SEATTLE – The anti-LGBT group The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has announced it will lead an international “Dump Starbucks” protest of Starbucks Coffee Company to give voice to consumers around the world who support preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The new protest campaign was announced after the recent annual Starbucks shareholders meeting in Seattle, where NOM spokesmen queried the board on its new policies promoting gay marriage and demanded protection against discrimination for employees, vendors and customers who disagree.
Starbucks is a vocal supporter for marriage equality, and emerged as one of the major companies supporting passage of Washington state’s historic marriage law.
Starbucks is not alone in joining the growing tides of Americans and corporations who support marriage equality. Other corporations that joined Starbucks in supporting the push for marriage equality in Washington state included Alcoa, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nike, and Vulcan.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is calling on consumers to support Starbucks in the face of the campaign. HRC President Joe Solmonese said, “NOM is falling back on their typical tactics. Starbucks has been a vocal supporter of marriage equality for loving same-sex couples – views that are in-line with the majority of Americans – and that enrages NOM. As a result, NOM is throwing a temper tantrum and encouraging its few supporters to intentionally harm the economic well-being of Starbucks employees all over the world.”
Solmonese continued, “People like Brian Brown (NOM’s president) and Maggie Gallagher (co-founder of NOM) no doubt use products from the dozens of consumer-facing brands that have come out in support of marriage equality and against Proposition 8 on a daily basis. They include Microsoft, Apple, Google, Alcoa, Nike, and top executives from companies like Yahoo and Facebook. Nonetheless, it appears NOM launched their Dump Starbucks campaign on Facebook. Do they not have any Microsoft software in their office? Do they ban employees from owning iPhones?”
NOM makes the misleading claim that the majority of Americans and “virtually every consumer” define marriage as between one man and one woman, when in fact polling consistently shows that the majority of Americans support marriage equality. A 2011 Gallup poll showed that 53 percent of Americans support marriage equality. Other recent polls from ABC News/Washington Post, the Associated Press, and CNN/Opinion Research all show support for marriage equality above 50 percent. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found 63 percent of Americans support legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples.
