The owner of the Two Wrasslin’ Cats Coffee & Café in East Haddam, Connecticut, has transformed his business into a nonprofit organization “supporting inclusion, racial justice, reproductive freedom and the ‘right to love and be loved,’ according to a report in the Middletown Press.
“As a transgender woman, knowing that I have a place in my community where I’m safe, where I’m welcome, I am accepted for who I am — that’s everything,” the new organization’s board member Clare McCarthy told the Press. “Even now, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, that is a rare thing.”
Reports the Middletown Press:
Mark Thiede, who has run Two Wrasslin’ Cats Coffee House & Cafe in East Haddam, at 374 Town St., since 2013, recently repurposed the breakfast and lunch spot as the Two Wrasslin’ Cats Accord.
Thiede, a retired scientist from Pfizer, bought the property, and built the coffeehouse located near the intersection with Norwich Road. …
Thiede said the site hosted one of Connecticut’s three Woman’s March vigils right after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. Five hundred people showed up.
Weekly vigils were held on subsequent Saturday mornings every year up until the pandemic.
“We’d stand outside with signage with the message of peace, love, kindness; ‘we’re with you,’” Thiede said.
“It became a little bit of a movement. It brought out in me the type of character that I wanted Two Wrastlin’ Cats to portray,” he added.
Board member Clare McCarthy, also producer of Transqat the Podcast, said the movement was “you are welcome here.”
Having such a business in her town was “huge,” added McCarthy, a 10-year customer.
“As a transgender woman, knowing that I have a place in my community where I’m safe, where I’m welcome, I am accepted for who I am — that’s everything,” she said. “Even now, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, that is a rare thing.”
Thiede said he’s also a strong supporter of women’s reproductive freedom, racial and social justice.
“I decided to make an amalgam of all the things I support, which includes my friends, brothers and sisters from the LGBTQ community,” Thiede said. …
In July, Wrasslin’ Cats became one of only four private Connecticut businesses to be designated by the state place as a Safe Place, where victims of hate crimes, domestic violence, racial abuse or others are given asylum, Theide said.
Read the complete Middletown Press article here.
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