Updated June 15, 2023, at 9:07 am.
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh updated their statement Wednesday afternoon indicating where their donations will be sent.
“This past Sunday’s sales will be donated to the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation. We will also be donating 100% of proceeds from our Pride shirt sales and vendor fees from our Arts and Drafts event to the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation.”
QBurgh will follow up with Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation on the total amount of that donation.
Updated June 6, 2023, at 8:07 am.
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh posted the following statement late Friday afternoon to their social media channels:
“We have been actively listening to all of our consumers and employees and understand the impact that canceling an event like the Drag Brunch due to a scheduling conflict, has on our community, especially during Pride Month. We sincerely value all of our consumers and communities and did not mean to imply that one group or event is more important or more welcome in our taprooms than another.“
“Our error was not a reflection on our feelings as a company for the LGBTQIA+ community, and we sincerely apologize. As a show of our support for the community, we’ll be closed until 3pm this Sunday so that our employees can attend the show to show their support. Once we are open at 3 pm, all sales will be donated to a local non-profit organization.“
Multiple sources have reported to QBurgh that Southern Tier Brewing’s parent company Artisanal Brewing Ventures CEO John Coleman will be in Pittsburgh on Tuesday to meet with staff of the Pittsburgh taproom. Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh has not indicated which local non-profit organization will receive the donation of sales from Sunday.
Original article.
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh kicked off Pride month with social media posts touting their new Pride-inspired t-shirts available for sale in their taproom and promising “100% of the proceeds to Central Outreach Wellness Center.” The merchandise pitch was followed with an announcement on social media on June 4 that Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh was partnering with Central Outreach for an “Arts & Drafts” event later in June. A drag brunch with Pittsburgh drag artist Danielle Attme was scheduled for Sunday, June 11. All fairly standard things that the LGBTQ community is used to seeing pop up in June. Things that followed, however, were all but standard.
By June 6, the rainbow capitalism and facade of support for the LGBTQ community became transparent.
Tuesday morning Danielle Attme received a call from Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh informing her that the drag brunch scheduled for five days later was canceled. “I got a call from area manager ‘Jim’ Tuesday morning and he told me the brunch was canceled. He was very transparent about it being a profit or a ‘business’ decision. He said that the store needed revenue and wanted that revenue to come from the baseball game patrons,” Danielle said.
“When I insisted we had enough tickets sold for there to be enough paying customers, he made it clear the decision was final.”
Attme sprang into action. 80 tickets had already been sold for the show and queens from Pittsburgh and Cleveland were already booked to perform. “Voodoo Brewery Homestead, namely Addison and Ray, were sensitive and quick when it came to taking over this event. I can’t thank them enough for allowing the show to continue at Voodoo Brewery Homestead,” Attme explained.
Once Attme ensured her artists were booked and blessed with a new venue, she took to social media to vent her frustrations with Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh. The post blew up and with it more things began to unravel.
QBurgh reached out to Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh on Tuesday evening and received this statement on Wednesday:
Thank you for reaching out — we are actively listening to all of our consumers and understand the impact that canceling an event like Drag Brunch has on our community, especially during Pride Month. We sincerely value all our consumers and communities and did not mean to imply that one group or event is more important or more welcome in our taprooms than another. Southern Tier would not be the company that it is without mutual support from our local communities.
We regret the unclear communication surrounding the cancellation of this event: we have a standing open-door policy on game and event days where we do not host any ticketed events so that we can welcome as many guests as possible. We made an error in scheduling a ticketed event during one of our open-door days, but want to reassure you that the show was compensated to not lose any revenue due to our scheduling mistake and we hope to reschedule. We also want to reassure our community that this cancellation had nothing to do with this specific event and what it stands for, and this was simply due to our standing event policy.
We promise to work hard to make sure scheduling errors like this do not happen again. We ask for your understanding that this mistake does not reflect any Southern Tier beliefs and we look forward to welcoming everyone into our taprooms.
Thank you
“From a PR standpoint, this gets an A+ but from a community standpoint, it’s obvious this company values profit over community,” Attme said in response to Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh’s statement.
As the situation made the rounds across the community, Central Outreach became aware of the social media posts made by Souther Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh earlier in the month claiming fundraising and event collaboration and chimed in.
“Central Outreach is a for-profit medical clinic. If you want to donate to Central Outreach, donate to our non-profit arm— Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation. Further, this post is the first notice of any such program with Southern Tier,” Central’s Facebook and Instagram accounts commented on Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh’s posts.
QBurgh reached out to Central Outreach Wellness Center to confirm that they were unaware of Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh’s fundraiser and event supposedly planned in collaboration with them.
“I can confirm we were completely unaware of Arts and Drafts prior to the social media posts about it,” said Alexander Young, Director of Marketing for Central Outreach Wellness Center.
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh’s social media posts have been edited to remove tags to Central Outreach Wellness Center and also no longer claim that 100% of proceeds of their t-shirts go to Central.
A little over a week into Pride month and it appears that Southern Tier Brewing Co. Pittsburgh’s pride month marketing has been revealed to be performative at best or completely fake and actively harmful at worst. And where has the money gone from the t-shirt sales promised to be 100% for the community?
“Southern Tier as a company may benefit from checking on their higher management team and seeing if reassignment is necessary– I don’t think the decisions made this week are the qualities of an effective manager and they certainly aren’t qualities of an ally to the LGBT community,” said Attme.
QBurgh has reached out to Southern Tier Brewing Co.’s corporate headquarters and will update this story if we hear back.
As for Danielle Attme’s drag brunch this Sunday at Voodoo Brewery Homestead? “It’s sold out! I’m bringing in some of Pittsburgh’s and Cleveland’s most fantastic drag and burlesque performers– brunch and a show is already a slay but I suspect with the added energy of protest and camaraderie it’s going to be unforgettable.”