we could physically share space and feel safe with each other."
But when Hill was told the message they wanted to share was taboo?
"How could such a loving statement be considered divisive?" Hill asked. "I struggle to reconcile it."
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