The Charlottesville Pride Community Network says a Pennsylvania manufacturer is refusing to print hats featuring the pride network’s theme for the upcoming Cville Pride Festival.
According to Cville Pride, as it’s informally known, the Hanover, Pennsylvania-based Legacy Athletic refused to fulfill an order for hats inscribed with the motto, “Y’all Means All.” The hats were to be used at this year’s pride festival, scheduled for Sept. 16.
Cville Pride originally reached out to Red Star Merchandise to print the hats, as the company has been the network’s primary vendor for years. When Red Star tried to outsource the order to Legacy Athletic, Legacy replied that it “would not be able to produce” the order.
“While Legacy does offer custom logos, we also carefully nurture and protect our brand,” the company said in an email. “One of the ways we keep a positive connotation to the brand is by avoiding doing any products with custom logos that might be deemed as controversial, political, offensive, etc.”
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According to the reply, Legacy neither supported nor opposed Cville Pride, but found that the hat designs constituted “political activism.”
“The reality is that in light of recent events in Charlottesville as well as the fact Gay Pride events are political activism; we respectfully decline this order,” the reply stated. “Again, I hope you can understand our position.”
In a statement sent to The Daily Progress on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for Legacy reasserted the company’s position that the decision was based on branding.
“We want to emphasize Legacy is neither anti-gay nor discriminatory in any way,” the statement read. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The spokesperson said that the company was primarily a “college and resort apparel brand,” and that its guidelines and policies ensured that “we stay committed to our core customer base of college and resort apparel.”
“As a company, our policy is to not take orders that might be deemed controversial or political in nature,” the statement said. “That doesn’t mean we agree or disagree with the organization’s mission, but that we simply want to remain neutral in all situations.”
Cville Pride’s posting expressed disappointment with Legacy’s decision, noting that it was representative of the ways in which expressions of support for equality and pride in the LGBTQ community remain “at risk of facing rejection and denigration.”
Red Star Merchandise also weighed in on the matter, writing to Cville Pride that it shared the network’s disappointment with Legacy’s decision.
“I don’t plan on sending them any further orders and will make others aware,” reads Red Star’s response, posted to Cville Pride’s website. “I definitely do see the need to hold the festival and I am happy that you are leading the charge for the Charlottesville community.”
Amy-Sarah Marshall, president of Cville Pride, said the incident was “very small compared to other things going on in the world, but could be part of ‘death by a thousand cuts,’ so to speak.”
“It just goes to show that people in this community are vulnerable, not just this summer, but this year, and ongoing — and it underscores why we need celebrations like the Pride Festival,” she said in an email.
Marshall expressed gratitude to Red Star for maintaining solidarity with the network and its festival, and derided Legacy for playing politics with the refusal.
“Our ‘gay pride festival’ is not a political activity but a social one that includes people all along the political spectrum,” Marshall said. “To politicize an LGBTQ community event in order to reject our business is not about freedom and choice — it’s about discrimination.”
Dean Seal is a reporter for The Daily Progress. Contact him at (434) 978-7268, dseal@dailyprogress.com or @JDeanSeal on Twitter.