Bella Epoque is a store some who were at the Fantasy Faire may remember as the one who supplied the outfit for the Fairlands Quest this year (and earlier). It's got a huge amount of items, over 5600 listed on it's Marketplace page. But the store's inworld location has recently changed after it's landlord suddenly demaned they leave.
It's owner, Jani La Belle (Janire Coba), explained the situation on her Flickr.
BELLE EPOQUE MOVING!
Hello all. Due to homophobic reasons from Lighthouse (landland.ansar) the owner of the sim, I had to find a new home for belle Epoque. I already have one, i am just rezzing all my stuff again. Please be patient for a couple of days while it's under construction! Love you all!
She posted a picture of a message from the landlord, "Please do me a favor and I don't want even on my sim you rent from me as well dont want to see you face you and your f**ken s**t friends. gang of homo."
BELLE EPOQUE MOVING!
Hello all. Due to homophobic reasons from Lighthouse (landland.ansar) the owner of the sim, I had to find a new home for belle Epoque. I already have one, i am just rezzing all my stuff again. Please be patient for a couple of days while it's under construction! Love you all!
She posted a picture of a message from the landlord, "Please do me a favor and I don't want even on my sim you rent from me as well dont want to see you face you and your f**ken s**t friends. gang of homo."
I contacted Jani, and she stated the move was going well, "I got a new land and started rezzing everything, ans today store was open. And I got massive support from the SL community." She stated she hadn't had any trouble from the landlord before, "Not at all. My store has been there for 10 years. I asked him for a little land for a fundraising event, he said yes, and when he saw my friends are lesbians, went all sexist homophobic, disrespected them, banned them, asked me to move the charity event out of his land, and then banned me from my sim and returned my store.
"Yes, he called us GANG OF HOMO, and yes we proudly are (smiles)."
I asked how long would it take for the store to be in full operation. She answered, "I did my best and worked my a** off. In a couple of days the store will be ready 100% And the landscaper will go decorate when she has time, it'll look great."
She wasn't letting the incident get her down. In fact, she was taking the phrase and quite literally wearing it as a badge of honor, issuing tee shirts with the words "Gang of Homos."
Belle Epoque GIFT
So, as most of you probably know by now, I had to move Belle Epoque because of some good ol’ homophobia. But instead of letting it get me down, I’ve decided to flip the script and have some fun with it.
Introducing - the GANG OF HOMO CHALLENGE!
Put on your Gang of Homo tee, snap a pic, send it to the one who dropped the oh-so-charming comment, and send me a screenshot so we can laugh our homo little a**es off together! Let’s turn shade into sparkle, babes!
So, as most of you probably know by now, I had to move Belle Epoque because of some good ol’ homophobia. But instead of letting it get me down, I’ve decided to flip the script and have some fun with it.
Introducing - the GANG OF HOMO CHALLENGE!
Put on your Gang of Homo tee, snap a pic, send it to the one who dropped the oh-so-charming comment, and send me a screenshot so we can laugh our homo little a**es off together! Let’s turn shade into sparkle, babes!
Many have responded to Jani, offering her well wishes and expressing shock and surprise at the situation. "Wow! That is absolutely appalling behavior." "Oh, it's disgusting!" "...I'm very sorry for this unpleasant and disgusting situation and I'm glad you're working on a solution!" "So sorry Jani. You are a very talented artist, and will find a sim worth your creativity." Yours truly found out through a Fantasy Faire fan on a Discord channel.
Of her work in the Fantasy Faire, "I am a world builder, region sponsor and sim designer, and I design the quest outfits too."
The Newser reached out to Landland for comment. But as of the writing of this article, there has been no response yet.
Bixyl Shuftan
Thank you so much for publicizing this! I think it's really necessary to report these kinds of events. It's just one more thing we need to improve in our SL community.
ReplyDeleteI am customer there, too ... and I was read the group-notices twice, as it was such kind of stupid "move".
