WWYD: Boycotting Homophobia
I’m really curious to hear your take on this.
After I learned about Cracker Barrel (in 1991) and Olive Garden (in 1998) firing gay employees purely because they were gay”and winning the associated court battles because of lack of legal protections in those states”I resolved to boycott them. And I have for years, not one cracker or olive.
To my surprise (guess I’m not as informed as I thought I was), I found that both have changed their policies in recent years. The Advocate reported in its 4 Feb 2003 issue that Cracker Barrel added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy after shareholders finally forced a vote. And I can see online that Darden Restaurants, owner of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones, has changed as well.
So for at least a couple years I’ve been boycotting companies when there was no longer an explicit anti-gay discrimination policy. But I still feel (maybe irrationally) that I was part of something important, and my little economic decisions, joined by thousands of others, made a difference.
I wonder if you agree. Would you avoid shopping or eating somewhere if you learned they had an anti-gay policy? Would you also avoid shopping or eating somewhere if you learned the company, or the company’s founder, gave millions of dollars to causes you were against?
Before you answer that too quickly, let me point out that we could soon find ourselves boycotting everything under the sun. One website lists the top 25 companies that give big money to Republicans, including Altria (owner of Kraft Foods), Microsoft, UPS, AT&T, MBNA, Citigroup, Pfizer, FedEx, Walmart, etc.
To focus specifically on LGBT issues, the Human Rights Campaign publishes each year its “Buying for Equality” guide, which rates companies on their LGBT policies, and also compares side-by-side those who offer similar goods and services but have markedly different scores. They are basically encouraging you to boycott those who score low.
But would you? Do you avoid Toys ‘R’ Us, Avon, Bayer and Exxon? How about DKNY, Men’s Wearhouse, Domino’s Pizza and Weight Watchers? (And, sadly, Cracker Barrel is still on the red list with a score of only 15 out of 100).
So what do you do? I’m really interested to hear your thoughts.
Voice your opinion with other questions in the What Would You Do archive.
I definitely boycott businesses that have overt policies against gays. If you don’t like something a business does or stands for, my motto is: vote with your wallet. It’s all they understand.
A little word of mouth (bad) advertising can also make a difference. Companies spend tons of money on advertising, just to bring in one new customer. But the cost (in lost business) of bad word of mouth advertising can far outweigh those advertising campaigns.
Remember that old commercial that said, “You tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends…” Bad advertising has a huge potential for damage, and I use it when it’s necessary.
As far as boycotting companies that give money to republicans, I won’t go that far. Only because there is no overt or obvious connection between republicans and anti-gay policies.
Now, I don’t pretend to be politically savvy. In fact, I am purposefully ignorant about politics. So, I have no clear idea what the republican party’s overall goals are. I can conclude, however, that even if republicans do have discrimination of gays as one of it’s overall goals, this is not it’s only goal.
Therefore, just because a company gives money to the republican party, I can not make a solid connection to anti-gay policies based on this fact alone.
Honestly, I am not trying to be wishy-washy here. I just can’t make a judgment based solely on connections.
That would be like turning against a friend because she has another friend whose brother is homophobic. It’s just too much of a stretch for me (although I would have a strong dislike of my friend’s friend’s brother based on his “actions,” not his beliefs).
I am reprinting a portion of a prior posting. The restaurant I chose not to refer to at the time was an Olive Garden, circa 2000. It speaks to some of the evolution of the chain restaurant’s respect towards gays and courting our money.
“We had an experience years ago at a chain restaurant. I will preface my story in letting you know that my partner & I are somewhat easily identified as lesbians- moreso from her gender expression (very butch- mmm!) We were seated in the back of the restaurant- practically in the bathrooms- when the restaurant was nearly empty (going for an early dinner). We complained and then were given a hard time about relocating. When the food came, I found four pieces of cardboard in my dish (mushroom tortellini, usually my favorite)! When I complained about this, the waiter got all snippy about it and refused to take it back. I called the manager over, who in turn advised that “people like us” should be happy to get any service at all. It was at this point, I motioned to Susan and we just up and left. She wanted to argue the finer definition of the laws re: public accommodation; I just wanted to get dinner before the show and not be fed cardboard by haters.
