
Conservatives Protest Starbucks' Newest Holiday Cups, And It's Not About Jesus This Time
By Mike WalshOct. 30 2018, Updated 12:29 p.m. ET
It seems like each release of Starbucks holiday cups comes a controversy. The company has been producing 'winter themed' cups since 1997 and every year the designs have evolved. Some years have had hand drawn snowflakes and other stenciled on snowmen. Probably the most famous controversy came in 2015 with the 'red cups' that transitioned into a more simplistic design that was clearly holiday-esque yet didn't contain any direct references or designs towards Christmas. Conservatives and Christians saw this as yet another war on Christmas and famously boycotted the chain for the deigns.
So it's clear with each release Starbucks has a lot to look out for cause they know whatever they do will upset someone somewhere.
It's just not the holiday season without a Starbucks cup controversy.
You can't play Christmas music on November 1 or any other premature arbitrary date. The season doesn't start until the "War on Christmas" folks are attacking Starbucks cups.
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) November 17, 2017
This year, conservatives are pointing out a very small detail of the current Starbucks cup design. Take a very close look and see if you could spot whats possibly causing drama this holiday season:

You see those two hands, top left? Well, the Christian right is CONVINCED those hands belong to lesbians and that the cups are pushing a gay agenda. Kind of crazy but we can't put it past them. It's almost like they just want to keep the controversy going and are willing to pretty much take anything to the extreme.
Hey @FoxNews viewers! Fight the Starbucks gay agenda by buying several venti mochas from your local Starbucks and pouring them out on camera! That’ll show ‘em!#TheResistancehttps://t.co/lNWR1gXS5E
— 1 True Me 🏳️🌈 (@1_True_Me) November 17, 2017
With everything else that's going on, conservatives having a culture war meltdown about Starbucks cups seems like an anachronistic throwback
— Bill Humphrey 🌳🌀 Climate Emergency (@BillHumphreyMA) November 17, 2017
I never wanted to lick another man's balls quite as badly as I have since those Starbucks happy holidays cups pushin the gay agenda came out
— Brendan Kelly (@badsandwich) November 17, 2017
Oddly enough, Buzzfeed News seems to be responsible for drawing attention to this.
After Starbucks released a video featuring a lesbian couple...
We're loving @Starbucks' new festive ad with a lesbian couple. Can someone draw us a @LadyGaga cup please? https://t.co/HLjTufRFu8
— British LGBT Awards (@BritLGBTAwards) November 6, 2017
...people happily tweeted that they believed the hand-holders on the cups are the lesbians from the ad:
Great new #christmas campaign from @Starbucks featuring #lesbian couple on the Holiday Cup. pic.twitter.com/GJ6YGG0fGQ
— Rufus Dowling (@rufusdowling) November 13, 2017
Hey social media, are the "Christians" bitching about @Starbucks red cup & inclusive message yet? PS, I'm going w/the hand holders are gay 😁 pic.twitter.com/eDrwEIenHt
— Krista 😸 (@durantigger) November 1, 2017
Which inevitably drew the wrong kind of attention:
The new Starbucks cup has lesbian couple on it. Rom 1:26 “because of this,God gave them over to shameful lust”...
— Jimmy H Peralez (@h_peralez) November 2, 2017
This Year's Starbucks Holiday Campaign Features a Lesbian Couple https://t.co/EVxGYnNcNe
— Conservative#MAGA (@farriskent) November 8, 2017
This Year's Starbucks Holiday Campaign Features a Lesbian Couple https://t.co/v8fjOlhAmF via @mrctv #BoycottStarbucks @FoxNews
— Gabe 🇱🇷✝️ ✭ (@RNDACS) November 7, 2017
Guess we will see how this controversy evolves over the holiday season. Did you see anything wrong with it?
H/T: Twitter, GrubStreet