Posted on 09/20/2005 6:41:34 AM PDT by ValerieUSA
Coffee cups featuring a quote by a gay author about growing up homosexual have been pulled from Baylor University's on-campus Starbucks.
Aramark, which as the contractor for Baylor dining services oversees the coffee outlet, pulled cups from the campus store earlier this month after a university staff member sent out an e-mail complaining about the appropriateness of the quote at a Baptist university, Baylor officials said.
The e-mail was sent on to Baylor dining services, which consulted with Starbucks' district office, which said it fully supported a decision to take the cup out of circulation to avoid offending others, Baylor officials said Monday.
“My understanding is it was a decision made by Baylor dining services staff, and I've not yet been able to trace it back to any Baylor administrators telling them point-blank to pull the cup,” Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley said.
He added, “I think they were trying to be sensitive. Obviously, Baylor is a Baptist-affiliated institution, and Baptists as a denomination have been pretty outspoken on the record about the denomination's views about the homosexual lifestyle.”
The action was spurred by the fact that some of the store's coffee cups contained a quote from novelist Armistead Maupin. He is best known for a six-book series titled Tales of the City, which is about life in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s.
The quote on the cup reads:
“My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short.”
The cup is No. 43 in a series of cups being used chainwide by the Seattle-based coffee giant. The cups are part of a campaign called “The Way I See It,” which features quotes from a variety of notable figures. They range from the musings of electronic musician Moby to the thoughts of figure skater Michelle Kwan.
Sanja Gould, a spokeswoman with Starbucks' corporate office, said the company sees the program “as an extension of the coffeehouse culture – a way to promote open, respectful conversation among a wide variety of individuals.”
Gould said cups with the Maupin quote has been in circulation since July. She said the cups were placed randomly in the cases shipped to the store, and store employees would have to remove the cups manually.
“As far as I know, there weren't many of the cups,” Gould said.
Officials at other Waco-area Starbucks said they are still using the cups.
Linda Ricks, marketing program manager for Baylor Dining Services, said she could not comment on the cups, and referred calls to Aramark's corporate offices, which could not be reached for comment Monday.
At least one other group has expressed its dissatisfaction with the Maupin cup.
Concerned Women for America, a national Christian women's organization, says Starbucks is promoting a homosexual agenda with the cup. The group also has expressed concern about the campaign as a whole, saying most of the quotes are liberal, according to a report in the Seattle Times.
Members of the local gay community said they are disappointed by the cups' removal.
Cade Hammond, president of the board of directors for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Central Texas, said he sees pulling the cups as unnecessarily restrictive. He said the situation reminds him of people who burn books because they don't like what they say.
“You can't restrict information like that,” Hammond said. “It just seems a little backwards.”
Valerie Fallas, president of the Waco chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, called the action “unnecessary.”
“It's a shame that anybody would do this,” Fallas said. “Whatever you feel, whatever you think about something, discussion is the number one thing to do to educate yourself on an issue.”
"My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short.”
They fit that on a cup?
I'd be curious to see a compendium of all the coffee cup quotes. Wonder how many are from conservative thinkers or express conservative ideas?
Extra long triple latte?
I stopped by for a hot chocolate the other day and this was the quote on my cup. I won't buy from them again...plus the fact that they couldn't even get my hot chocolate order correct, how hard is that?
Funny how gays get their panties in a bunch of this...but not a word is said when Burger King pulls a dessert that 'might' be deemed offensive to Islam if you happen to read the logo while on drugs.
Don't hold your breath.
So I suppose it is ok to post Anti Queer banners on GALA websites and at their rallies...to educate them to another point of view..?And how is a coffee cup message a discussion of anything? One sided advocate statements are not a discussion.
hard to read all the quote and not spill the coffee, isn't it?
"Coffee cups featuring a quote by a gay author about growing up homosexual"
Growing up homosexual....
Given that there is ZERO evidence that homosexual behavior is any more genetic than pedophilia or adultery, we must assume the author was sexually molested by a homosexual pedophile...
I think we have bigger stuff to worry about than what is printed on a coffee cup.
that is just weird.
I think CAIR was boycotting starbucks last year, or the year before.
"My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long"
To finish the quote with a little more honesty, he should have added...
"... well, THAT and the really nasty set of 'roids that have resulted from using my #2 chute as a party place."
I'd like to see the response if Scripture verses were put on the cups and sent to UCLA, for example. Like John 14:6.
Just wondering . . . would Starbucks print the title of Ann Coulter's book "How to Speak to a Liberal - if you must"? I seriously doubt it as something un-pc wouldn't fit into their homo agenda would it.
LOL
I have a true, and hopefully amusing, Starbucks story.
I am a real coffee lover, and am always on the hunt for the perfect brew.
A few years ago I decided to try virtually every coffee in my supermarket. I pointedly avoided Starbucks because of its yuppie/liberal image.
Finally, not having found the perfect coffee, I broke down and bought a pound of Starbucks French Roast.
Took it home, brewed a pot, and as soon as I took a sip said to myself "darn." It was not just better than the rest, it was great.
So despite my reservations, I'm afraid that I've become a regular customer!
"... well, THAT and the really nasty set of 'roids that have resulted from using my #2 chute as a party place."
that'll be the response of the day for me! Nothing can top that!
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