For years, big chains decorating their stores for Pride month felt like a given. As a queer person, I came to expect that every June, trips to Burger King or Dunkin’ might be just a little gayer. But this year, Pride decorations became a flashpoint for Starbucks employees, who allege the company broke from prior practices and banned Pride decorations from its stores.
Workers at stores across the country have accused Starbucks managers of taking down flags and streamers, or otherwise preventing employees from decorating their stores in support of LGBTQ rights. Although the company has denied these claims, the allegations escalated: The Starbucks Workers United (SWU) union called a nationwide strike, with workers at more than 150 stores planning to walk off the job through the end of June.
An end to Pride demonstrations in Starbucks stores would mirror similar moves by companies such as Target and Bud Light, which have distanced themselves from the queer community this year. Boycotts and threats of violence from bigoted customers against LGBTQ-themed promotions have pushed companies previously happy to engage in rainbow capitalism—co-opting queer imagery to market and sell products—to downplay visible celebrations of queer and trans people. Meanwhile, LGBTQ Americans face more and more challenges to their health care and their very right to exist in public.
So how did a few allegations of flags coming down in coffee shops escalate to a national strike? What will the coffee giant do about the allegations? And maybe most compelling of all, why do the rights of baristas at a chain of cafés matter so much to queer Americans and customers? Read on for these answers and more.
What are the anti-Pride allegations?
In early June, individual stores across the country began accusing the company of removing Pride flags and other decor celebrating Pride month. The company has denied the allegations, but in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Maryland, and other locations, worker testimonies, posts on social media, and alleged company communications all supported the claims that Starbucks leadership was removing rainbow flags and other decor.
At the State Street store in Madison, Wisconsin, a shift supervisor and SWU member claims he watched a district manager take down Pride decorations on June 11. Allegedly, the manager said that they were “not welcoming to everyone.” The supervisor, Matthew Cartwright, says store management had previously authorized those decorations. Cartwright told Bon Appétit that the decorations had been up for nearly a month. On its Instagram page, the store’s union posted a video of the decorations being removed by an unnamed woman it claims was district manager at the time. Starbucks did not respond to questions about the video, authorization of decorations, and whether the actions of the alleged manager reflected the company’s nationwide policy.
Similar claims have popped up across the country. The union shared a statement on Twitter that, along with Cartwright, featured testimonies from employees in Georgia, Ohio, and Virginia, saying the company had required Pride decor be removed from their stores. At a store in Maryland, employees also claim managers said customers could feel excluded by the decor. Other union employees in Massachusetts say they were told they could not decorate because there were not enough hours in the workday to do so, while some in Georgia and Oklahoma say their managers said decorating was a “safety concern” amid the current surge in anti-LGBTQ violence and hate. Starbucks did not respond to Bon Appétit when asked to comment on these specific allegations.
How are Starbucks workers responding?
Well, they’re striking. In New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and elsewhere, SWU members are walking out from a planned 150 stores or more. The strike began at the Seattle roastery, Starbucks’ flagship location, on June 23, but has snowballed to include stores in North Texas, Colorado Springs, and more that have authorized the work stoppages. Last week, Bon Appétit reported that the company would avoid shutdowns by staffing striking locations with employees from nearby stores throughout the protests.
The union claims that 3,000 employees will strike through the end of June, which was triggered by a current case with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in which the union has accused the company of failing to bargain in good faith. While this case seems to be the legal justification for the strike, the walkout’s emotional center appears to be the rights of LGBTQ workers. They’re calling the action “Strike With Pride,” and workers have posted photos from the picket lines carrying signs saying “Protect Trans People” and “Workers' Rights Are Trans and Queer Rights.”
What’s the company doing about it?
The company has outright denied claims that it is pulling Pride decorations from stores, citing concern about “false information being spread” about its Pride policies. Starbucks told Bon Appétit that there have been no change in policies regarding celebrating Pride in Starbucks locations. The company told CNN, “Store leaders are able to decorate stores as they wish for Pride and other heritage months, as long as those decorations adhere to safety guidelines.”
That said, as June went on, the company made addendums. Andrew Trull, a spokesperson for Starbucks, told Restaurant Dive, “There is potentially some level of truth in isolated circumstances since our local leaders are empowered to make decisions specific to their store.” However, he added that company policies around Pride haven’t officially changed. A June 26 press release from Sara Trilling, president of Starbucks North America, promises the company will “issue clearer guidelines…for in-store visual displays and decorations that will continue to represent inclusivity and our brand.”
As of June 27, the company has filed its own complaints with the NLRB over the claims the union has made. In the complaint, the company doubled down on its denials, alleging that the union made “deliberate misrepresentations that include maliciously and recklessly false statements about Starbucks long-standing support of Pride Month and decorations in its stores.”
Why does all this matter?
Considering the rough state of LGBTQ politics in America, hanging a rainbow flag inside of a Starbucks might seem…well, miniscule. Queer critics have long called out corporate Pride celebrations as empty, especially considering how willing brands seem to abandon queer people when facing pressure—this year, Bud Light and Target both caved to bigoted customers upset over partnerships with trans creators or Pride celebrations.
This year, Target’s annual Pride collection was partially removed from shelves following bomb threats in five states. After months of near-silence, trans creator Dylan Mulvaney also claimed that Bud Light had offered her no support after she received waves of harassment and even threats of violence over a sponsored post created for the company. Given the choice between queer inclusivity and money, critics argue, corporations will choose money every time.
“A part of why we put up a Pride flag is because we saw it as an act of defiance against this trend,” Cartwright says. According to Cartwright, visitors to the Madison store generally seemed to enjoy seeing the Pride decorations before they were taken down, and he told Bon Appétit he’d seen “no negativity from customers at all.”
Starbucks has nominally stood with the LGBTQ community in a number of ways in the past—such as by covering gender affirming care or decorating stores for Pride in previous years—so banning Pride decor would mark a change in company practices if the union’s claims prove true. Meanwhile, organizers recently published an open letter claiming that, although the company does cover gender affirming surgeries for trans employees, such coverage has become difficult to obtain due to restrictions such as minimum working hours and high insurance costs. The company denied that it made any changes to its coverage of gender affirming care, in a letter to the union obtained by The Nation.
For workers and queer customers like myself, Pride decor at work can be a recognizable symbol that you are welcome. Cartwright argues that Starbucks owes his coworkers—a vast majority of whom identify as queer, he adds—and all of its employees more. “Starbucks has a moral and social responsibility to take a stand,” he says, “especially in our current political climate where we’re seeing increasing tides of antidemocratic and anti-LGBTQ movements.”