Gay entrepreneur Dan Floyd, owner of the cookie company Dan Good Cookies, has posted a video in which a woman harasses him at the Livermore Farmers’ Market in Livermore, CA over passing out Pride Flags. The woman in question happens to be Gail Hayden, director of the California Farmers’ Market Association.
The footage shows Hayden confronting him about passing out the flags, claiming that her daughter Kayla had witnessed “little kids poking each other with them, using them as swords.”
Related: Gay man who exposed skincare CEO ‘Karen’ speaks out: “She’s willing to call men with guns”
“I don’t even care what the flags are for,” Hayden claimed. “This person may have an issue about ‘xyz.’ I’ve been in places for 40 years where they bring out fetuses and put ’em on ironing boards. My job is to run the market, not to satisfy your political point of view.” Hayden claimed that Floyd had violated Farmer’s Market regulations by distributing the flags, specifically a prohibition against distributing flyers or petitions.
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“I definitely felt scared, and I definitely felt scared for my business,” Floyd told NBC News. “It definitely felt like the flags and what they represent were the target of her tirade.”
“She became very confrontational,” Floyd added. “Very condescending about the entire thing.”
Hayden has since apologized for the encounter, as has the Livermore Farmers’ Market Association. She’s also resigned as director of the California Farmers’ Market Association.
Floyd, for his part, has said he will not return to the Livermore Market. Meanwhile, Dan Good Cookies has experienced a flood of orders thanks to the attention generated by the video.
“I am experiencing too many emotions and being bombarded with too many phone calls and messages to say it any other way,” Floyd wrote on the Dan’s Good Cookies website. “Thank you for your support over these last few days. I never could have imagined people from my Livermore community and beyond would respond to this situation in such large numbers.”
Chrisk
I got to say the guy had allot more patience for Karen’s barely veiled bigotry on display there. The fetus on a ironing board analogy was laughable.
GayEGO
Well Karen, what would you say if the flags were the American flag and the kids were poking each other with them?
ShowMeGuy
That would give her an orgasm.
MISTERJETT
if people would start giving these “karens” the beatdowns that they’re asking for, they’ll stop.
Mack
I’m glad that they’re not being employed. I don’t know if she left her job voluntarily or was forced to leave but at least she’s not there any more.
sgc208
This market is near my home and on my way to my parents home. Never supporting again!
TMBisAOK
Did you even read the story? No reason to not support the rest of the vendors because this Karen will no longer be in charge because of her actions and the Market as a whole apologized. I can understand this vendor not wanting to return to such a traumatizing place, but you?
stanhope
That might have been good enough last month but no longer! Go, ask to see her, express your disapproval. Write a letter to whoever REALLY runs it. Be active, not passive. ENGAGE!
Mr-DJ
So one of her key issues was that he was pushing a political statement, by handing out free pride flags to whoever wanted them. How was that not the focus of his response, that a person’s very existence should never be considered political. If someone thinks it is, it only is – in their own mind.
Would she stop someone from giving out free water? Couldn’t that be seen as making a statement about the EPA?
And what giving out little American Flags? THAT flag is political statement by it’s very creation.
One of the purposes of those rainbow flags is that they represent a coalition of humans from all walks of life. This is very closely related to very idea of the market itself, which is a coalition of a wide variety of vendors coming together with one common purpose.
(And why do all of these ‘Karen’s’ seem to look alike and dress alike?)
Neoprene
I must not get out and about enough. I’ve never been to a place where they bring fetuses out on ironing boards and she’s been seeing it for at least 40 years.
skyboy63
MISTERJETT for the win.
winemaker
it seems there are a lot of people who evidently don’t have much going for themselves, have a lot of free time on their hands and need to dictate how other people should live and this lady is just one of those people. I would have told her to mind her owned damned business and if that didn’t shut her up i would have told her to kiss my a**. This might be blunt but dealing with people like this, they deserve little else, This happened in Livermore California, 40 about miles east of San Francisco. The guy was giving out small pride flags and this lady had a problem . Goes to show you too many busybodies around even here in liberal California..
Neoprene
But Karens live by a strict code which is: No rule is too insignificant to apply to somebody else!
Aires the Ram
Nothing wrong with him displaying a pride flag at his stand at this market. But the rule, [“Hayden claimed that Floyd had violated Farmer’s Market regulations by distributing the flags, specifically a prohibition against distributing flyers or petitions.”], was broken by “passing out” the flags”. Small nuance yes, but nobody would’ve had a problem if he had just had a pride flag attached to his cookie stand. Why push things like this when the rules & regulations are otherwise? I mean, a gay-owned and operated stand at a farmers market is a great thing, I certainly support it, but when you cross the line from being a gay-owned & operated business amongst many other stands, to me, that’s promoting an agenda. I personally do not believe a farmers market is the place for such things, no matter the subject.
Cam
And here is the right wing troll account that always defends anti-LGBT bigots, right on schedule to try to deflect from the bigot.
1898
since when is a flag a flyer or petition? gotta say in all my years on this earth i’ve never seen flags used as flyers or petitions
Max
she said he couldn’t talk to her that way. self-entitled and controlling, isn’t she?
and mentioning fetuses? she’s go other agendas against the world and their free choices.
Cam
The insinuation was that anything saying LGBT people should exist was offensive and how DARE he bring that in front of the FARMERS!
Hey Karen, in an area that close to San Francisco just who do you think is BUYING the expensive organic food at the Farmer’s Market?
As for her, wow, she had to resign from the statewide Farmer’s Market association. Keep making bigotry expensive!
ChrisGMN
Is it bad that I’m kinda interested in going to a farmer’s market where the bring out fetuses (feti?) and put them on ironing boards? Are they on a stick?
ShowMeGuy
Clearly, I’ve been going to the wrong farmers markets.
Let’s do a field trip.
ShowMeGuy
In short….. Gail Hayden is a fauxmerican and a rabid cow.
Kevan1
F_ck the old B_tch!