Ultimately, we did deal with the national chain of the restaurant and told them of our experience in a very lengthy, well thought out letter. We advised them that the story would be going to our newspaper in a reasonable amount of time if they did not contact us to formulate an action plan to prevent any further problems. We also outlined how this same restaurant had gotten bad local press in how they had treated foreign college students about two months before we had tried to eat there. It only took two days until we received multiple calls, apologies, and received word that the local manager was to be going for diversity training & out of work for two weeks without pay. The waiter was also to attend the diversity training. We were given the opportunity to also review the diversity training literature and offer any input towards further support. We also got many gift certificates for food, which we used at a different restaurant in the chain- and I am pleased to say where we received no hassle whatsoever. We have never gone back to the original restaurant, but I hear that the management team has traded hands several times over the years since this.
My bottom line however, has to be, not to support those who who would not otherwise support us. It sounds like I’m somehow insulating myself from something- or not taking our cause out far enough- but their people sure as hell aren’t going to go out of their way to make nice with us. My eating cardboard and smiling does nothing for our causes”
My take is to avoid companies that have deliberately refused to adopt any LGBT-rights policies, or have taken an active stance against us. Those that have gone part of the way, but not all (e.g., DP benefits but no transgender policies) I will patronize, but do what I can (e.g., voting my shareholder proxies) to encourage positive change. Those with exceptional records of LGBT support I will go out of my way to support in turn.
Re: the HRC Index and other such rankings/ratings: I wrote a few pieces about this on my own blog, one on comparing across various “diversity” categories, and another on one big discrepancy between the Advocate’s ratings and HRC’s–which should be enough to caution folks against using any such indices blindly.
I think it makes perfect sense to boycott companies that have policies harmful to others.
In the ’70’s I was part of a national boycott of Nestle’s. I have a personal boycott of Red Robin Restaurants because they have stated that they will only hire “wholesome” teenagers. “Clean cut” doesn’t equate to “wholesome” in my book. I also don’t patronize stores/restaurants that provide poor customer service in general.
Although it’s not normally on my radar, I would also be willing to boycott companies that willingly discriminate against gay/lesbian couples.
If enough people “vote” with their money and tell others why they are doing it, I think changes can be made.
As a budding entrepreneur (and a former ad executive) I know the ill effects of negative publicity. I had heard of Cracker Barrel and even though I love the food there, had stopped eating there and told everyone I knew why I had chosen to do so. I hadn’t heard of Olive Garden, though.
I have even stopped buying Girl Scount Cookies because of the lawsuit they won against Boyscouts discriminating against gays.
And I don’t give money to the Salvation Army because they too discriminate against gays. I had a friend who put in little green slips in their bucket saying, ‘you’d have my money if you didn’t discriminate against gays’.
JUST A THOUGHT:
I wonder, how many people stop going to an establishment when they see a rainbow flag hanging from it?
This is definitely something I try to do. But the hardest part for me is keeping track of all the places I want to avoid! Since being anti-GLBT is just one of a number of reasons that I boycott/try to avoid companies, I end up with long lists and then unfortunately sometimes mess up just because I forget. I need to do a better job of this, maybe make some written lists for myself. Exxon-Mobil is one place I do remember to avoid because of their anti-GLBT policies, and I’m trying to add more.
Dana, thanks for the great posts. I edited my post on the HRC index to link to yours!
Good point about people who avoid “rainbow flag” establishments, I’m sure some folks do.
However, the difference is that hanging the gay-friendly rainbow flag doesn’t mean that straight customers aren’t welcome, or straight employees will be fired just for being straight!
Minita –
Please note that the Girl Scouts do not have any relationship to the Boy Scouts of America, other than being founded with the same principals of promoting youth scouting around the same time in history. They are not co-owned or related at all. Girl Scouts do not have any discrimatory policies towards the GLBT community, and lesbians can and are scouts and scout leaders. In fact, the Girl Scouts of America are often under fire for being TOO liberal and too promoting of the “feminist agenda”, and in some communities parents have founded alternative groups that are more conservative – I think they are called American Heritage Girls or something like that. So, go ahead, buy those thin mints without guilt! (other than, if you’re like me, the guilt of eating an entire box of thin mints in one sitting!)
– a former girl scout
Arnold Schwartzenegger had the change to legalize gay marriage in California. He didn’t do it. Now, I won’t watch any of his movies.
its a shame, really, because I loved Conan the Barbarian, but its more important to make a clear values statement than watch Conan.
Best,
James
The news I’ve been reading about how just buying fair trade at Starbucks means less than we’d all like it to mean just keeps on rolling. Check this out; http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/starbucks.htm