Gay pride parade is brought to you by - Microsoft and other corporate sponsors who offer support

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 6/25/05 | Brad Wong

[Crackingham]

If Microsoft Corp. was skittish about supporting gay rights legislation in Olympia, it doesn't seem to have reservations about being a sponsor in tomorrow's gay pride parade in Seattle. More than 100 Microsoft employees, including members of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft, are expected to march in the parade. The Redmond software company also will have a booth in Volunteer Park as part of the festivities. And Microsoft isn't alone.

Despite boycott threats from anti-gay groups and the perception of a gay marriage backlash from the American public, corporate sponsorship of gay pride festivities held around the country this month remains strong, according to event organizers nationwide and advertising agencies that specialize in reaching gay and lesbian consumers. From Anheuser-Busch to Bank of America, Avis-Rent-a-Car to Aetna Insurance, mainstream businesses that might have once thought twice about flying their logos alongside the rainbow flag are actively courting a market they consider beneficial, if not essential, to their bottom lines. For many Seattle businesses, participation in the local pride parade is about acknowledging the city's residents and their customers.

"We're committed to supporting things that matter to our employees and our customers," said Heywood McGuffee, Starbucks marketing manager for Washington state.

About 75 Starbucks employees will march in the parade and will wear T-shirts in rainbow colors with the word "PRIDE" on the front, he said. A van from the coffee company will follow them. On Capitol Hill tomorrow, Starbucks employees at the company's three stores there will pass out samples of Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino.

Washington Mutual Inc., headquartered in Seattle, will host an information booth in Volunteer Park tomorrow to show its support, although it won't have a float in the parade that day, said spokesman Adrian Rodriguez. Washington Mutual also supports gay-pride events in San Francisco and San Diego. Rodriguez said the bank supports the event because "we have a history of involvement with all the communities we serve. This is a way to demonstrate that we value and respect the gay and lesbian communities."

Employees from Buca di Beppo, the Italian restaurant, will participate in the parade, driving the "Buca Bug," a Volkswagen tricked out to resemble a red-and-white checked tablecloth, said part-owner Tracy Watson. They'll be handing out $10 gift certificates.

"We always participate in this. It's part of Seattle's culture," she said. "It gets our name out there as being part of the community in downtown Seattle."Held every June, Gay and Lesbian Pride Month marks the June 27, 1969, anniversary of a raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village. The event -- which became known as the Stonewall Riots after the bar's patrons resisted the police -- is a touchstone in the gay rights movement.

Although most companies that participate in pride events are reluctant to discuss it, they have to evaluate the risks as well as the rewards of so visibly entering the lesbian and gay market. That was a lesson Ford learned earlier this month when the American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., called for a Ford boycott because of the carmaker's decision to donate to gay rights organizations for every Jaguar and Land Rover it sold.

The American Family Association suspended the Ford boycott until December after the group heard from some local Ford dealers. But the group has an active boycott against Kraft Foods because of the company's decision to sponsor the Gay Games, which are being staged in Chicago next year.

"It doesn't surprise us that more companies are doing this because we are becoming a more socially liberal country in many respects," said Tim Wildmon, the group's president. "Where 10 years or five years ago they would have seen something inherently wrong with putting their product at a gay pride event, today they are not even considering the moral question."

[sgtbono2002]

People keep saying that the queer population is only around 1 or 2 percent. Thats BS There is no way these corporations come out of the closet for a population of 1 or 2 percent. These freaks are everywhere and recruiting our kids in schools.

I am switching to Miller Light. Bud can go on kissing fruits on their already sadly used butts without my dollar.

[Elsie]

Who cares as long as I make money!

[Clemenza]

What this story needs is..... Illinois Nazis.

PLEASE no. These finnoch's are going to be tying up traffic all Sunday thanks to their "Pride" parade. BTW: When will heterosexual Republicans have THEIR pride parade in Seattle? It is easier in this town to come out of the closet as a friend of Dorothy than it is to state that you are a Republican.

[Elsie]

 

 

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Genesis 13:13
  Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
 

Genesis 18:20-21
 20.  Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
 21.  that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

Genesis 19:4-7
 4.  Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house. 
 5.  They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
 6.  Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
 7.  and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.

Isaiah 3:9
 9.  The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

 More?

Ezekiel 16:49-50
 49.  "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
 50.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

 

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But there IS hope!!!

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1 Corinthians 6:9-11
 9.  Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
 10.  nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

 11.  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

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If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape.....

[Clemenza]

When I hear that Gays recruit, I just always picture Uncle Sam in a-sless chaps and a pink wife beater saying "I Want YOU."

[Clemenza]

A bar full of "straight guys" does not exist.

Uh, historically bars have been an all male environment. This was the case up until 40 years ago when that idiotic institution known as the "singles bar" was created. Before women were allowed into bars, they were great places with sawdust on the floor, smoke in the air, where men would go to get away from their wives and jobs. Now such bars are dying to make way for these stupid yuppified "clean, smoke free" female friendly places.

Some of us still go to a bar to drink and shoot the bull, NOT to "score," whether it be with another woman or a guy or whatever.

I still wish McSorley's banned women like they did until 1970.

[SkyPilot]

Good post.

[vox_freedom]

knew some guys that set up stuff at gay pride parade....got paid good...got no beef with guys

[kstewskis]

Better manners, tips, and less fights?

[GOPJ]

Corporations ought to be ashamed of themselves for promoting public indecency.

You're wrong!! Corporations should be sponsoring parades for all sexual lifestyles. The guy who was caught doing the neighborhood dog should have his own parade -- and the people who can only do it with pictures, or looking through a window should have a parade. Why is Microsoft so bigoted and narrow in their acceptance of sexuality. I like a trapeze in the moodlight off a tall building. How about a parade for me?

[GOPJ]

.

Corporations ought to be ashamed of themselves for promoting public indecency.

You're wrong!! Corporations should be sponsoring parades for all sexual lifestyles. The guy who was caught doing the neighborhood dog should have his own parade -- and the people who can only do it with pictures, or looking through a window should have a parade. Why is Microsoft so bigoted and narrow in their acceptance of sexuality. I like a trapeze in the moonlight off a tall building. How about a parade for me?

On a more serious note, I don't care what adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms, but I think it's silly to have a parade about any sexual lifestyle. And Microsoft looks foolish sponsoring one.

[RightWingAtheist]

Plus it means more women for us nice guys who usually face of wall of macho creeps when trying to hit it on :)

[RightWingAtheist]

anti in your face gay groups.

If there was such a group, most gays I know would join. They're completely embarrassed by those freak shows in June.

[dfwgator]

As long as gays have more disposable income because they don't have to deal with paying for kids, they will continue to be a marketer's dream.

[dfwgator]

"I've always loved you."

[Ciexyz]

bump with no comment

[ikka]

Love that dare not speak its name ... has now become the love that just won't shut up!

[Jackknife]

"I hate Illinois Nazis!"

(besides......they drive Pintos!)

[vox_freedom]

Next year's Grand Parade Marshal, Mayor Jim West of Spokane.

[little jeremiah]

In their hearts they know they're wrong. They try to shut up that little voice with "Pride" this and that. They want to shut up everyone who tells them the truth.

But they can never stop the small voice in their hearts. It drives them mad. They can even start "churches" like the Metropolitan Community Church (all homosexual, all the time) to have a fake religion that sanctions and glorifies homosexuality.

But that voice will still be there, telling them: "You're wrong, dead wrong!"