The co-founder of a Manchester street food hub has responded to a negative one-star review made by a woman who claimed an upcoming Pride event, which includes rainbow cookie workshops, was ‘sexualising’ children.
To coincide with Manchester Pride this weekend, GRUB, based in Cheetham Hill, have put together a Family Friday’s PRIDE Special event on August 26, which is set to feature a range of activities, workshops, and screenings.
The event will also feature a rainbow cookie decorating workshop with a local baker, which appears to have caused uproar from one customer who left a one star review on the event’s website. The reviewer, who only used the name Emma, wrote: "All sounded great til the last line! No need to sexualise children with pride! We all have our preferences and its something that should be kept private.”
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They added: “All children need to understand is to be proud of you are... full stop! Not to judge others full stop. Stop with the sexual references via a pretty rainbow to children who don't even understand what sex is yet!”
GRUB co-founder Jason Bailey decided to share the negative review on social media, alongside the caption: “Just to be clear, absolutely everyone is welcome at GRUB, that is except people that equate a rainbow cookie workshop to sexualising kids. Get in the bin Emma. Everyone else, we can't wait to celebrate with you all this weekend!”
One person responded: “I’ve seen it all now. Someone getting offended by a cookie”, while another said: “Emma obviously thinks a preference for homophobia is acceptable. On the bright side, you won't have to serve her and her friends."
Another questioned: "Rainbows are sexualised. I thought they were just pretty." A further person wrote: "That's a new one on me.. I thought the Pride rainbow symbolised love and acceptance and that love has no boundaries.. not sure where the sexual references are in that.
Speaking to the M.E.N, Bailey said he was left ‘genuinely shocked’ by the comment, but wanted to ‘shine a light’ on the intolerance that many are still faced with today.
He said: “We felt it was important to respond to the review because when you come across this kind of intolerance, you need to shine a light on it and come together as a community to condemn it, to send a message to the folk who might read that review and feel threatened or marginalised and let them know they have our support.
“Social media can be pretty toxic so we did think is it worth the energy of getting involved and having a ruck online potentially, the responses were pretty positive. It's an absolutely tiny thing but if we all try and stamp out these kinds of attitudes bit by bit hopefully we can help make some more progress.”
Bailey said Friday’s event, which is a Pride special of a free family event they have been running every Friday over the summer holidays, was an ‘amazing opportunity’ to raise awareness of the LGBTQ+ community amongst younger people.
“As a parent I think kids' activities during Pride can be an amazing opportunity to have conversations with your kids about diversity and sexuality,” Bailey, who runs GRUB with partner Juliana, explained. “It's such a positive time in the city that, for me, it brings people together. I really don’t understand why people would have an issue with that unless they were against diversity or being open about sexuality.
“It’s shocking in this day and age that people would be offended that kids are getting involved in celebrating Pride - specifically by a rainbow cookie workshop. I think it really shows why Pride is still important, there’s still these bigots that need to be confronted and pushed into the light, there’s still work to be done and it's terribly sad. it's too easy to think that prejudice is a thing of the past when it isn’t.”
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