Purchases Working Against You

Caveat Emptor: Your Purchases May Be Working Against You

In the blog “The Little Cookie With The Big Agenda,” we saw how a food giant like Kraft supports gay rights. With just a striking visual of rainbow creme filling, standing in for the typical Oreo vanilla creme, its advertising campaign, debuted during Gay Pride, became a symbol of solidarity with the GLBT community. Other behemoths such as Target showed their conviction toward gay rights by selling out T-shirts for Gay Pride. The coffee Titan Starbucks has opposed Washington’s anti-gay amendment. Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer each donated $100,000 to support the campaign to approve Referendum 74 and keep same-sex marriage intact. Google has a campaign for marriage equality with the message “Legalize Love” meant to debunk homophobia in nations where homosexuality is considered illegal. Other gay-friendly businesses? American Apparel, American Airlines, Apple, Boeing, IBM, Levi’s, and Nike.

Know Where Your $ is Going

But not every business giant is an ally of the GLBT community. If you knew how the powers at the following companies voted about Proposition 8 or eliminated domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, you may not want to give them your business.

Cracker Barrel

The following list of gay-UNfriendly companies was compiled by the Human Rights Campaign, Guy Dads, Queers United, Change.org. and can be found on Pink Panthers, the no 1 Tumblr blog for people focused on queer pride and the fight for equal rights:

A-1 Self Storage Company

Auto Zone Inc.

CBRL Group Inc. (Cracker Barrel restaurants)

Chick-Fil-A

Cinemark

Dish Network

Domino’s Pizza

Exxon Mobil

Gold’s Gym

Golfland Entertainment Centers

Insure.com

Manchester Grand Resorts

Mejer Inc.

Outside Pride.com

Request Foods

Salvation Army

Urban Outfitters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

What You Can Do To Make Offending Companies RETHINK Their Policies.

  1. Educate your friends and family about the company. Boycott!
  2. Blog, post, twitter about the company’s inequality.
  3. Write a letter to the company’s management explaining your reason for not doing business with them anymore.
  4. Write an editorial to your newspaper editor and the editor of the newspaper in the town closest to the company.