Family Biz

Corporate sponsorship of Pride has drawn criticism from LGBTQ+ groups for advertising ostensible allyship during the month of June as a way of increasing profits—“rainbow-washing,” some call it.

But for local queer business owners, the month of June isn’t a time to leverage their identities to bolster bottom lines.

Ojo Optique owner Adam Hoffberg tells SFR he hopes gay-owned businesses are supported all year round, not just during Pride month.

“If they’re a reputable business who gives good customer service and has product that appeals to the local clientele and visitors, I think they should be supported,” Hoffberg says.

And yet, despite Santa Fe’s reputation for being a queer-friendly city with a sizable LGBTQ+ population, conversations SFR had with queer business owners surfaced an absence of defined community among the gay business network that runs parallel to a shrinking number of queer public spaces. The oft-noted reality that Santa Fe has no official gay bar—the closing of Blue Rooster almost six years ago marked the last of these institutions—is hard to ignore in the discussion of LBGTQ+ businesses in a city that distinctly markets itself as “different.”

“You take away queer spaces and you take away the ability for queer people to sort of naturally meet and network and connect,” says Piper Kapin, owner of Back Road Pizza. “There’s really none of that here.”

Entrepreneurs with business experience in other cities point to the benefits of organized associations, however, often through LGBTQ+ chambers of commerce, saying such bonds open opportunities to network and learn about policy.

New Mexico Out Business Alliance, a chamber of commerce for LGBTQ+ and ally businesses based in Albuquerque, has noted growth in its membership in the last two years because of an increasing need for businesses to embrace diversity, says executive director Pamm Meyers.

The group, which provides investments and education to businesses, hasn’t waded too far into Santa Fe yet, but she sees a chance for her organization—or another like it—to expand in the City Different.

Still, Kapin expresses hesitation over joining a chamber of commerce with an LGBTQ+ focus for fear of mixing politics and business. But she acknowledges the value in creating opportunities for support.

“Just being able to vent and talk to other people who do the same work you do,” Kapin says of the benefits of building a queer business network in Santa Fe. “You add people’s experience as queer folks into that and it would be really cool, I think.”

Kevin Bowen, president of the local Human Rights Alliance and organizer of Santa Fe Pride 2021, attributes the lack of organized queer business community to the city’s history of openness and acceptance.

“They just run their business and do their thing and they don’t think of it in terms or context of a queer businessman or woman or person,” Bowen tells SFR. “They’re just a business owner in town.”

Kapin and other queer business owners say the anecdotally large LGBTQ+ population in Santa Fe would suggest a significant number of queer owned businesses. That hasn’t translated to an extensive network.

“We’ve been in business 18 years and unfortunately it’s not something I’ve found or experienced in any of my time,” Kapin tells SFR.

She has worked to create a space for the LGBTQ+ crowd through queer open mics and by allowing multiple organizations to use the restaurant’s space for free, though even such simple steps are relatively rare in Santa Fe. With little current infrastructure like physical spaces or organized business groups, the queer community in Santa Fe would benefit from solidarity, Bowen says.

“If we get organized,” he says, “we actually have a lot more power when it comes to certain political issues and even commerce issues with the city. It’s even more important to get businesses to support each other locally, especially gay-owned businesses and BIPOC businesses. I mean, those are all really in need of local support.”

As one of the core tenets of Pride, visibility is important to queer-owned businesses. From that visibility, Kapin says, a kinship can emerge.

“Community is helpful,” she concludes.