By Kendell Worden, KSM GM
I can sense the eyerolls coming at me through the series of tubes. “Oh, how original. Performative allyship in service of promoting consumerism during Pride Month. Never seen that one before!”
If you’ve stepped foot in a Hop City, though, you know there is a yawning chasm between the rainbow washing your “friendly, neighborhood” multinational financial services holding company engages in and the year-round commitment to loving and supporting LGBTQIA+ people that the humans of Hop City live authentically.
I have worked for companies - small businesses, even - that navigate the waters of capitalism oriented to the “value” that “all money is green.” They are cautious never to offend to the point of total vapidity. That kind of opportunistic amorality is not just gross; it’s plain stupid. Especially when chatbots and megacorporations are increasingly inescapable, consumers hunger for that human touch. Humans are messy, opinionated, and paradoxical, but when we are at our best, we find our community, and we take care of those within it, particularly those who are marginalized.
That central ethos has been a massive contributor to my two-year tenure with Hop City, and my several colleagues who have been tenured much longer would undoubtedly say the same. I’m going to avoid tokenism in specifically highlighting my multitudinous queer coworkers, but, again, if you’ve stepped foot in our space, you know how we do!
There are lots of small, scrappy breweries and brewpubs that provide intentionally welcoming, warm spaces for all. For just one (conveniently located) example, woman-owned/operated Awkward Brewing down in Fayetteville is just a 12-minute spirited hop from our Trilith-based Hop City location and its sister restaurant, Barleygarden. But there are also legacy regional breweries who consistently devote their considerable financial resources towards materially supporting LGBTQIA+ folks.
Allagash is well known for its commitment to environmental protection - how could they not be driven to fiercely protect the postcard-worthy natural gorgeousness that is Maine? - but they have also stood firmly arm-in-arm with the queer community for decades. In observance of their B-Corp charter, Allagash donates 1% of its revenue annually to nonprofits that align with their values, one of which is EqualityMaine, the state’s oldest and largest LGBTQIA+ political advocacy organization.
Obviously, Allagash has also been focused and intentional about crafting hiring policies that maximize diverse representation across all departments and ensuring that their public-facing spaces are safe and fun for everyone.
I doubt anyone is surprised to hear that New Belgium are also industry stalwarts who have been putting their money where their mouth is in terms of lifting up members of the queer community. Co-founder Kim Jordan was a social worker before her long tenure as CEO, and as far back as the 1990s, she crafting radically (at the time) supportive policies like offering health benefits for domestic partners. They were the first brewery in the nation to create a director-level position focused on “diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging,” and they shared the fruits of their DEIB initiatives in the form of Poured for All, a free online resource for bars and breweries to design gathering spaces that are “inviting to people with LGBTQ+, BIPOC and intersectional identities who are currently underrepresented in craft beer spaces and elsewhere.”
So! Now you know there are two American craft breweries whose products are, firstly, world-class, and, secondly, available in almost literally every bar, bottle shop, and convenience store, whose values are as unimpeachable as their beverage quality.
