Last March (2012), after Starbucks backed a Washington state ballot initiative legalizing same-sex marriage, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) organized a “Dump Starbucks” campaign in response during the annual shareholders’ meeting. The goal was to get closet-cases and people who despise the LGBT community to stop buying cups of coffee at Starbucks, which would cause Starbucks’ market value to tank until they recanted their support for equality. You could almost hear NOM’s Brian Brown say, “Mwahahaha!”
What was the economic effect of Dump Starbucks? Well, the NASDAQ, a barometer showing the health of the stock market, was already in the midst of a dip – it ended up dropping over four percent; Starbucks (“SBUX” as listed in the NASDAQ) only dropped a little over one percent. In other words, as “The New Civil Rights Movement” pointed out last year, the entire market took a little dip during that time and despite that, Starbucks remained strong. Speaking as a Starbucks barista, this is no surprise to me; people find a way, any way, to pay for their addictions.
This ridiculous campaign then mysteriously disappeared from the news faster than a Newt Gingrich marriage….until now.
CEO Howard Shultz (my boss) recently told a shareholder, who was protesting the company’s stance on marriage equality, that he was free to sell his shares and invest in a different company. The far-right’s reaction: Dump Starbucks…2.0! Yes, the failed and hilarious faux campaign is back.
So you can see through this non-sequitur, here’s what Shultz actually said at the annual shareholder meeting last week:
“If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much.”
See?! Can’t you just hear and see the anti-Christian drivel oozing from Shultz’s mouth?? Outrageous…we must all boycott this hippie-pinko-commi-faggy corporation at once! Gays are recruiting our children! They’re gross! And something about gay sex!
It really is astounding that in 2013, there are entire organizations devoted to making sure loving, committed couples who happen to be the same sex cannot marry because it would somehow damage their members’ own insecure marriages. Somehow, committed, same-sex couples have a magical power to turn others gay…don’t catch “the gay,” people!
What’s even more astounding is that the cultural tide is turning rapidly. Poll after poll shows public support for same-sex marriage well over 50 percent. Some polls go far into the 60s. Support for marriage equality is even more pronounced and strong with members of my generation (“millennials”), where the number is between the high 70s and low 80s.
The be-afraid-of-the-scary-gay-couple tactic is even failing to work on growing numbers of young Evangelicals and conservatives, maybe because they’re able to tell the difference between equal rights under the law vs. specific religious belief, as opposed to their parents and grandparents.
The Supreme Court is gearing up to hear two landmark cases in the struggle for equal rights and if the make-up of the court is any indication, along with increasing public support, things are looking good for marriage equality.
NOM’s Brown recently compared marriage equality to slavery and vowed to go for an amendment to the U.S. constitution if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of equality. Good luck with that, Brian. Keep fighting the losing, bigoted fight.
What exactly is the end game of these groups? Most of the products we use in our modern society come from corporations that support equality. Will bigots like AFA’s Bryan Fischer or FRC’s Tony Perkins simply live on farms outside Atlanta, hiding from the equality-supporting zombies (Yes, that was a “Walking Dead” reference….)? Unless they plan on living like the Amish, their ridiculous boycotts will accomplish nothing more than making them look like the narrow-minded bigots they are.
