As many continue to accuse it of waging a war against Christmas, coffee giant Starbucks is taking steps to ensure that all members of Seattle's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have a safe space in the areas' 97 stores by establishing "LGBT safe spaces."
The coffee company will partner with the Seattle Police Department and its Safe Place program, an initiative aimed at training 2,000 Starbucks employees on how to respond to and engage with LGBT victims of violence and effectively communicate with police when reporting LGBT hate crimes, according to The Seattle Times.
"We don't have roving bands of people assaulting LBGT people as we did in the '80s," openly gay Seattle police officer Jim Ritter said, according to The Huffington Post. "[But] the crimes are predatory, they're picking somebody out of the herd. They're cowards for the most part... They're opportunistic, they do their damage and leave. They like operating in the shadows and Safe Place eliminates a lot of those shadows."
Starbucks has a history of support for and solidarity with the LGBT community. Not only did the organization raise a Pride flag over its Seattle headquarters in 2014, CEO Howard Schultz canceled an appearance at the Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois in 2011 after learning that the church had an association with a conversion or "ex-gay" therapy program. The company also released its first LGBT commercial in 2014 featuring drag queens Bianca Del Rio and Adore Delano, according to Advocate.
"We're already a part of our customers's lives and ... this is another way to be part of the community," Starbucks' Seattle regional director Heather Jennings said. "Anyone who needs a place to go to feel safe, to call the police, we want to be there for them."