ReplyDeleteBut I have my thoughts and issues with Landlords in the past and having my (main) area on Linden-land ... even the mainland brings a bunch of other problems (eg. limit of 40 avatars, ... neighbor can fill up the Sim even with just a tiny parcel ... and someone was it before with traffic-gaining games, ... not-moderated "designs" at the neighborhood ... but the small community of owners and renters on the actual Sim is working well together).
In the past (more than a decade) the landlord was cause 2 moves, as he was change the Sims and selling them and so ... at the 3rd in a very short row, the patience was over.
Thank you ♥
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome. New information has been coming in. A follow-up article is likely.
ReplyDeleteIf you wanna be in business, the only political viewpoint you should have is what are you paying with. If you wanna wave a political banner, you will lose customers the more you judge them. Pick what lane you will be in. Just because you can be in business and a jerk both, doesnt mean it is a wise thing to do. It is your sim... right until you started renting it out. If you had special requirements that no exploding kittens were allowed, you should have said so in the contract ahead of time. You are a weak businessman, aside from whatever other issues you may be having.
ReplyDeletethe world is becoming more conservative, theres even a movement in arkansas to bring back segregation with white only spaces, as a trans person myself I'm more frequently harassed at work since the trump re-election and it only happens more frequently the more they win
ReplyDeleteYou guys voted for this everytime you voted for one of the bastards shouting stop woke dont act like you didnt have a part in this, this is what you voted for every time you voted for the republican ticket, bush really rolled things back, and then we had the tea party movement to scream bush wasnt extreme enough for me, you rolled your eyes at it but the time the next election rolled around, you voted for it anyways
then project 2025 came the party advertised openly what it was going to do long before the election, you guys voted trump back in and then were like how did that happen, and you distance yourself from him so you can play the victim anyways
bixyl this is like the rainbow capitalism of walmart and target your doing here you pretend to be on the right side not because it looks right but giving this lil nib of support looks good on you, but to be quite frank every time you did something because it pwned the libs, you were supporting this, so yes its nice you called this guy as an asshole, for kicking lgbtq people off his land, but to be quite frank there used to be protections against this until you had your say in the polling place
actions speak louder than words
you spoke up for bell epoque but your actions supported lighthouse
this is what happens when you support fascists, they do fascist things. no fucking duh
how about instead of writing articles like this you go fix the problem your causing when you go to the polling place, because while you did stand up for belle in this moment, in all the time I spoke to you, you been fighting to make this shit happen. your two faced and full of double talk
This comment deserves all the love in the world. Hell, it should be its own column. You nailed it. This isn't Bixyl trying to do the right thing. This is him trying to get a little attention and interject himself into this. This is just him stirring up shit, something he's real good at.
DeleteI've witnessed his transphobia personally. He may be cool with gays but he's transphobic as fuck. A bunch of far-right talking points and all that. What? Did you all think the "Bixyl is a fox who does a news* site?" was just a cute coincidence? Nope. It's intentional and is him letting his love of Faux Noise be seen by all.
(*The SL Newser is, of course, 100% news-free!)
I've also seen my share of him bullying others in SL. There is nothing cute or cuddly, charming or nice about him. He has a mean streak that is 100 miles long. He's a nasty piece of work who's gotten away with it for years because he's fooled the right people, and played the "I'm being targeted for being furry!" card.
Whatever.
So yes, he has helped create this environment of hate by voting for this shit, and bullying trans people. He is no ally or friend and honestly doesn't care about Jani or this controversy, outside of getting attention for himself and "for the lulz"
And when the hate he helped create gets LGBTQs killed, especially the trans people he hates so much? I can already see his reaction... "heh heh"
Really fucking funny. Grow up and grow a heart and soul, Bixyl.
I think the landlord was awful and should be banned from SL, but is calling a challenge to harass him really a good idea? Not only is it against LL's ToS, but it drags everyone down to his level and makes you just as bad. Why not just report his comments to LL, or create an event to uplift the communities he targeted rather then launching a harassment campaign.
ReplyDeleteYou're both looking pretty bad because you're violating the TOS (asking people to grief him and sharing IMs). Also, you said you're proud to be a gang of homos, so who's going to take you seriously? You should have kept quiet and let the homophobe bury himself.
ReplyDelete