BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – Always loved that definition of
insanity that runs something along the lines of doing the same thing the same
way over and over and expecting a different outcome.
What is it that groups like One Million Moms, the Florida
Family Association and National Organization for Marriage (NOM) don’t get about
their tired, boorish anti-gay campaigns aimed at calling out corporations like
JCPenney, Toys ‘R’ Us and, recently, video game company Electronic Arts and java
giant Starbucks for their gay-friendliness?
Remember the outcome of the Moms’ ploy to get Ellen
DeGeneres bounced from her JCPenney spokesperson gig? And their subsequent
project to try to intimidate the Toys ‘R’ Us chain into yanking an Archie
comic that highlighted gay marriage?
In the former case, a Stand Up for Ellen campaign
garnered more than 25,000 signatures, and JCPenney issued an unequivocal statement of
support for the comedienne/talk-show host.
In the latter? Sold-out issue.
More recently, NOM’s lack of traction on the American
front for a “dump Starbucks because it supports gay marriage” petition — 30,000
in favour versus 650,000 against — has apparently prompted the group to
globalize its homophobia.
Translations of its website into Arabic, Turkish, Spanish
and Mandarin are available, according to Gay Star News. And the plan is to run
its campaign in Egypt, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Hong Kong, Beijing and other
areas in the hope of tapping into gay marriage opposition abroad.
It’s too early to tell how well NOM’s homophobia
outsourcing strategy is working, but so far Starbucks customers in Shanghai
seem to prefer their java jolt over homophobic histrionics, Gay Star News
reports.
All together now: call for bigoted boycott = consumer curiosity or eye-rolling = ka-ching at the checkout.
And this just in from Huff Post: rivals Microsoft and Apple are jealous of the attention Starbucks is attracting and want a piece of the boycott action.
Why you can trust Xtra
