Today at 4 p.m., San Francisco Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford will head to Philz Coffee in the Castro, but it won’t be for a Mint Mojito.
Ford will be there protesting the decision by the private equity owners of the San Francisco-founded coffee chain to remove Pride and other flags from its historically rainbow-draped shops. Ford heard the news on social media.
“I was outraged,” she told Gazetteer SF. “I mean, you assume when you see a business in the Castro that they're just part of the neighborhood, but they're not, apparently.”
In August, Philz was purchased by Freeman Spogli & Co, a Los Angeles-based private equity group. The company stated that, by removing all flags, they hope to foster an “inclusive environment.”
The news has left patrons and employees confused, given that a large part of Philz clientele and workforce is queer or queer-friendly, and the company was founded in the very city where the iconic rainbow Pride flag was designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978.
Ford says that such a call from any company is hurtful, but to see it in San Francisco is outright shocking.
“You want to relax because we’re San Francisco,” she said. “We have a lot of rights and we have big lives here as queer people, and I'm very proud of this city, but you cannot take for granted that companies found here understand that we are part of the culture.”
Ford, who is San Francisco Pride’s first trans executive director and originally from Kentucky, said this city, and especially the Castro neighborhood, is a place where queer people go to feel accepted and safe.
“People are already feeling hurt and we don’t want to feel hurt here,” she said. “You make some assumptions about the fabric of this city and what we mean to it, but I think sometimes we do forget that we still are not the majority here and that the fight’s never over. I don’t think it will ever be over.”
SF Pride is currently prepping its monthlong celebration in June. In a few weeks, rainbow flags will line Market Street up to the Embarcadero. But even in the most queer-positive city in the country, the work of representation and, well, pride, never feels done. Ford noted that Starbucks pulled its sponsorship of SF Pride just two days ago. (In September, the chain closed its 18th Street location, known among Castro residents as Bearbucks.)
“They’re making it hard for a queer person to get some coffee,” Ford said.
