Publix Refused To Write 'Trans' On Orlando Group's Cake, Founder Says

ORLANDO, FL — Leaders of an Orlando nonprofit organization are searching for answers after they say bakery staff at an Orlando Publix store refused to write "trans" on a cake they ordered for an event.

In a post shared on Facebook, Yasmin Flasterstein, founder and executive director at Peer Support Space, said she went to Publix to order a cake for the organization's Spreading Trans Joy event on April 26.

Group co-founder Dandelion Hill accompanied Flasterstein, and, during the order, the pair asked bakery staff to write "Trans People Deserve Joy" on the cake.

"Yasmin and I deliberated a lot about what to write, but we felt this was the most simple, pure, and true declaration we could make and wanted to bring it as a sweet little token to our friends at the Trans Joy event," Hill said in an email to Watermark, which first reported about the incident. "When we asked them to write it, I was so nervous because I have faced a lot of hostility in my neighborhood for being Queer & Trans."

When the employee taking the order walked away, the pair knew the request would be an issue, Hill told Watermark.

"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 a stance either ways on this issue," Hill wrote on Facebook.

Instead, employees sold Flasterstein and Hill a cake reading "People Deserve Joy" and gave them a tube of extra icing to pipe the word "trans" on it themselves, Flasterstein told The Washington Post.

According to the Post, Flasterstein spoke with the bakery and store manager, who claimed that corporate policy prohibited them from decorating cakes using language that "took a stance" on political matters.

"A stance?! That any community deserves joy is a stance?" Flasterstein wrote on Facebook. "So let me get this right, it was okay to write 'people deserve joy' but not 'trans people deserve joy.'"

According to the event page on Facebook, the Spreading Trans Joy event was an opportunity for volunteers to make care packages and pen supportive notes to members of the transgender community.

"It wasn't a day to talk about legislation or hate, just one to give hopefully a little pocket of joy to someone's upcoming day," Flasterstein wrote on Facebook.

The event happened while lawmakers in Tallahassee were preparing to pass a flurry of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

Earlier this month, state senators voted to expand the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, which prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in all grades. The Florida Board of Education approved a similar expansion last month.

The sweeping bill also included a measure prohibiting school staff and students from referring to people by pronouns that don't correspond to the person's sex at birth.

Last month, the Senate also passed legislation banning gender-affirming treatment for transgender children in the state and placing restrictions on adults already receiving care.

A spokesperson for Publix did not immediately return Patch's request for comment. However, Publix's corporate Facebook page apologized for the incident in a comment on Flasterstein's Facebook post.

"Thank you for sharing your concern with us. We are sorry that our associates did not handle your request appropriately. Please message us for more details, and we will gladly make the cake," Publix wrote.

Flasterstein also received an email from Publix explaining the company's policy on what bakeries can write on cakes, she told the Post.

"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," the email read. "As we indicated in our Facebook conversation, our associates should have fulfilled your request."

Still, Flasterstein is pressing the company for additional answers, she told both Watermark and the Post.

"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."