Windsor woman outraged after dessert store refuses to make custom cake featuring drag queen

A Windsor, Ont. woman says she's outraged after a local dessert store refused to create a custom cake with a photo of a drag queen on it.

Brittany Leroux put in a cake order with T-Bear's Creamery on Thursday afternoon. 

Leroux said the order was for John, her partner. She asked that the cake feature a picture of his favourite drag queen from the TV show, Canada's Drag Race.

The employee she spoke with was unfamiliar with the term drag queen. Leroux said once she explained that it is a man who puts on a performance dressed as a woman, the employee denied her request. 

"I was shocked," said Leroux. 

Leroux said she wanted to make the cake special for her partner, as it was his birthday. She added it was his first birthday as a new father.

"As a new mom and new parents, we want to try to teach our daughter acceptance and understanding," she said. 

Leroux added she later called back and asked to speak to the manager, but the response was not what she expected. 

'These are human beings'

"He started trying to compare drag queens to pedophiles. I was like, 'these are human beings. These are not criminals.'"

CBC News reached out to Don Moore, owner of T-Bear's Creamery, for comment. Moore said he has issued an apology to customers who have called to complain about the incident. 

"I got so many emails last night from the community that I'm not sure who the original person was because it was on the phone. So I don't really know who they were," said Moore. "But we've got, we've already covered that off and we've moved on and we just dealt with it and, and we're good."

Moore would not provide a copy of the apology to CBC.

LGBTQ in Windsor

"I'm now understanding a lot more why Windsor does not have an LGBTQ scene, or if something does pop up, it's short-lived and ends up getting shut down because of either non-support or destruction of property," said Liam Ingram, a Windsor-based drag queen.  

Ingram first read about the incident on social media. Leroux posted about her experience on social media platforms on Thursday. 

"I was flabbergasted," said Ingram. 

Ingram added it's fine for businesses to operate how they choose, but it is not fair to step on the lifestyles of other people. 

"This woman, I'm just assuming, she could be a person of the LGBTQ community," he said. "But even if she was an ally, that's still a person in our community. And you just stepped on her." 

Moore told CBC he has not had problems with the LGBTQ community in the past and some community members have even worked for them.

"This has never been an issue," said Moore. "If we're misunderstood, I guess we're just misunderstood."

Leroux says she has not received a copy of the apology the store claims to have sent out.