Dear Paul,
I received your email correspondence to my new merch store recently. Thank you for your message.
It seems like you were upset about the special shirt designs I made for the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate Pride month.
In your reply, you said: “T-shirt’s for everyone apart from straight people? Take me off your fucking email list you heterophobe.“
I’ve redacted the profanity since it’s unnecessary to subject the rest of my subscribers to your language. Also, heterophobia isn’t a thing.
I wish I could make this letter funnier so that the 50,000+ people who read this would find it a little more entertaining but I find no humor in your sad and pathetic message.
I usually give people the benefit of the doubt. You may have had a bad day. Maybe somebody cut you off in traffic and your knee jerk reaction was to lash out at me. Maybe you had to wait in an exhaustingly long line at Costco. Or maybe it was especially uncomfortable in the closet that day and the clutter was really driving you crazy but you couldn’t push yourself to come out.
But unfortunately, our industry is bad enough already, filled with too many curmudgeons and angry engineers online lashing out at the newbies who only want to learn for me to give you any benefit of the doubt.
Audio Issues has zero tolerance for prejudice against the LGBTQ community (or any marginalized community for that matter), and I honestly can’t believe we’re still discussing the fact that you should be nice to other people. It’s not that hard. We have LGBTQ readers as well as team members and I consider it my duty as an ally to support them whenever possible.
I owe a debt of gratitude to LGBTQ community. If it wasn’t for “the gays” I never would’ve met my wife so I can confidently say that some of the greatest moments of my life are directly attributed to being an ally and a friend. Fighting on their behalf doesn't just help them, but it also makes the world a better place for my daughter to grow up in.
I have considered many routes in which to deal with you. Unsubscribing you was one avenue although I believe you have the power to do that yourself. Getting into a debate with you was another, but I realized that your toxic views deserve no personal attention.
So I’m gonna put on my Judge Judy robe and make an example out of you.
Before I take you off my list and banish you to Lil Nas X’s idea of hell, I thought I should tell you that my
limited edition Fader Pride shirts are quickly becoming our best-selling items so at the end of the month I will be donating all the profits from the shirts
to Southern Arizona’s Aids Foundation in your name.
You get what you give you sad sorry little stràkur.
Sincerely,
Bjorgvin Benediktsson
CEO | Audio Issues
P.S.
If you share his views I invite you to please unsubscribe. There is no room for your bigotry here. And if you feel the need to reply and lash out at me, know that your name will simply be added to the donation.
P.P.S.
If, on the other hand, you'd like to share this message, the shareable blog post can be found
here.
