Mark Da Costa, the owner of Sydney vegan cafe ‘Hale & Hearty’ says he’s “remorseful” for comments posted by his Facebook business page about the LGBTQI+ community.
Twitter users posted screenshots, alleging the business had used a homophobic slur against someone on Facebook and posted an Instagram story declaring his cafe to be a “straight Sydney safe zone”.
Da Costa said trouble for his business began after he declared himself to be a pro-Trump supporter.
“I had some Donald Trump posts that were in the nature of supporting him. That started the attack on my business and myself,” he said.
Da Costa said he later decided to come “out of the closet as a Trump supporter” and made a post describing his business as a Trump “safe zone”.
“TODAY WE ANNOUNCE that we are a @realdonaldtrump safe zone. A place to discuss what’s in your heart without prejudice,” Mr Da Costa wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, October 29.
Da Costa received thousands of angry messages after this post, and as insults were traded he says he made a homophobic slur against someone which he said had been made “out of anger”.
Da Costa has expressed remorse for the posts and said his support of Trump does not mean he "hates" the LGBTQI+ community.
He said he’s received thousands of “vulgar” messages after someone from “the intersectional vegan community” shared screenshots from his private Facebook account onto groups with thousands of members, calling on them to boycott his company.
“My inbox -- I basically can’t keep up with the abuse from the gay community and the intersectional vegan community.”
Da Costa told The Feed that since making the original Trump support post he’s also received photos of men’s genitalia and was forced to file a police report after a man spat in his face and hurled an insult at him at his cafe.
Hale and Hearty is a plant-based cafe in Sydney. Source: Instagram/Hale&Hearty
“Spitting on someone is disgusting but during COVID, it’s atrocious,” Da Costa said.
“I grew up in Surry Hills and I feel unsafe here. I’ve got the gay community walking past my windows and sticking their fingers up at staff,” he added.
Da Costa claims he’s been attacked “left, right and centre”.
“I have not been attacked because of my political views, my family has been attacked because of our freedom of speech,” he told The Feed.
So, what happens when politics and business mix?
Dr Ben Bramble is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the Australian National University.
He told The Feed consumers are increasingly concerned about the ethical stances of businesses and want to support companies that “espouse similar values to their own”.
This concern is “entirely reasonable”, according to Dr Bramble, who believes that by buying a business’ products, “you are in effect financing them and empowering them in the world”.
Luke Mansillo, a political sociology expert at the University of Sydney, believes politics and business cannot be easily separated.
He told The Feed that commercial imperatives often drive companies to make political statements.
But he claims businesses have to also realise “there could be negative and positive consequences” for expressing political views.
“You may piss off a bunch of people, but then you may gain support from others,” Mr Mansillo added.
While Dr Bramble believes companies have a moral responsibility to promote “the right sorts of political or ethical messages”, Mr Mansillo is concerned about the implications of society fracturing into “red and blue shops”.
“As we polarise and we segregate ourselves into red shops and blue shops, we never meet people who are dissimilar to us and we will build up greater animus towards each other,” he told The Feed.
“Eventually we will find ourselves in a less robust democracy because we’ve separated ourselves into tribes that live in different worlds and shop in different places.”
