A coffee chain owned by Coca-Cola is facing boycott calls in the UK over its use of promotional material that features a cartoon image of a transgender person with prominent scars from surgical breast removal.
Costa Coffee, a leading coffee shop chain in the UK, used the cartoon-like mural on the side of a Costa Express van, with critics saying it glorifies life-changing gender reassignment surgery and fuels gender dysphoria.
“You are promoting the mutilation of healthy young girls,” Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox wrote in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I hope you are boycotted out of existence.”
Mr. Fox punctuated his post with the hashtag #BoycottCostaCoffee.
Dear @CostaCoffee You are promoting the mutilation of healthy young girls. I hope you are boycotted out of existence.#BoycottCostaCoffee pic.twitter.com/cphbdAkbZ3 — Laurence Fox (@LozzaFox) July 31, 2023
Mr. Fox’s post calling for a boycott was viewed more than 3 million times, with numerous other users weighing in with scathing criticism of the mural—many asserting that it promotes child mutilation.
Costa Defends Use of Image
Costa Coffee didn’t immediately respond to a request from The Epoch Times for comment on the boycott call. However, the company defended its decision to use the illustration in support of “inclusivity” in a statement to UK news outlet Evening Standard.
“At Costa Coffee, we celebrate the diversity of our customers, team members, and partners,” a company spokesperson told the outlet.
“We want everyone that interacts with us to experience the inclusive environment that we create, to encourage people to feel welcomed, free, and unashamedly proud to be themselves. The mural, in its entirety, showcases and celebrates inclusivity.”
There were some supportive voices on social media. Dr. Helen Webberley, who runs a private clinic providing gender-change procedures for children in the UK, called top surgery “completely routine and normal.”
But the bulk of reactions on the X platform appeared to be sharply critical.
By Tom Ozimek
