‘Farmers’ market Karen’ rages at gay cookie vendor for giving away free Pride flags to ‘satisfy a political agenda’. Yes, really

Jun 17 2020
Written by Josh Milton

Gail Hayden, head of the California Farmer’s Market Association, scolds a gay vendor for handing out LGBT+ Pride flags. (Screen capture via Twitter)

A “farmers’ market Karen” jeered and berated a gay vendor was jeered and berated just for handing out LGBT+ Pride flags which she called “political”.

The startling footage, uploaded to Twitter Monday (June 15) showed Gail Hayden, head of the California Farmers’ Market Association, frostily harangue Dan Floyd for hanging out flags to “satisfy his political agenda”.

The administrator, who appeared to pull down her face mask just to launch into a verbal attack, immediately drew criticism online as the latest example of a white busybody steeped in privilege leveraging it for personal gain.

https://twitter.com/karli_harward/status/1272639180120616960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1272639180120616960&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lgbtqnation.com%2F2020%2F06%2Ffarmers-market-karen-goes-off-cookie-vendor-giving-away-rainbow-flags%2F

‘Farmers’ market Karen’ belittles gay cookie vendor for handing out Pride flags.

Hayden began to spar with Floyd, who owns a stall in the Livermore Farmers’ Market called Dan Good Cookies. Pedalling his baked goods, Floyd was joined Sunday afternoon (June 14) by Livermore Prides executive director Amy Pannu, handing out rainbow flags for Pride Month.

“She became very confrontational,” Floyd told NBC Bay Area of the “farmers’ market Karen”. “Very condescending about the entire thing.”

The footage showed Hayden icily tearing into Lloyd for handing out the flags. “This person may have an issue about ‘xyz’,” she said, waving hazily at other stall-fronts and stressing that her issue had nothing to do with “what the flags are for”.

“I’ve been in places for 40 years where they bring out foetuses and put them on ironing boards. My job is to run the market, not to satisfy your political point of view.”

Hayden then attempted to stymie Lloyd by saying that the passing out of flags in the venue is stonewalled by the market’s rulebook. Yet, across its 30-pages, nowhere does it prohibit flags – only “petitions and flyers”.

“I definitely felt scared, and I definitely felt scared for my business,” Lloyd told the outlet.”It definitely felt like the flags and what they represent were the target of her tirade.”

Hayden’s daughter, the association’s senior market manager, alleged that children were using the flags are playthings, prompting her mother to intervene. However, nowhere in the recorded exchange is this alluded to.

“We apologise that he feels singled out,” Kayla Hayden said of the situation in which Lloyd was singled out. “We don’t want to single anybody out.”

As much as the scuffle stirred outrage against the California Farmers’ Market Association — with Hayden later resigning from her role — it led to a spike of orders to Dan Good Cookies, according to photographs from customers.