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NEWS Wednesday November 5, 2014 » Daf,o ^ LGBTQIA Businesses in NC are Open \SP£R I Senior Reporter Diane Groff of Durham is a lesbian and co-owner at the Other End of the Leash, a pet boutique with an in-store bakery. Simone Jasper and Michael Papicli Senior Reporter and Assistant News Editor North Carolina, like the United States at large, has gone through an unprecedent ed change in the past decades when it comes to attitudes toward people who identify as 1 -GlCrOJA. Rut like the spread of acceptance in the United States, North Carolina has not been affected evenly. In cities like C'liapel Mill and Carrboro, openly gay and lesbian officials are elected to high office. And yet, 61 percent of state voters supported a constitutioniil amendment ban ning same-sex miirriage. Public officids like North Carolina Attor ney General Rov Cooper are no longer sup porting or enforcing laws that discriminate against the LGBTQIA community. But gay- straight ;\lliances in public high schools, even in places like Orange County, arc stiU being blocked or shut dowii. Just as attitudes across North Ciirolina rar)' from place to place when it comes to the LGlfPQIA community, so do attitudes to ward businesses that are LGBTQlA-mn or I ,GBTQ]A-triendly. Diane Groff, co-owner of the Other End of the Leash in Durham s;iid she hasn’t faced many challeng's for l>eing gay. “In Durham weX^c had nothing but unbe- licN'able welcome from both gav and stnught people," Groff said. “We haven’t seen any chal lenges, besides the ones we face as smiiU busi ness OAvners.” Similarly, Sharon Collins is the co-owner of Balloons and Tunes, a piirty store and specialty biilloon provider in Carrboro. Collins is open ly gay and runs Bkilloons and Tunes with her p.u’tner. “We have not found that our identity as les bians has been an issue at all in our business. I’ve never once had a negative experience be cause of that,” Collins said. “We find that the thing that makes our business successful for as many years as we’ve been successful is that we have a product that people want. We offer ser vice that is exceptional and people keep coming back.” Collins said anti-LGBTQIA attitudes ex ist in North Carolina but attributed the lack of negativity regarding her sexual orientation to her store’s location. “Tiere’s always, to me, a small subgoup of people who iire prejudiced and, in my opinion closed-minded. There’s always going to be that vocal minority who gets a lot of attention,” she said. “But especially in the Triangle and Chapel HiU/ Carrboro area where I am, it’s a very in clusive communit}'. In contrast, there’s Replacements, Ltd., whose showroom and main headquarters iue located in McLeansviJle, about 20 min utes west of Burlingon. Replacements is the world's largest provider of china and sffi^erware and carries complete sets of various designs, al lowing customers to “replace” a piece they may be missing. Bob Page is CEO and founder of Re placements. Not only is Page openly gay, but he donated money to fight North Carolina’s Amendment One and used Replacement’s var ious electronic billboards to host anti-Amend- ment One ads. “My partner and I have been together for nearly 40 years and we’ve adopted two sons. There are so many families like us in the state that deserve to be treated with respect under the law,” Page said. Page’s open support made Replacements a singular voice among large corporations in North Carolina and the business got letters from customers saying how upset they were by the company’s position and that they would never buy from Replacements again. Some forms of protest got closer than just letters, like anti-gay graffiti on part of the company’s property. “There was one woman who drove her truck to Replacements and had it parked to block the entrance,” he said. “No one was hurt and she was gone by the time the police came, but for about 30 minutes, no one could get in to the store.” Businesses and history Businesses run by openly LGBTQIA op erators are relatively new in the United States. Mary Jo Festle, the Maude Sharpe Powell pro fessor of history at Elon University, said this didn’t really start until the Stonewall Riots in 1969. “Before, there would be businesses in the West that would be on the down-low, but peo ple in the area would know,” Festle said. After Stonewall, there was a rise in bars, ath letic teams, concert areas and especially book stores that were run by openly LGBTQIA people instead of closeted ones. Those busi nesses relied on the LGBT(2A community as a consumer base and would try to pro\hde services others could not. “There would be bookstores that would have a tiny gay section in the back and then there would be bookstores where it would be obvious the minute you walk in that it’s cater ing to the LGBTQIA community,” Festle said. “Anyone in the neighborhood would know about it, but they’d also know who walks in, and you’d need customers who had the nerve • to be seen walking in.” In this same vein, Collins said her openness about her identity has drawn business from other members of the LGBTQIA community. “I think that on a small level, some people call on us because they know that we are gay- and lesbian-owned,”she said. “We do events for gay pride. And I think that there is a loyalty in the community so that, when given the alterna tive, you choose someone you want to support. And hopefully members of the LGBTQIA comrhunity choose us.” For owners like Page, running a busi ness where they are free to openly identify as LGBTQIA has other benefits. “We have many wonderful employees who are openly LGBTC^A, and I want them to not feel uncomfortable while they’re here and feel like they can be themselves,” he said. In the South, the growth of LGBTQIA- owned businesses is much smaller compared to places like New York’ City and San Frandsco. Festle said not only is the South generally more conservative as a result of the patriarchal soci ety set up through slavery, but Southern states also have smaller cities. “Big cities tend to have more diversity and more space for differences,” she said. “It’s not surprising that the South would have fewer LGBTQIA businesses and less of a commu nity.” Page attributed part of North Carolina’s lack of openly-LGBTQIA business, compared to northern and western states, to religious ex tremism and what he described as the “hate speech” that comes with it. “It doesn’t seem very Christian to me,” he
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