Apology from OUT!Wear

14 July 2011

To our LGBT Community;

Please let me begin by saying it was never my intent to alienate our community or promote hate in any manner. Believe it or not, I had no idea of the gravity of this very political issue and the hurt it would cause. As a businessperson working in this community for the last 17 years, I have received many amazing inquiries, ideas and suggestions via my website to design and produce many products that I now currently sell.

As of late, I have received many inquiries to design and develop the WBW line of products for my customers. However, I was not as informed about this issue as I am today. It was an emotional reaction/business decision and NOT an informed action to develop this line further, and for that I truly apologize. No articles of the product line have been produced, and I have made the decision to discontinue it in the spirit of repairing and healing any damages that may have occurred as a result of this uninformed decision.

Please do not interpret my silence up till now as anything other than needing time to take this in, educate myself and create a thoughtful and respectful response.

If you know me or have seen me at the OUT!wear Booth at any of the events I’ve attended so far this year; you would see me wearing and selling the latest addition to my product line, “LOVE is a many GENDERED thing”. I designed this shirt many months ago as an attempt to reach out to the transgendered community as an act of inclusion and NOT exclusion.

I hope we can all come to a place of open dialog and positive discussion regarding this sensitive issue that is threatening to destroy the gains that those that have come before us have worked so hard to achieve in our battle for equality.

I would be willing to participate in any forum that would take on this issue in the spirit of cooperation and trust, so that we can all be educated and understand opposing points of view. It is only in this “positive spirited” dialog that we will educate and enlighten each other so the innocent error that I made will not be repeated and further divide us, instead of unite us.

I have received many, many, (many) emails from people in our community who I have never met. Several of these have touched me personally with their kind words friendly manner and personal stories, which have genuinely, moved me and shown me another perspective. It is because of this I have made the decision to not produce or sell this product line.

Truly humbled,
Maria S. Nasca