Queer-friendly businesses in Lancaster, Ohio, are now on a boycott list circulated by two conservative Facebook groups. Some businesses in the city of 40,000 are taking the boycott as a badge of honor.
The list was circulated by Facebook groups Fairfield County Conservatives and Fairfield Family Forum after anti-LGBTQ+ protestors showed up at the city’s Pride celebration on Sept. 14, hurling insults at drag performers and festival goers. Some residents also attended a Sept. 26 City Council meeting to protest the Pride event as “pornography” because it included drag performances.
Stephanie West’s photography studio was one of the businesses on the boycott list.
“I’ve never been prouder to be on a list, to be completely honest,” she said.
More harassment
Bewilderment, a family-owned gift and candle store, was targeted with posters reading “Bewilderment worships Satan” that went up on Lancaster streets. Brandon Love, queer owner of the store, put out a public announcement before he removed the posters himself.
“Please take these down. I don’t want to have to go to court and deal with the drama,” Love recalled asking.
A member of one of the Facebook groups came into Bewilderment and recorded the inside, taking particular aim at a small Pride section, Love said. That video was later posted online.
Love moved to Fairfield County three years ago, and it was already “pretty polarized” when he got there. He described it as a “smoking cannon waiting to be lit.”
“We are definitely some of the loudest, most vulnerable companies and voices in the area, and that brings out people who disagree,” Love said.
Despite the boycott, Love has not seen a decrease in sales. His batch of wax melts called #ShineOn – referencing a hashtag that was hijacked to insult queer people, which Love reclaimed – sold out, with proceeds going to LGBTQ+ causes. Anyone that stopped shopping at his store due to his activism has been replaced by people who do support it, he said.
Three other sources reported instances of vandalism around LGBTQ+ friendly storefronts, though those incidents went unreported to the police.
Choosing to fight
Stephanie West moved to the Lancaster area in 2006 and started her photography studio nearly two years later. She found the area to be accepting of queer identities when she arrived, but since last September’s Pride celebration, the county has become politically polarized.
“Before all of this happened, I feel like everyone was just very cool [and] accepting,” she said. “Even if they didn’t accept it, [they] just kind of left people alone.”
Lancaster Pride celebrations have run for seven other years without a hitch. But since the last Pride, West said some queer people she knows no longer feel safe holding hands with their partner outside.
“It feels like 10 steps backwards,” West said.
Hollie Merchant, owner of Blue Valley Massage & Spa, has been in business in Lancaster for 25 years. She is part of the LGBTQ+ community and a board member of the Rainbow Alliance of Fairfield County. Part of her work with the board has included vetting businesses for a list of queer-friendly Safe Space establishments in Lancaster. That involved interviewing business owners and asking them to sign a contract ensuring that they will remain safe for queer people.
“I’ve taken it very seriously, and so it’s a very big deal to be on the Safe Space list,” Merchant said.
Merchant’s business has been one of the most targeted. On September 20, she was doxxed on Facebook with a message falsely calling her a groomer.
Other comments were close to threatening violence. One targeted the annual Pride celebration.
“Next drag show we need to do the same thing we did during the BLM protests,” a post reads. “2nd Amendment encouraged.”
Blue Valley Massage & Spa is a woman-run business that can stay open into the evening hours. The volatile Facebook messages frightened Merchant, and police started to patrol her business more frequently after she reported the incident.
“I was scared for the very first time in my life to walk downtown Lancaster,” she said.
Since the post was deleted on Facebook, Merchant said the toxicity has died down. But she’s not going to stop fighting.
“At some point my son said, ‘Mom, this is the fight that you chose. Now you have to fight it,’” Merchant recalled. “I said, ‘You know what? You’re right. This is 100% what I chose to fight for.”
Despite being “in the trenches,” Merchant said that she is “thrilled with the progress that this town has made.”
They have a well-attended Pride that has run for four years, and rainbow flags are hung throughout town, she said. The growing acceptance has saved people’s lives and helped them become who they want to be.
“This is where the fight is, where it matters most, and where it’s going to make the biggest difference,” Merchant said. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- Rainbow Alliance of Fairfield County’s full list of Safe Space businesses can be found here.
Know an LGBTQ+ Ohio story we should cover? TELL US!
Submit a story!
