"Homosexual pride parade is brought to you by - Microsoft and other corporate sponsors who offer support". 
Posted on 06/24/2005 11:20:30 PM PDT by 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."
"Homosexual pride parade is brought to you by - Microsoft and other corporate sponsors who offer support".
Like I said, a bar full of straight guys does not exist.
Yes, in the past pubs and bars were like little clubs, only for men ( manly men, those that welded steel or used a hammer and nails to make their living ). But thanks to org`s like NOW, it is sadly a distant memory. But blame it on whomever you like, it is currently the way it is.
Microsoft probably "fits right in" with the gay lifestyle since they sodomize their clients everyday...
These gay parades only succeed in people not liking gays more. The thing I hate about so many of them is that they can't just be quiet about it, but have to shove it down the rest of our throats! It drives me crazy! We need a good heterosexual parade sometime in Boston and see what happens...
bump
M-a-c-i-n-t-o-s-h
In the last week in Madrid and Warsaw there were two huge, massive parades/protests supporting marriage and against so-called "gay" marriage - complete with banners, flags, nice looking families, children and so on. Very huge. We could use something like that in this country. Do a search and look for the pictures - they're very encouraging.
I guess proving how far you can pee wouldn't be germane in this context ;o)
We could use something like that in this country.
Very much agreed there. It is sad that the papers make so much of how many people there are at gay pride parades. There should be "family pride" parades too. The media would probably call them names hate-mongers or something though. Deep down I think everyone realizes the best family is the nuclear family unit and respects good mothers and fathers. But it's the behavior of society that says different.
Exactly. Why people want to have a parade in honor of what they do in their bedrooms is a mystery to me.
They don't have the "pride" to keep it indoors I guess.
to org`s like NOW, it is sadly a distant memory.
Bars seem to be an environment now where females are debased. I wonder what NOW thinks of that.
You should do a simple search to see the pictures from Spain and Poland - very encouraging.
These gay parades only succeed in people not liking gays more.
They also promote the notion of free sex and make light of the institution. You would think that to legitimize gay marriage, they would make an effort to maintain and show committed, monagamous relationships. Instead, it seems to be the opposite and turns off people more to the concept.
You should do a simple search to see the pictures from Spain and Poland - very encouraging.
I'll do that. Thanks. Spain and Poland are two of the more conservative places in Europe, if there can be such a thing. It would be nice to see some pictures like that in the US someday. Do you know of any such instances?
If a pro-marriage march is ever planned anywhere in the US, particularly in DC, the little jeremiahs will drive the 3000 miles to get there in one of our beatup cars. See you there!
If a pro-marriage march is ever planned anywhere in the US, particularly in DC, the little jeremiahs will drive the 3000 miles to get there in one of our beatup cars. See you there!
Great! The pictures looked encouraging by the way. Thanks.
Here are a few links to articles about the marches in Spain and Poland, with pictures:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1426290/posts
In Pictures: Spain rallys against Gay Marriage.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1426282/posts
Catholic Church marches against marriage for gays
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1426298/posts
Church Leads Protest in Spain (Huge! Against Gay Marriage)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425718/posts
ANTI HOMOSEXUAL PARADE IN WARSAW (see the pictures)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1426712/posts
Spanish and Polish Catholic Protests Against Gay Marriage
There, I think that about does it!
Thanks. I like the priest with the dark glasses. I guess, we'll wait and see what happens over there.
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