I am the founder of a clothing line that spoke out against ICE. I was thrown out of a store, but the reaction was worth it.

• When Rachelle Hruska founded the Lingua Franca clothing line, she had no intention of making it political.

• But the brand has since taken a stand against numerous lawsuits, including most recently against ICE.

• He’s lost business because of it, though he says it’s worth it. Here’s why.

This essay, as stated, is based on a conversation with Rachelle Hruska, founder of clothing brand Lingua Franca. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I started Lingua Franca, it wasn’t meant to be a business. I was running another company and took up embroidery to get out of my brain. I was in pain after giving birth, and a therapist suggested I do something with my hands.

I had an old sweater lying around with “booya” embroidered on it—my two-year-old son’s suggestion—and I put it on Instagram. Soon, friends were asking me for sweaters.

Then in 2016 I got a call from Net-a-Porter. He even wanted to launch a line with us. We worked like crazy to build a cashmere supply chain and hire embroiderers and officially launched in September of that year.

At first, it wasn’t political at all. I started with phrases related to my muse, my mother-in-law, Janet McPherson, who was a single mother, the oldest female surfer, and lived on her own terms.

Then when Trump was elected in 2016, we were devastated. I needed a gift for Anna Carter, Graydon Carter’s wife. At the time, Graydon was in a very public feud with Trump. I decided to embroider “I miss Barack” on the sweater, posted a photo and it went totally viral.

Then, one of the first things Trump did as president was to block citizens of certain countries, including Iran, from entering the US. At the time, two of my stitchers were Iranian students who couldn’t get home because they wouldn’t be able to come back.

I thought, “This is so messed up.” I posted the “I miss Barack” sweater and said that $100 from each sweater would be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union. I will never forget that weekend. I have received so many orders via email and DM. We raised $100,000 for the ACLU in one weekend and that was the spark. I felt that my life had meaning.

Tom Hanks talked about us on TV. Connie Britton wore one of our sweaters to the Golden Globes. I didn’t have any PRs; I did not advertise. Every celebrity was buying it for herself.

From that moment we started collaborating with organizations. We opened a store on Bleecker Street in Manhattan and asked for panelists to come. It’s not always anti-Trump. We are intentional and selective about who we work with. We raised money for Planned Parenthood, Margaret Atwood held a book event with us, and we partnered with the Whitney Museum.

Right now, PBS is a big one. I feel really good about sending a big check to PBS every quarter. Could I do this for five different causes in one quarter? No, we would not be in business.

I don’t want to be a political brand – we have a whole ready-to-wear line clothes and contributor with everything from ‘Wicked’ to the Westminster Dog Show. I would love to design beautiful clothes, but I can’t say anything.

Shortly after ICE came into Minneapolis and killed Renée Good, I posted designs for sweaters on Instagram with the words “melt ICE” and “I like my crushed ICE.” We encouraged our followers to speak up and donated a percentage of the proceeds from the sweaters to the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee.

Less than a week later, a store emailed us to say they would no longer carry Lingua Franca because of my political views. I didn’t even go back to that store – it’s just not worth it. I’m not upset about the loss of the business, but rather the message behind it.

Backlash comes with the territory

It’s not the first time the brand has received pushback.

There are people and stores that don’t want to buy from us or be associated with us. We were in talks with big retailers to collaborate that would have added a lot of money to our bottom line, but they backed out because we’re political.

I was called awake. The brand was called performative. We were accused of making money out of a tragedy. I saw everything. I’ve been called every name in the book from all over.

I am so beyond worried. I know in my heart that my intention is to make the world a better place and I have been consistent about that. It may seem trivial, but you can look at our bottom line and see that we’re doing this because we genuinely want to raise money and start conversations – about how to help and what action needs to be taken.

I think a lot of leaders are afraid to speak up because they’re worried about being called woke or performative, but nothing will change unless people say, “This is wrong.”

I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing for 10 years, and some people celebrate it, some people don’t. It’s okay, because I can sleep at night. I wore my heart on my sleeve—on my chest, literally.

I use brands like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s as models. I am so frustrated with business leaders who let what happens happen; people forget how much power they have.

Read the original article on Business Insider