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Tamara Warren posted her multicolored Pride Month wreath on multiple Facebook buy-sell-trade pages last weekend.
Never did the Chicago-area native think for a second it would spark negative responses.
“I did not anticipate all of the hate that came from posting a wreath,” Warren said.
On the Grapevine, Southlake, Colleyville, Coppell Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook group, more than 180 comments have popped up under a picture of the rainbow-colored, bow-bedecked wreath, which was posted for sale for $125. Many of them have nothing to do with interested buyers.
Commenters posted that they were leaving the group, for which they received the standard Facebook response: “This isn’t an airport; no need to announce your departure.” One person asked about purchasing the wreath for “heterosexual month.” But others objected to the anti-gay sentiments.
“One person told me, ’I’m just going to buy it out of spite,’” Warren said.
Warren’s experience comes on the heels of similar stories of businesses getting pushback after promoting Pride Month.
Around the same time as Warren’s post last weekend, news broke that people were protesting a Lufkin bakery’s Pride cookies.
Customers began unfollowing the bakery’s Facebook account, and someone canceled an order of five dozen cookies that had just been decorated.
But, soon, word spread, and Confections bakery began to sell out of baked goods due to an avalanche of support — including from Brian Cuban, the brother of Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark.
As of Tuesday, Warren had sold five of the wreaths, and she said more customers have contacted her for orders for other holidays, including Juneteenth. She says she’s been a crafter her whole life, and is working to build up her business, after moving to North Texas last year.
A few months ago, she began hanging her own creations on her front door, and neighbors began to take note, and interest.
Next month, she hopes to attend the Wreath Makers Live convention in Dallas, she said.
“I make wreaths for every holiday,” Warren said. “In spite of any negative or hate-filled commentary, that’s still not going to stop me from expressing my creativity and share it with the world.”