I smell caca.
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."
Corporations ought to be ashamed of themselves for promoting public indecency.
What this story needs is.....
Illinois Nazis.
You gotta remember...this is Seattle. No such thing as "shame" here.
I thought you hated Illinois Nazis? LMAO!
tended bar in seattle
would rather have a bar full of gays then bar fulla straight guys
I do hate Illinois Nazis. But I've discovered they spice up the gay threads. Actually, I can't think of a topic that wouldn't benefit from mention of Illinois Nazis. For instance,
Illinois Nazis Protest China's Move To Let Yuan Float
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
Hmm - Washington Mutual. I'm not surprised about Starbuck's. How does one boycott Microsoft?
Somebody say something to cheer me up.
It's a Tsunami of evil.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
Do they tip well? Guess they think you're a cute guy. ;)
they do tip better and they are less a pain in the ass(pun unintended....I SWEAR!!!!)....knew some guys that set up stuff at gay pride parade....got paid good...got no beef with guys
To each his own. Your sexual orientation is your business, I guess.
got paid good...got no beef with guys
There's a joke in there somewhere...
Exactly. Why people want to have a parade in honor of what they do in their bedrooms is a mystery to me.
"would rather have a bar full of gays then bar fulla straight guys"
A bar full of "straight guys" does not exist.
If a bar is full of guys, its a gay bar ...full of gay guys.
I smell caca.
Speak out... distribute pirated software.
I've always been confused by the notion of gay "pride". Let's look at the statistics, shall we?
- 300% higher chance for catching AIDS
- 44% of all new cases come from the sodomite community
- increased risk of domestic violence
- increased risk of drug & alcohol abuse
- increased risk of suicide and bodily injury
- rates of STD have spiked among sodomites in the last 5 years
- higher # of cases of pedophilia
- increased risk of mental disorders
- average life-span of sodomite men is 47 years.
Not to mention that pesky little thing of incurring God's wrath for openly and blatantly disregarding His natural law of human biology and sexuality.
Hoo-yeah, that's a lot to be proud of!
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