Elysianreverie

Elysianreverie t1_ixqq3ku wrote

My husband and I have been sooo excited for you guys to open up. That said, I think you're running into a couple of issues here as others have mentioned - VT is not a religious state, and you're getting kind of defensive in the comments (which I don't blame you for at all, it's reddit, and it's via text which is hard to convey tone and is often defaulted to aggressive). However, if you want to be a good part of the St. Albans community, you need to be aware of a few things.

Franklin County, and St. Albans in particular, has had some really gross stuff occur lately - see electing a sheriff who is facing charges for kicking a handcuffed guy in the balls repeatedly. The community can be very welcoming and very unsafe at the same time for queer individuals. There are church organizations that acknowledge that and work to combat it, like St. Paul's Methodist Church right by Taylor Park. I'm not at all religious, but I regularly host and take part in events there because they acknowledge the force of good they should be and work to address the harm that other religious organizations have cause (from what I've seen, anyway). They did a Pride/Juneteenth event over the summer, the first time it was held in our community, and they actively support queer communities.

So it doesn't bother me that you believe in god and want to use funds from your business to support that belief and associated tenets. What concerns me is that you have said

>Someone’s religion has nothing to do with me or how I live my life, and honestly why does it matter to anyone else? If someone isn’t personally doing anything to you, why do you care? Do you visit other establishments and refuse to go there or eat there when they have Hindu or budda things displayed in their restaurant or establishment? No, because why would anyone personally care? Live your life the way you choose, and vice versa.

To me, that is you sticking your head in the sand about the abject harm that your religion, whether or not it's your specific denomination, has caused to the queer community and others. It's similar to saying "I don't see race" - and I realize the issues with me saying that to a BIPOC business, apologies, but it's the best metaphor I can think of - just because you are not taking part directly in causing harm to queer communities that comes as a result of religious organizations, you are indirectly and silently supporting those actions by not saying anything against them. If you believe god to be love and there needs to be more of that, you need to also acknowledge where people are not bringing that love to the world.

You can't say "glorify god" publicly and then get upset when people say how harmful religion has been. And honestly, if you don't acknowledge and support those communities, I'm going to have a hard time going to get your donuts, as much as I want them and want to support diverse businesses.

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Edit for clarification on the Pride/Juneteenth event

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