The Charlottesville Pride Community Network was recently denied a clothing order from Legacy Clothing Company. The clothing brand refused to produce a hat model with the “Y’all Means All” logo for the city’s 6th annual Cville Pride Festival on September 16th, which celebrates the local LGBTQ community.
According to the Cville Pride Festival Director, Lisa Greene, the group placed the order through a local vendor called Red Star Merchandise.
Greene said it took an abnormal amount of time for her to hear back from the company and when she did, Red Star informed her that Legacy had decided to “respectfully decline the order”.
Here is the direct statement from Legacy:
“I am sorry for the delay, this is a design that we would not be able to produce. While Legacy does offer custom logos, we also carefully nurture and protect our brand. One of the ways we keep a positive connotation to the brand, is by avoiding doing any products with custom logos that might be deemed as controversial, political, offensive, etc. This does not in any way mean that we either support or do not support the organization making the request, but the reality is that in light of recent events in Charlottesville as well as the fact Gay Pride events are political activism; we respectfully decline this order. Again, I hope you can understand our position.”
Red Star Merchandise was “shocked and appalled” at Legacy’s response to the order, Greene mentioned.
She felt that this was “not the truth” and a “cop out” by the company. Legacy, Greene believed, “took a stab at Charlottesville” and “the University needs to take a stand.”
At this point, Cville Pride has not yet contacted the University of Virginia. Several community members however, have reached out to Legacy to express their discontent about this social justice issue.
