Internet Culture

Lush UK has been donating money to anti-trans organizations

One of them wasn’t even listed on its donations page

Photo of Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball

lush uk

The discovery that British cosmetics chain Lush has been donating to anti-trans charities out of its “charity pot” has led to an outcry on Twitter.

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'@LushLtd put on a good facade of being supportive of trans rights and then go give money to anti-trans orgs like Woman's Place UK and FiLia. It's all an act.' screenshots of pages showing Lush has donated to FiLiA and WPUK
halford_rosie
Disgusting to see Lush funding transphobia while masquerading as allies to the LGBTQ+ community each pride. Lush employees, if you havent already, join a union and stand with your trans and non binary siblings against hate.
halford_rosie
I feel like my favourite companies are falling apart one terrible decision at a time. wtf lush??
@iamnotlucymoon
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The organizations in question are FiLiA, described on the Lush website as a “feminist conference in Bradford” but which is openly transphobic, opposing the idea that you can even be trans, and Women’s Place UK, an organization founded to push back against the expansion of the gender recognition act to allow for self declaration and to advocate for keeping trans women out of single-sex spaces.

'my friend made these after it came out that lush gave £3000 to a transphobic hate group through their charity pot campaign and i made an ugly hooting noise. as someone who used to work for lush i can guarantee that their ethical stance is just a thin veneer of bullshit' images of Lush products with the labels changed to say things like 'transphobic' and 'cash 4 terfs'
@EMPRESSTWEETSZS

Troublingly, the donation made to WPUK isn’t actually included with the others on the Lush website, only coming to light via the WPUK’s 2018-2020 financial statement and raising the question if there are other organizations who have also received funding from the “charity pot” and were left off the list.

'tw // transphobia Me: 'Oh hey, Lush is trending! I wonder why?' Me after clicking the tag:' close up gif of Michael Scott from The Office
@JademoonDee
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In a statement made to Pink News, Lush UK said that while it has a policy against funding “campaigning work, discussion or lobbying on the specifics of the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act,” the grant made to WPUK “predated our awareness of how toxic discussion around this issue had become and before we put rules in place around this subject.”

'Lush directly funding anti-transgender hate groups is a healthy reminder that rainbow capitalism isn't your friend. They didn't make this product because they genuinely care about us; they made it because we're now a marketable demographic they can profit off of.' image of the trans pride bath bombs North American Lush made earlier in the year
@Jessie_Lynx

However, despite Lush UK’s self-proclaimed lack of awareness around the “toxic discussion,” the WPUK also failed to meet Lush UK’s criteria for grant recipients. Organizations which “harbor racism or prejudice,” “deny the human rights of others,” or “judge others on anything other than their actions” are prohibited from receiving any of Lush’ charitable funds, and a group which seeks to exclude trans women from women’s spaces based on their assigned sex absolutely falls into the banned categories.

'Me going to buy lush as a little gift for myself tomorrow : :^) Uk lush being terfs in front of everyone: :^) Me:' photograph of a sad Black girl laying down and dipping her hand in a dirty paddling pool
@snortfolio
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Further questions were raised when it was pointed out that the head of Lush UK’s charitable giving, Rebecca Lush, had been attending meetings of the WPUK prior to awarding them the grant. Lush has also written an extremely sympathetic article about the WPUK for the Morning Star, describing their opponents as “cult-like” and claiming that “WPUK works with trans people who wish to see legislation that protects both the rights of trans people and women’s sex-based rights.”

Fascinated to discover that Rebecca Lush, the charitable giving coordinator for Lush, has been attending WPUK meetings and also that the grant WPUK apparently got is not listed on the Lush Charity Pot website, what's going on @LushLtd ? What stream was this grant given via?
@eliovs
Just seems interesting that a member of a hate group can funnel her company's funds into financially supporting that group and the company doesn't publicly share that information. Does @LushLtd know that this is how their money is being spent? Are they ok with it?
@eliovs
So further to the recent news that @LushLtd have donated to two anti-trans organisations (despite their claims that they support trans people), it turns out that the person who decides who receives donations is a transphobe using customer donations for her own interests.
@halford_rosie
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Many are now calling for a boycott of the soap company.

No Christmas presents from Lush. No shopping ever again from Lush.
@halford_rosie
no more lush in your lives. strike @lushltd from all your shopping lists. bigotry must have consequences.
@ithayla
their ceo also gave gifts to the police during the height of the blm protests earlier this year. don’t buy from lush. if you’re looking to buy ethical bath products this holiday season I’d recommend checking etsy!
@ithayla
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However, within that are those quick to remind everyone that the North American and UK Lushs are actually now separate companies, with separate stances on many things.

Reminder that this is UK Lush and NA Lush is completely separate. NA Lush is extremely pro LGBT
@modmice
this is only the UK LUSH, because apparently the UK has become completely dominated by cisgender supremacy at every angle. the NA LUSH has never done anything like this. tbh i wonder if they haven't considered rebranding at this point lol
@modmice
fyi: its lush uk thats been donating to anti trans orgs whereas lush usa has and is still actively supporting trans rights orgs i remember reading a while back that lush usa and lush uk are... At Odds.
@x_ousiailush
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And for those in the UK looking for an alternative source of bath bombs, Twitter’s got you covered, as people have been working to compile lists of organizations and small businesses that sell toiletries without donating money to transphobes.

https://twitter.com/StarlitSiren/status/1333785872068534275
@StarliftSiren
So! Seeing as Lush have been donating money to anti-trans orgs, drop your links to small soap businesses and such here, so people can easily find alternatives Down pointing backhand index
@StarliftSiren

Lush UK has been approached for comment and this article will be updated if they respond.

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The Daily Dot