On April 5, a group calling themselves the Philz Coffee Baristas started a petition urging their company, Philz Coffee, to retract a new policy that would force all stores to take down their Pride flags. Yesterday, company CEO Mahesh Sadarangani confirmed the policy to the San Francisco Chronicle, saying it is part of an effort to create “a more consistent, inclusive experience across all our stores.”
Yeah, read that again: A San Francisco-based coffee chain — which literally has a shop on Castro Street, just a few doors down from Hand Job Nails and Spa and a gigantic, car dealership-size rainbow flag! — is going to ban Pride flags to appease imaginary people with a medical condition that causes them to burst into flames when they see queer people existing. Not to mention how the Philz menu is stacked with gay-ass iced coffee drinks.
Look, my cortisol levels are still recovering from our asshole president and his minions taking us and the rest of this sorry world to the brink of nuclear war, so I simply can’t take more unforced culture war bullshit like this.
Maybe it’s because I don’t have a private equity vulture brain, but I cannot see any good, practical reason for a blanket ban on Pride flags in a chain that only exists in the Los Angeles area, the Bay Area, and Chicago. Whom are they alienating, currently? Whom in those cities is surprised or confused about a flag that regularly flies at each of their city halls?
“The pride flags within the stores hold deep meaning and value to both staff and visitors, symbolizing that these locations are safe and welcoming spaces for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” reads the baristas’ petition.
What the petition alludes to here is the fact that some of the most visible workers in the service industry, including many of the baristas who organized workplaces like Starbucks, are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Service work is inherently precarious — it’s low-wage and subject to seasonal shifts — but queer people have historically taken those jobs or been pushed into informal economies like sex work because traditional workplaces have been slow to accept us. It took until 2020, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, for employment non-discrimination protections to finally apply to all LGBTQ+ people in the United States. (Though many out queer people, especially people of color, continue to face discrimination anyway. Funny how that works.)
The appeal of the coffee shop job, or any low-wage service job, is that you can generally be yourself: You can wear acrylic nails, show your tattoos, own your non-conforming gender identity. The Philz petitioners note this: “Removing these flags risks alienating a core group of team members and loyal customers who see Philz not just as a coffee shop, but as a place where they are embraced and celebrated for who they are.”
It’s worth noting that the recent clamp-down on free expression began in 2023, two years after the new CEO took over the business, when five staff members of a Philz in Berkeley were sent home for wearing “Free Palestine” pins. (Cowardice doesn’t discriminate.)
The most annoying thing about this? Shit sucks right now if you’re queer — especially if you’re trans. (Maybe not if you’re Caitlyn Jenner, whom, if you’re reading this, can fuck off.) Enduring every day of this garbage takes community, solidarity, the fire of activism and organizing… and also the pleasure of silly little treats like mint mojito iced coffee. Fuck Philz for taking that away from us.
Soleil Ho is a cultural critic, cookbook writer, and food journalist who has a nasty habit of founding media projects instead of going to therapy: from the feminist literary magazine Quaint to food podcast Racist Sandwich to our dear COYOTE.
