Gingerbread ‘men’ go non-binary as baker cooks up inclusive treat
POLITICIANS have been snapping them up to dunk in coffee at the Scottish Parliament and now a Glasgow cafe owner has created her own updated version of the traditional festive treat.
Poppy Muricane has created male, female and non-binary gingerbread ‘men’ for customers at her West End cafe.
Catering staff at Holyrood have apparently been banned from saying gingerbread “man” due to strict equality rules and have been selling biscuits labled ‘gingerbread persons’ instead amid fears the traditional name could cause offence.
Poppy, 29, who owns Rawnchy, at the foot of Maryhill Road, said she wanted to create ‘something for everyone.’
Poppy’s biscuits include male and female body parts, while she’s added a simple heart, to the non-binary variety, to send out a positive message of ‘love and inclusion.’
Poppy said: “I have many friends and family who are gay, lesbian, trans and some who are something else but don’t fall under any particular label and I wanted to represent them in Rawnchy’s Gingerbread family.
“Rawnchy is a brand that is all about kindness, love and inclusion.
“Everyone is welcome in our cafe and we want to highlight the importance of that wherever we can.”
Parliament officials said their biscuits were proving popular with politicians.
But Tory equalities spokeswoman Annie Wells MSP accused Holyrood staff of trivialising gender equality.
She said: “Surely the Scottish Parliament has got better things to do than worry about what to call gingerbread men?
“This is an utterly pointless gesture which simply trivialises the real issues gender equality.”
Meanwhile, budget supermarket Lidl has been plugging its own version of the festive treat, tweeting: “Who needs a gingerbread man, when you can have a mansion?” accompanied by a picture of its gingerbread house. of