A Kentucky barbecue food truck owner is facing a great deal of backlash after he started advertising LGBTQ T-shirts to promote his business.
You might ask: “Since when do people face backlash when they sell ‘LGBTQ’ shirts?”
Well, they face backlash when they use their freedom of speech and switch the meaning of the well known acronym for what they believe in.
Instead of the shirt expressing support for the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer” association, Jamie Smith, the owner of Belle’s Smoking BBQ, changed the meaning to “Liberty, Guns, Bible, Trump, and BBQ.”
Smith has been selling the shirts for two years, but only recently advertised them on Facebook to increase his profits.
“I posted the shirt today for new swag and it just went out of hand and it got blowed up,” Smith told Fox 19.
As the news outlet reports:
The message he posted on Facebook stated: “We are going to stock up on some Swag. Hat and shirts. Let me know what yall want via text message. We are going to have our traditional Belles shirts, trucker hats. We will also have our LGBTQ shirts as well Belle’s logo on the back. For those who said (wtf)”
His post went viral and that’s when the offended came out and attacked.
“Simple BIGOTRY,” someone posted. “Sad commentary for a business.. good luck going broke!”
Smith backed down after the liberal outrage mob came after him and posted an apology statement to quell their fury.
“We apologize if we have offended any groups of people, organizations or individuals with our shirts,” he wrote. “We respect all beliefs and lifestyles and want no ill will towards anyone. We know each person has their own thoughts and beliefs but we are hurt that the people who are saying, ‘stop the hate’ are the ones coming at us with the harassing messages and threatening phone calls. Again we apologize for any hurt feelings and thank our supporters who truly know us."
Despite the disapproval of the select few, Smith has sold out of his T-shirts and still has more on backorder so these shirts don’t look to be going anywhere any time soon.