I have a feeling this post is going to ruffle some feathers, but before I start getting the flame emails- hear me out. There seems to be this trend with the gay community about boycotting retailers and companies for not being LGBT-inclusive or for supporting organizations like National Organization for Marriage (NOM). The biggest pusher for this kind of action is usually the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest and most financially affluent organization for gay rights in the United States. The HRC has a serious hard on for digging out corporate inequality, and every year they release a "Where to Work/Where to Shop" pamphlet that rates middle to large scale companies according to the companies' stances on domestic partner benefits and hiring practices.
I'm going to start off by saying that I support that to an extent. My big "gay issue" that I support full heartedly is workplace equality, and the "List" is a good jumping off point, even if it just makes people think about who they shop for.
But on the other part of their spectrum are the boycotts. Even in the last few years, it feels like the community is always boycotting at least five places any given day. Right now the "big fish" seem to be Target, Chik Fil A, and Hershey. I believe that one of these places does deserve to lose gay dollars, but the other two feel like grey areas to me. I am aware that Chik Fil A is marketed as (and in a way) ran as a "Christian/Family operation". They are closed on Sundays for the Christian Sabbath, and they do use a lot of religious references and support a lot of conservative religious groups. They also have a history of financially backing extreme anti-gay groups like NOM. It bothers me because they use direct profits (meaning, coming directly from customer profits) to fuel the donations to these groups. I feel that if I'm going to pay money for a product, the owners and CEOs should not be using literally the dimes from MY pocket to fund hateful organizations. Plus it bothers me as an LGBT Catholic that a massive company would hide behind faith to fuel hatred. That, in my mind, is no better than the Westboro Baptist Idiots. Although the grilled chicken and waffle fries are delicious....I have joined that ship to not give LGBT/Ally money until the funding situation is changed.
Hershey is apparently being boycotted now for funding a school that terminated a student's inclusion in the school because he is HIV-positive. Although I do think that it's ignorant, I don't think that a boycott of the mostly unaffiliated company is going to do much to solve that situation. I think claims such as the one on the back of this week's Philadelphia Gay News stating that "Hershey is UnAmerican" are not only misleading, but not correctly stated. I understand the concept of "putting pressure on the financial backer to make a statement/pull their funding", but I don't think that's the right way to deal with this issue. I will not back this boycott because I feel it's ineffective. This issue should really be a direct issue WITH the school, not using the backer as a way to call attention to the problem.
Then comes the boycott of Target. Ohhh boy, what a grey area this one is. A few years ago, the CEO of Target donated money to an anti-gay group who supported a very bigoted politician , and the HRC had a field day. Keep in mind that as far as domestic partner benefits and hiring practices go, Target had a pretty clean slate for a very long time. Many of the companies and designers that Target works with as partners are LGBT run or Ally companies, too. Since that funding mistake, and I do believe that it was something that wasn't even considered (not that that's good...) the HRC has NEVER let it go. Target's hiring practices, benefits contracts, and corporate partner situations have hardly changed. This year, even after seeing the backlash at Old Navy for releasing similar merchandise, Target has gone full speed ahead and has been unapologetic about manufacturing and selling Pride clothing, where part of the proceeds go to a pro LGBT family organization. Now some people at the HRC and in the community are saying this is a gimmick to reel in some of the lost gay dollars. Maybe. But I will say that in my eyes, years of a solid record of support regarding workplace equality FAR OUTWEIGH one nasty misstep. Let the flaming begin...
Funnily enough, last summer I had an interview at a gay owned-gay run retailer on South Street. (I chose not to disclose my orientation, which I never do in interviews, regardless of WHO I'm interviewing for. It shouldn't matter. Anyway...) The topic of Target came up, and I expressly said that I continued to do business there. Before I could go into my logic, as this was a very casual conversation/interview, I was greeted with a sort of nasty, "shut down" kind of response, and I knew before the chat was over that I'd been passed up for the position. (Side note, when I was at last year's OutFest, I made it a point to stop by the guy's booth, wearing my bracelet and with my tattoo clearly visible. He looked shocked. He had that "oh MAN I feel like an ass" thing going on. Funny how making ASSumptions causes that look, eh?)
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