The past few days have seen the Elska office snowed under creating a new website. After three years using Shopify as our host, we’ve had to move to a new provider and start fresh. This change was not by choice.

Recently we were informed by Shopify that they would no longer process our orders due to their assessment that Elska is “obscene”. They furthermore suggested that we find a ‘high risk provider’ that specialises in gambling, escort services, and child p*graphy!

Working hard on the new website in the Elska 'office'

I was freaking out. I got in touch with some other queer magazine makers for advice, and to my astonishment, two of them were also Shopify customers who received the same ban message that week. A coincidence? I doubt it, which suggests that Shopify was in the middle of a purge of their queer customers. Stalin is back and works in Silicon Valley!

It's possible that this is just part of a wider trend towards conservatism, a trend that led to the demise of Tumblr and that has brought the term 'female-presenting nipples' into the common vernacular. But it's hard to not see that this is also a case of unconscious bias. While Shopify's offices are probably now full of rainbow flags as they join in on the corporate appropriation of Gay Pride, and the people in those offices think they are woke AF, they actually find idea of seeing a penis in a magazine outrageous, shocking, inappropriate, nasty, bad taste, and something to be stopped.

I pleaded for more information as to what exactly they found problematic, willing to remove 'objectionable content' in order to survive, but Shopify would not give me an audience. In desperation I took Shopify's advice and moved Elska to a 'high risk provider', but the fees were way too high to bear and threatened to ruin Elska completely. Surviving corporate homophobia is truly tough stuff.

Eventually I decided to stop trying to fight and said goodbye to Shopify. We now have a new host, and I really hope that this company won't start their own anti-gay purge. The world really can't keep going further to the right, can it?

If you have a moment, please visit the new site, and feel free to make an order too — it will be nice to know if the site actually works!

elskamagazine.com