Andrés Rigal and Taylor Bazley are the cofounders of Green Qween, an LGBTQ+-owned cannabis dispensary with multiple locations around Los Angeles. The two met through queer business communities and bonded over the idea of cannabis as a vehicle for change, subsequently launching their company in 2022 with its first storefront downtown.

Green Qween, whose name serves as a playful nudge to queer identity, was created with the mission to bring together marginalized communities and drive social impact through the use of marijuana.

The first ever public medical cannabis dispensary to open in the country was the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club in 1992, founded by a group of AIDS activists and gay rights advocates, said Rigal. But despite the industry being deeply rooted in queer history, Rigal and Bazley said levels of diversity today are lacking.

“Diversity in the cannabis industry is not great, and particularly for queer folks,” Bazley said. “As part of our mission, we procure every LGBTQ+-owned brand we can get our hands on. And we’re quite expansive in our definition of that, but we still only have maybe eight or nine brands.”

Being LGBTQ+-owned is a central point of identity for Green Qween and served as a catalyst for getting its doors first open, said Rigal and Bazley, who recalled garnering over 3,000 signatures in just one weekend, including the likes of major queer idols such as Cara Delevingne and Demi Lovato.

“It became this really vital moment which got us across the finish line and had the council member approve our license,” Rigal said. “We created this brand for queer people, and it was the queer people that got us across the finish line. We would not be here without them. We are very aware of that.”

Retail expansion

And the proof is in the pudding, according to Bazley, who said Green Qween now averages over 200 customers in its downtown store each day.

“That used to be kind of the norm for dispensaries five years ago, when there just wasn’t a big supply of them, but the industry has gotten more and more competitive, and every other retailer that I’ve talked to has only described declining revenue numbers, but our experience has only been increasing revenue numbers,” Bazley said. “We’re certainly finding traction with consumers and that’s what’s enabled our rapid store count growth.”

Earlier this year, the team opened a second location in Sherman Oaks and is set to open a third in West Hollywood in March, which will become that city’s first LGBTQ+-owned cannabis dispensary and, unlike the other two, will be owned by an outside investor, Tristan Schukraft, who claims his background is “in everything gay.”

Schukraft – who is the founder and chief executive of Mistr, a company focused on HIV prevention, and Tryst Hotels, as well as owner of iconic gay venues such as The Abbey in West Hollywood and Blue Whale Bar in Little Tokyo – said the choice to invest in Green Qween came down to the company being very much in line with his own mission.

“I’m about creating queer spaces and opportunities for the LGBTQ+ community,” Schukraft said. “One of the challenges with any gay business is so many investors look at gay businesses as too small of a market. And I think if you do something really well, whether it be Tryst Hotels or Green Qween, when you can speak to the community and you’re authentic to the community, they’re going to support you.”

Schukraft said he was specifically drawn to the store layout of Green Qween – which stands out among other cannabis retailers as a luxury boutique, open marketplace – which he said changes the consumer’s perception of the drug.

“Med Men did a really good job at making marijuana look like an Apple store,” Schukraft said. “That’s a great concept because before Med Men it was that (type of) dispensary with wrought iron windows and this intimidating bouncer … It just wasn’t a great experience. And with Green Qween, it’s a high-end boutique with bright colors, no bars on the windows, it’s just a completely different experience.”

Greenhouse for change

Beyond being a LGBTQ+-owned business of its own, Green Qween strives to be an incubator for other minority-owned businesses, whether they be involved in the cannabis industry or not.

“We bring them in, give them opportunities that maybe they wouldn’t really have normally because it’s very difficult for the consumer brands and cannabis already, let alone getting into dispensaries,” Rigal said. “We create that space, give them that stage and the spotlight for them to continue to grow into larger brands … Our whole store design is all about discovery.”

One of the duo’s favorite brands they sell is Sonder, a LGBTQ+-owned cannabis pop rocks company, but the team also has a series called “Queertiques” which specifically features non-cannabis related businesses in an effort to help give marginalized brands a foothold in the retail industry.

“It doesn’t stop at the edge of the cannabis industry, and we seek as much as possible to reach out and grab from the broader community,” Bazley said, noting Green Qween wants to “be that big rainbow flag” for younger companies.

They’ve supported local minority artisans from ceramicists and chandlers to jewelry makers and streetwear designers by giving them a booth to sell their ware, in addition to being involved with direct philanthropy. Last year, Green Qween donated to DTLA Proud, vended at both WeHo Pride and LA Pride, and hosted two transgender fashion shows.

In addition to traditional marijuana, Green Qween sells newer form factors such as cannabis-infused vaginal suppositories, pet CBD and other CBD sleep products that promote the benefits of recreational cannabis.

But at the end of the day, what Rigal and Bazley really want is to educate cannabis consumers and provide a safe space for queer identifiers.

“We are a group of people who, a lot of us, are born to broken families or parents that may not want us, and we choose our family in the queer community,” Rigal said. “We go out to cities, and we try and find ourselves but, during that process, a lot of us don’t really have that framework and that history to where we came from, and that’s why it’s really important for us as leaders to continue telling that story and laying that foundation. Whether it’s cannabis, whether it’s parties, it’s really important for us to just continue to educate the next generation. And with Green Qween, that’s what we’re doing.”