Green Qween, a new queer-owned and queer-driven cannabis shop, will open in downtown on April 20th.
The shops owners, Andrés Rigal and Taylor Bazley, have been struggling to make this happen for years in L.A. Now with help from the pubic and tenacious attitudes their dreams of opening a cannabis shop that caters to the LGBTQ+ community will finally become a reality.
Green Qween is set to hire unhoused LGBTQIA+ individuals through a local workforce development partner to support LGBTQIA+ BIPOC small businesses by stocking their products on their shelves.
The shop is inspired by the first medical dispensaries in the Castro which provided cannabis to those suffering from HIV/AIDS which alleviated the suffering that came from the disease itself as well as side-effects from the medications being prescribed at the time.
Green Qween will be a necessary safe space using cannabis as a vehicle and economic engine for change by donating 10% of our yearly profits to the local LGBTQIA+ Pride Organization, DTLA Proud, to fund the construction of the DTLA Proud Community Center.
Eric Solis, a founding Boardmember of DTLA Proud told LA Weely, “this will be a huge boom for the local community and positively contribute to the burgeoning LGBTQIA+ populace that lives, works and plays in DTLA. We are thrilled to be in partnership with a first of its kind queer cannabis dispensary of the modern age built on principles of diversity, inclusion, and investment in the local community.”
Rigal and Bazley hope their shop will serve as a prototype for others who want to do the same thing for their community.
Green Qween will be the first queer-owned cannabis shop in DTLA and was made possible by over 3,000 supporters in the community who signed the petition on change.org recognizing that this addition will make Downtown Los Angeles a safer more inclusive place.
