Publix Bakery in Florida Refuses to Write ‘Trans’ on a Cake

Two customers say an Orlando Publix grocery store refused to write “Trans people deserve joy” on a cake.

Dandelion Hill, a co-founder of Peer Support Space, was buying the cake for an event celebrating the transgender community.

Hill said in a Facebook post that a store manager said they couldn’t write the message because they “aren’t allowed to take stance either ways on the issue.”

Hill, who identifies as a trans non-binary person, called the experience “traumatic” in the post.

“Like proclaiming that Trans people deserve joy is a divisive stance? It’s literally NOT controversial,” the post reads. “We obviously deserve freedom, joy, abundance — ‘neutrality’ is not neutrality here, there’s no riding the fence. It is horrific & deplorable."

Yasmin Flasterstein said on Facebook, “We very politely pleaded, literal tears in our eyes, to please write the message. They refused.”

Flasterstein says the store agreed to write “People deserve joy” on the cake. After they left the store, they added the word "Trans" above it in the parking lot, according to the post.

They said that have used Publix to cater their large events many times in the past but will no longer use them because of this incident.

The official Publix Facebook account responded to Flasterstein’s post saying: “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,” the response adds.

In a follow-up post, Flasterstein said: "Thank you so much to everyone who has given us support in response to our experience."