Costa Coffee has become embroiled in a gender row after a mural featuring a trans surfer who had been through gender reassignment surgery was spotted on the side of a van.
The colourful advert that Costa says “celebrates inclusivity” portrays a cartoon surfer drinking from a cup with two visible scars indicating they have had top surgery.
Activists who believe you can not change gender fear the mural, created for Pride last year, promotes the surgery which involves the removal of breast tissue to generate a masculine chest contour.
Failed London mayoral candidate Laurence Fox seized upon the discourse accusing the coffee chain of “promoting the mutilation” of young people’s bodies.
Dear @CostaCoffee,
— James Esses (@JamesEsses) July 31, 2023
Could you kindly explain why you are glorifying irreversible surgery performed on healthy breasts of women for a mental health condition? pic.twitter.com/9NyFPYj9J3
The Reclaim Party candidate also called for the chain, which has 13,540 branches nationwide, to be “boycotted out of existence”.
For Women Scotland asked Costa Coffee on Twitter if they could see that the “glorification and promotion of medically unnecessary mastectomies could be distressing and offensive to women who have suffered breast cancer”.
But author Ugla Stefanía stood up for the mural, tweeting: “Saw Costa was trending. Turned out it’s because they have an illustration of a trans masc person and all the bigots are losing their minds about trans people existing. Great advertisement for Costa really. Thanks everyone, it’s a lovely illustration.”
The trans rights campaigner added: “The people in the comments calling consensual surgeries ‘mutilation’ are just showing their disrespect to actual survivors of genital mutilation - intersex people, cis women and others assigned female at birth suffer those every day all across the world. You should be ashamed.”
A Costa spokesman defended the use of the surfer which they say was just a snapshot of a much larger piece created for last year’s Pride Festival.
He said: “At Costa Coffee we celebrate the diversity of our customers, team members and partners.
“We want everyone that interacts with us to experience the inclusive environment that we create, to encourage people to feel welcomed, free and unashamedly proud to be themselves.
“The mural, in its entirety, showcases and celebrates inclusivity.”
