JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A well-known Jacksonville Beach bakery issued an apology after one of its owners posted anti-LGBTQ messages to her social media page.
Doodle Cinotti, a vice president of Cinotti’s Bakery-Sandwich Shop, received backlash for sharing, among other anti-LGBTQ content, a meme that described heterosexual relationships as “natural” and implied that any other types of relationships are unnatural.
“I felt shock and anger because, from a shock standpoint, you’re representing your business and your personal life, just like an athlete represents their team, just like a preacher represents their churches,” former customer Ali Hall said.
Hall added that she will not patronize Cinotti’s anymore due to the owner’s history of anti-LGBTQ social media content.
“At best, that post is tone-deaf, and at worst, it’s incredibly homophobic, especially now in Pride Month, where we’re celebrating the LGBTQ community,” Stephen Gaskill, president of the Florida LGBTQ Democratic Caucus said. “It just feeds into an anti-LGBTQ sentiment, which, unfortunately, is still is very pervasive here in Florida.”
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Mike Cinotti, Doodle’s husband and the business owner, said the Facebook posts do not represent the store.
“What you’ve seen on social media is not a true picture of who we are,” Mike Cinotti said in an interview with News4Jax. “I would love to invite anybody to come, have a cup of coffee and sit down and find out who we really are.”
Cinotti also apologized saying that anti-LGBTQ messages are not in line with their Christian beliefs.
Cinotti and his employees, including Doodle, were at the bakery Monday (one of the two days a week when it’s closed), to review and revamp the business’ social media policy.