DIY giant Wickes is facing a boycott campaign and tumbling share price after its Chief Operating Officer said shoppers with trans-critical views are “bigots” who “are not welcome in our stores anyway”. The Mail has the story.
Wickes, one of Britain’s largest suppliers of home improvement products, controversially carried a float at Brighton Pride last year with the slogan “No LGB without the T”.
Yesterday, Fraser Longden, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, took part in an online trans summit hosted by Pink News and sponsored by EY [Ernst & Young].
Mr. Longden said: “I don’t think I’m ever going to change some of the bigots minds, I’m never going to win that argument with them, so we were doing [the Pride float] to show support to the community.”
His comment provoked a furious backlash online and Wickes’ share price is currently down five points (–4.25%) today.
Mr. Longden said most of the population is in a “sort of slightly ignorant but mostly kind position”.
Responding to threats of a boycott, he added: “The other 10% you know, they’re just hot air and they will go and buy a tin of paint in the nearest place to them. That might have been us before, it might not be us afterwards – and equally, if they do come in and buy a tin of paint and behave that way, they’re not welcome in our stores anyway.” …
Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, who has campaigned for the rights of women and girls in sport, criticised Mr. Longden’s comments.
She tweeted: “So Wickes thinks anyone in the U.K. that thinks biological females deserve fair and safe sport is a bigot! That’s an lawful lot of mums, dads, grandparents, brothers and of course females who’ll be taking their bigoted business elsewhere.”
James Esses, an ex-trainee child therapist who was thrown off his university degree for holding gender critical views, said: “These offensive, divisive and discriminatory remarks are an absolute outrage. I wonder how the majority of Wickes’ customers would feel, knowing its senior management holds them in such disdain?”
Twitter owner Elon Musk reacted to Mr Esses’ tweet with a simple “!!”
The wokerati just can’t help shooting themselves in the foot with their right-on authoritarianism, can they?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: James Esses tweets: “I’m told that @Wickes has sent this email to all staff members. It calls Longden a ‘passionate supporter and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community’ and alleges his ‘comments were taken out of context’. The video is there for all to see. It clearly takes its customers for mugs.”
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