A Christian woman has come forward to say Starbucks fired her for refusing to use transgender people’s pronouns.
The woman in question — Taylor Marie Trice of North Carolina — spoke to Sarah Fields of the Publica about her ordeal, which occurred in 2022.
Earlier this week, Trice uploaded a video to TikTok discussing what happened: “June came around, and as we all know, June is the month of ‘tasting the rainbow.’ And I had been working at Starbucks for about two years at that point. So I was used to Starbucks putting up their [Pride] decorations and stuff during the month of June. And throughout that time, no one had ever made a complaint about me being homophobic, transphobic, whatever.”
Trice added in the clip that she’s “not judging” her fellow employees but that her stance was, “I’m just not about to go along with everything you want to do if it doesn’t go along with God’s word.” This time, she said in the video, “They went a little bit beyond the rainbow,” and it was starting to “taste sour and not sweet.”
More from the Publica:
According to Trice, Starbucks had placed a glass wall display next to the cash register. On the wall, different “sexual attraction definitions” were written in marker. The board described sexual orientations such as demisexual, omnisexual, or asexual. A partner chalk board was also placed on display, labeled “let’s talk about pronouns,” and included an extensive description of pronouns including “neo-pronouns” which included “Ze/Zim, Xe/Xum” and more.
Trice said in her video that “I didn’t shame them for it, but I was just telling them, like, ‘You guys gotta be careful, you know, we got families walking in here, and kids are gonna read that.’ And I specifically said, even if the board had said ‘heterosexual’ … I just feel like that just didn’t need to be added to the decorations.”
She added in her clip that co-workers began to accuse her of being a “homophobic Christian,” which Trice denied.
Trice then explained in her video that Starbucks started to enforce a policy stating that transgender people must be referred to by their preferred pronouns.
“I was willing to call the person by their name, I was willing to avoid using pronouns. But it is against my faith to lie, even if it’s the smallest lie,” Trice said in her video, adding that “if I see that you are a man, and I call you a woman, that is lying … and that is identifying you as something that God did not create you to be.” She added that Satan wants confuse and deceive people.
Trice added in her video that her store manager came to her said that “you need to talk with me and the district manager” and that “there had been complaints made about me and how I was doing things that are, like, homophobic or whatever.” Trice said in her video that she was then terminated.
‘I know God will provide for me’
Trice told the Publica that she had never received a write-up prior to her termination and that the official reason for her firing was “disrespect for sexual orientation/identity.” The outlet said Trice tried to get copies of the termination documents but endured continual roadblocks.
“I was fired because my faith was not considered a justifiable reason to not use preferred pronouns,” Trice added to the Publica. “There were complaints made that I was being negative about the glass wall when I only gave them a warning about how it would be seen and said it’s not about homophobia. People said they felt like I was uncomfortable with their identity when I never made any insults to them about their sexual orientation or mistreated them.”
She added to the outlet that she tried to be “a representative of Jesus before my time was up there. I disagreed with certain discussions that went opposite of my views, but things remained cordial up until I got fired.”
Trice added to the Publica that as far as employment goes, “I’ll be fine. I have been blessed with other jobs since then and currently work as a house cleaner. I know God will provide for me.”
The Publica said it reached out to the Starbucks district responsible for the franchise where Trice was employed but was unable to obtain a comment from the manager. While the manager redirected the Publica to Starbucks media relations, the outlet said that arm of the coffee giant was unresponsive.
Here’s another video Trice uploaded Wednesday:
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