Fact File: Canadian café caught in false claim about refusing straight patrons
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Recent social media posts claimed a café in “Manchester” owned by a transgender man and non-binary woman planned to exclusively serve “non-binary and semibisexual people.” The story is fake, but it uses photos of real café owners in Toronto. The café’s co-owner says the business plans to serve everyone regardless of how they identify — everyone but “bigots.”
THE CLAIM
“A trans man and a non-binary trans woman are opening a coffee shop in Manchester together and say they will only serve non-binary and semibisexual people coffee,” reads a screenshot of a Facebook post shared to the X platform, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
“Sounds like discrimination,” the X poster wrote.
The screenshot was reposted on X and the humour website 9Gag, and photos of the supposed café owners were posted to Facebook, with a similar claim about the café “exclusively” serving non-binary and “semibisexual” customers.
“The founders say the concept is meant to create a safe space, prioritizing gender-affirming environments,” the Facebook post reads.
THE FACTS
The Facebook account shown in the screenshot, “The Lamented,” notes in its description that it is a satire account “where truth goes to die.”
Many of the page’s posts contain false or inflammatory statements about LGBTQ+ individuals and identities, some of which have been fact-checked by others.
A Google search of text from the Facebook screenshot shows The Lamented account did make the post, but it has since been deleted. Google’s index shows the post was made Jan. 22 and received about 2,800 reactions.
A reverse image search of the screenshot reveals the café pictured is located in Toronto, not Manchester.
The café is called Understory, and it’s run by transgender author and activist Rowan Jetté Knox and Dani Gaede. Jetté Knox and Gaede are the people in the photos, which appear to have been taken from Jetté Knox’s personal Facebook page.
Writing on Threads on Friday, Jetté Knox said the original Facebook post was false “rage bait.”
“We’re opening in Toronto, Canada, not Manchester, U.K.,” Jetté Knox wrote, adding his partner is not non-binary and the café plans to welcome everyone.
Understory’s website notes it wants to “honour queer history, celebrate queer joy, and embrace the beauty in diversity.” Nowhere on the café’s site or social media pages does it claim to serve only people with specific gender or sexual identities.
The café, located in Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Village, is set to open early this year, according to the shop’s Instagram.
When it does, “We’ll be serving everyone except bigots,” Jetté Knox wrote on Threads.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2026.