This queer chocolatier is serving up sweet resistance in Mike Pence’s Indiana Meet the bisexual ex-stockbroker turned chocolatier who is redefining success one ethically-sourced, Brazilian sugar crystal at a time. Her story might just change the way you think about your afternoon chocolate fix. (Denny Agassi/Photo courtesy of Morgan Roddy)
Morgan Roddy’s chocolate truffles make an immediate, unforgettable impression. Unlike American style truffles with their chocolate shell coating, her French-style creations are primarily coated in cocoa powder. They’re fudgy, decadent, lavish and most of all: very, very gay.
Roddy’s treats from her chocolate shop Queer Chocolatier, stand out in Indiana’s confectionery scene for numerous reasons, but she boils it down to one simple truth: “They taste better the way I make them.”
Over Zoom, Roddy, 44, sits framed by the sunlit landscape of Muncie, Indiana, an hour northeast of Indianapolis. The icy-blue sky and vibrant green trees create a stark contrast to the rich, complex narrative she’s about to unfold.
This queer chocolatier is serving up sweet resistance in Mike Pence’s Indiana Meet the bisexual ex-stockbroker turned chocolatier who is redefining success one ethically-sourced, Brazilian sugar crystal at a time. Her story might just change the way you think about your afternoon chocolate fix. (Morgan Ro/Morgan Roddy)
Roddy dismisses American-style truffles as overly fussy and a disservice to chocolate’s inherent richness. While the shell coating helps hold the shape together, it often compromises quality. French-style truffles, though less uniform in appearance, deliver an uncompromised experience from first bite to last.
Drawing a poignant parallel, Roddy reflects on the rift between perception and reality—both in her truffles and in being queer, trans, or nonbinary in Indiana. There’s a profound beauty in something that may not conform to conventional standards but is undeniably authentic and delicious. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder—a sentiment Roddy is familiar with as someone whose earlier passions was painting.
Something sweet this way comes
Roddy’s journey to chocolatier was far from linear.
After high school, Roddy went to Marian College to get a fine arts degree to become an art teacher. Although her plans did not pan out, she took on customer service jobs that led her to working at a brokerage firm. She then became a stockbroker by taking the license and registered representative.
Having been raised by a poor, working class family, being a stockbroker allotted Roddy with vital tools on navigating finances like having a 401K or understanding stock trading. She tells Reckon that she stayed for “four years, three months, 27 days and four and a half hours.”
“I did not stay the entire shift on my last day,” she said, chuckling to herself.
She realized over time that people who have money already have all the resources and education at their disposal. “I wasn’t emotionally, politically and socially fulfilled by it,” she said, explaining why she quit.
Roddy went back to Muncie to get her Master’s in sociology at Ball State University, which only further radicalized her to be critical of capitalism. Her studies in food systems, access, and production laid the groundwork for her future venture.
While eating her roommate’s chocolate chips one day, the back of the bag had a chocolate truffle recipe. She tried the recipe on a whim, and it wasn’t long until truffles became her very own art project—one she excelled at. In tandem with her studies, Roddy fixated on where food comes from, the lives of farmers and the general access people have to food.
Her curiosity led her to a doctoral program at Penn State, but she dropped out the next year and moved Texas and shortly after back to Indiana, where she rekindled with her ex Cheri, a colleague from graduate school. It wasn’t long until the two married.
Although they are now divorced as of last year, Roddy credits Cheri for championing her into opening a shop, years after making truffles leisurely for friends.
This queer chocolatier is serving up sweet resistance in Mike Pence’s Indiana Meet the bisexual ex-stockbroker turned chocolatier who is redefining success one ethically-sourced, Brazilian sugar crystal at a time. Her story might just change the way you think about your afternoon chocolate fix. (Morgan Roddy/Morgan Roddy)
“She really pushed hard—to a point where I felt, ‘I’m holding myself back because now I have wind in my sails, so what’s my problem if I can’t do it?’” she said, now only left to muster up a name for the shop.
