World’s second largest coffee chain becomes the target of an anti-LGBTQ+ campaign

Anti-LGBTQ+ social media users are threatening to boycott Costa Coffee, the UK’s largest coffee chain and the world’s second largest coffee chain after Starbucks, in response to a campaign showing a trans person with scars from a double mastectomy (also known as top surgery) drinking coffee. The illustration appeared on the Costa Express coffee vans and some users took issue saying the company was promoting ‘mutilation’.

The #BoycottCostaCoffee campaign follows suit with a broader online mobilisation that has been seen recently targeting corporate companies for their open support of the LGBTQ+ community. Although thus far most of the companies targeted were based in the US, this boycott campaign against Costa Coffee exemplifies how this phenomenon is extending abroad.

NBC News reported on this and referenced ISD’s report ‘A year of Hate: Understanding Threats and Harassment Targeting Drag Shows and the LGBTQ+ Community’ to emphasise the transnational nature of this anti-LGBTQ+ tactic.

The report is available on our website along with our research findings specifically on the UK and the US.