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