Temecula Biz: Hindu Deities On Booty Shorts, Leggings Offensive

TEMECULA, CA — After a Hindu leader put out a press release Thursday calling on Temecula-based Liquid Dreams to stop advertising activewear that depicts images of Hindu deities, the company relented.

"Ganesha Leggings," "Ganesha Yoga Shorts" and "Kali Booty Shorts" from Liquid Dreams depicted prints of the Hindu deities Lord Ganesha and goddess Kali. The clothing, said Rajan Zed, is "highly inappropriate."

In his statement, Nevada-based Zed said, "Lord Ganesha and goddess Kali were highly revered in Hinduism and were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to adorn one’s legs, thighs, groin, genitals and pelvis."

Zed explained that "inappropriate usage" of sacred Hindu deities, concepts, symbols or icons for commercial or other agenda "hurt the devotees."

"Such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers," Zed added.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged Liquid Dreams and its CEO to offer a formal apology.

By Friday, the apparel products were removed from the Liquid Dreams website.

In a thoughtful email response to Patch, Christopher Coughlin, the founder, CEO and art director of Liquid Dreams, said that he fully understood the concerns and removed the apparel from his website. He explained that his company is quite small and is struggling amid the pandemic, so there is very little inventory to take off of shelves.

Zed and Coughlin had not spoken as of early Friday afternoon, according to Zed, but the Liquid Dreams CEO said he would be more than happy to make an official apology to anyone who has been hurt or insulted from the clothing his company produced. He said he tried to reach out to Zed, but has been unsuccessful via the rajanzed.com website.

Zed has successfully targeted other companies that depict Hindu deities. In 2019, Santa Cruz-based sock company MERGE4 apologized and removed images from its website of products depicting Ganesh.

Zed has also made headlines of a different sort following incidents of apparent bias against him and his faith. In 2015, as he was about to deliver the daily invocation in the Idaho State Senate, three Republican lawmakers boycotted the prayer.

News agencies that covered the controversy quoted Idaho State Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll as saying, "Hindu is a false faith with false gods. I think it's great that Hindu people can practice their religion, but since we're the Senate, we're setting an example of what we, Idaho, believe."

Nuxoll joined her two colleagues in refusing to attend Zed's invocation.