The politics of sweetness
In the past, Roddy’s bisexuality journey was never a spectacle, and she didn’t feel the need to formally come out. Raised “unchurched” and without religious trauma common among her Midwestern peers, she describes herself simply as a cisgender white woman “who happens to be queer.”
Like her French-style truffles, the name “Queer Chocolatier” is straightforward and unapologetic; quite literally, there is no sugarcoating it.
“I’m telling you everything you need to know before you come in,” she said, having landed on ‘Queer Chocolatier’ randomly while pacing in the living room. “You get to self-select to come in and patronize this business.”
This queer chocolatier is serving up sweet resistance in Mike Pence’s Indiana Meet the bisexual ex-stockbroker turned chocolatier who is redefining success one ethically-sourced, Brazilian sugar crystal at a time. Her story might just change the way you think about your afternoon chocolate fix. (Morgan Roddy/Morgan Roddy)
Queer Chocolatier opened its doors in 2017, with the encouragement and helping hand from her now ex-wife and against the backdrop of Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Signed in 2015 by then-Governor Mike Pence, the law potentially allowed discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals on religious grounds. Indiana’s provisions were designed to allow private businesses, individuals and organizations to discriminate against anyone in Indiana on religious grounds, making LGBTQ Indianans vulnerable. In this climate, Roddy’s shop was inherently political.
“There had to be some way to carve out a space for young queer or otherwise marginalized people,” she said. Simultaneously, she’s incorporating food education into her truffles by providing information on the product’s backstory.
Chocolate is simple; it consists of sugar and cocoa beans. But Roddy explains that conventional granulated sugar is detrimental to the environment, workers and the economy. In wanting to practice the ethics of food that she has long studied, Roddy has been sourcing her sugar from a producer in Brazil that many ethical craft chocolate makers use. Additionally, she purchases her cocoa beans via direct trade through an organization that works with farmers, eliminating extra links in the supply chain that would make it disadvantageous for farmers.
Since opening, Queer Chocolatier has served cinnamon croissant buns, scones, pain au chocolat, and even special truffles like cinnamon chipotle truffles, raspberry balsamic truffles and “lavender menace” truffles in honor of intersectional feminist movements in the 70s.
However, Indiana’s conservative legislature casts a shadow over even the sweetest endeavors. Recent anti-trans bills and efforts to dismantle diversity initiatives in universities have intensified challenges for the LGBTQ+ community.
A second serving of sweetness
Roddy’s personal life has mirrored this bittersweet reality. Following her divorce last year, she reflects on how marriage might have granted her a sense of “respectability” as a queer person. “I was very critical that marriage is not the most hot-button issue in the queer community,” she says. “That’s a pretty privileged thing to fight for.”
While she honors the marriage and relationship—especially Cheri’s advocating of Roddy’s chocolates—she says that many within the queer community in Indiana have bigger fires that are chasing after them, the right to marry excluded.
This queer chocolatier is serving up sweet resistance in Mike Pence’s Indiana Meet the bisexual ex-stockbroker turned chocolatier who is redefining success one ethically-sourced, Brazilian sugar crystal at a time. Her story might just change the way you think about your afternoon chocolate fix. (Morgan Roddy/Morgan Roddy)
Out of this year’s record of 652 anti-trans bills, Indiana has only contributed six. However, one has passed, permitting the government to interject university classrooms in an attempt to dismantle DEI efforts.
Even a bill from last year, Senate Bill 480, passed last July, banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, effective immediately. This February, the federal court ruled that Indiana’s ban can go into effect, removing a temporary injunction that a judge issued last year.
Despite these challenges, Roddy remains determined. Although her physical storefront closed during the pandemic, she continues to make truffles and other treats. Looking to the future, she feels an even greater responsibility to reclaim her space.
“This climate is only getting worse, which means we need more spaces of refuge and joy, and at some point I’m going to hell or high water—I’m going to get a space back again for us.”
