LGBTQ+ Pride is celebrated globally throughout the month of June each year. While global humanitarianism for the LGBTQ+ community has become a part of the zeitgeist – as social issues and equality make even further progress – there are some businesses in the world of tea that extend their support to marginalized groups throughout the year.
To see how the tea industry can create a permanent, inclusive place for the LGBTQ+ workforce – that’s supportive all year round – World Tea News spoke with Miro Tea in Seattle, Wash. and World Tea House in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
‘I Love Tea and I Love People’
Miro Tea is a Seatlle tea room that’s been a long-standing destination for LGBTQ+ workers and customers. In fact, it’s a highly beloved tearoom among Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community.
Jeannie Liu, who opened Miro Tea in 2007 and has run it since, said, “I love tea and I love people. I grew up around small business my whole life. That intersection of business, people and tea was the catapult of starting my own business.”
Liu said she helped her family open their last business 20+ years ago. “When I was in college, I had helped them open and run one of the first bubble-tea businesses in Seattle,” she said.
After learning about business via trial and error and helping her family run theirs – in addition to managing a coffee shop in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district – she used her knowledge and applied it to Miro Tea.
“Capitol Hill is the neighborhood of the queer community in Seattle,” said Liu. “A large number of my employees were of the queer community...”
While managing a coffee shop that hired all corners of the LGBTQ+ spectrum, Lui quickly got immersed with the communities struggles and stories.“I felt some sort of camaraderie with their life and issues… I became intimately familiar of my staff, who were LGBTQ+ in some form or another,” said Liu, who explained that to become a better ally, she has focused on utilizing her listening skills. She said this is how she best made herself aware of the struggles of the queer community that surrounded her.
Liu said that as a member of the Asian-American community, she has often found similarities with the queer community in regards to struggles of being a part of a marginalized group. However, as far as translating that into Miro Tea as a business, Liu said that seeking the LGBTQ+ community wasn’t something that she sought out. Rather, it came to be on its own.
“It just kind of happened,” she said. “As far as it being at the forefront of my mind – as to who I was seeking out to hire – it wasn’t something I did.”
When asking her about how she managed to retain a queer workforce, Liu explained that all it takes is the ability to listen to your employees with compassion.
She also explained that a key part of leading and uplifting a queer employee base is having a fundamental understanding that they’re a part of a marginalized group that comes with its own set of struggles – that it’s important to be considerate of that.
“To hire somebody who is different from yourself and expect them to be the same as you, or to have the same kind of ideas or ways of doing things, is not what you should be expecting,” revealed Liu. “Inclusivity is to open your own mind and open your heart to the diversity of people that are out there….If they are going through a particular struggle, to give them space to have the bandwidth to be able to develop and grow,” said Liu. “So many of my LGBTQ+ employees have struggled with depression, and some of my transgender employees have struggled with suicidal thoughts and tendencies — which comes from that history of being marginalized.”
Liu pointed out that some of these issues are hard and can interfere with an employee’s work life. To better support those with these struggles, she said that it’s important to encourage them to take the time to care for themselves and welcome them back with job security. It’s one of the most supportive things she does for her staff, she said.
‘People Are People’
What are others in the tea industry doing to support the sustainability of an LGBTQ+ workforce or customer base?
Phil Holmans, who owns and operates World Tea House in Halifax, Canada, has been supportive of the LGBTQ+ community since opening his tea shop in 2010.
“People are people,” Holmans explained, when asked how World Tea House stays supportive of the queer community. To him, subtleties make the biggest impression.
“We have a non-gender bathroom; that is a big thing," he said. “Wash rooms shouldn’t have ‘male’ or ‘female’ written on them. We don’t have [gender specific] bathrooms in our house. We also have pride flags hanging in the shop all year around. It’s a part of our decor. It signals to the queer community that this is a safe space.”
Holmans revealed that there’s an important caveat to flying the pride flag only during pride, as doing so can be inadvertently disingenuous.
“A lot of bars in this neighborhood will be queer friendly for the one to two weeks a year [in June] and will be supportive when there’s parades,” said Holmans. “And all of the sudden, they’re not… I hope people see through that.”
Both Holmans and Liu made similar statements, saying it’s hard to detail how they’re inclusive because it just comes natural to them. For them, the idea of being supportive and listening to the marginalized communities around them is something that should be a given.
They also both made mention to their companies donating funds to queer-driven charities throughout the year, and that sometimes you have to show support past being vocally-supportive.
Overall, the commonality between Liu and Holmans is their strong intent to listen and be supportive to marginalized groups – regardless of time of year. Indeed, the best way to support marginalized groups is to listen, have an open heart, and help create solutions that are both productive and supportive.
Liu and Holmans – who are both leaders within their respective local communities – are proof that the tea industry can take steps to make a big difference in the lives of the LGBTQ+ community – not just during the month of June but all year round.
For additional insights on how to support the LGBTQ+ community through your business, here’s an insightful article from Macaulay Honors College in New York, which covers some of the key points.
World Tea News contributor Cody Wade, also known by his blog name, "The Oolong Drunk," has been tea blogger and tea educator for seven years. His passion for tea started with oolongs, but he has grown to appreciate every aspect of the tea industry. He's also given lectures and presented at the Houston Tea Festival, the Mid-West Tea Festival and the World Tea Conference + Expo, and he notes that he's enthusiastic with his passion for tea education and bringing people together to make the community stronger.
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