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Wal-Mart Partners With Gay-Lesbian Chamber
The Morning News ^ | August 22, 2006 | Anita French

Posted on 08/23/2006 5:50:17 AM PDT by sweetliberty

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is joining with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to help advance diversity within the Bentonville-based retailer’s operations, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Dee Breazeale, a Wal-Mart vice president, will serve on the chamber’s corporate advisory council, which works to educate corporate America on the benefits of workplace diversity.

“We are honored to have Wal-Mart's support of the NGLCC. Our partnership will not only provide more opportunities for the NGLCC, but the business community as a whole,” Justin Nelson, chamber co-founder and president, said in a news release. “We are pleased with this addition to our organization and to our council.”

Wal-Mart has also agreed to sponsor some of the chamber’s programs, including two of its conferences.

Wal-Mart didn’t issue a news release about its partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, leaving it to the chamber to publish the news at its Web site Monday.

Wal-Mart spokesman Bob McAdam in a telephone interview with The Morning News downplayed any controversy over the issue.

“We participate in all kinds of organizations, hundreds of them, (and) this is just one. It’s not really any different than any outreach we do that represents a segment of our customers,” he said.

Reaction from one quarter was critical, however. American Family Association spokesman Randy Sharp said his organization wasn’t surprised by the news because it was the latest in a “long list” of Wal-Mart actions to “recognize and endorse a personal sexual behavior.”

“It’s disappointing. I personally chose two months ago to stop shopping at Wal-Mart ... and I think others will follow suit,” Sharp said. “Up until a year and a half ago, the AFA applauded Wal-Mart for their pro-family policies, but now it seems Wal-Mart has decided to push aside that legacy left by (founder) Sam Walton and joined those who look at the bottom line and stock prices.”

McAdam retorted that Walton’s legacy was “taking care of customers and taking care of their needs, and in the process we’ll run a profitable business.”

The American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., and headed by Donald Wildmon, criticized Wal-Mart last year when the company held a seminar on how to market to gay America and also just recently when the retailer prominently advertised that it carried the “Brokeback Mountain” DVD in its stores.

Wal-Mart added gays and lesbians to its anti-discrimination policy in 2003. Spokeswoman Linda Blakley said in December that the company’s marketing seminar grew out of an Associate Resource Groups program Wal-Mart launched in April 2005.

The Associates Resource Group features “affinity or network groups” and includes ones for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. An American Family Association Journal article at the time criticized the program, saying Wal-Mart had “caved in” to gay activists.

Other companies with representatives on the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber Corporate Advisory Council include IBM, Wells Fargo and Kodak, according to the chamber.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: aids; corporateamerica; discountsextoys; disease; economictreason; hiv; homosexualagenda; queersrus; sodomites; sodomy; walmart
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To: sweetliberty

Maybe gays’ll bring some real fashion to Wal-Mart’s clothing and linen. The deli will improve some, but and the beauty salon’s going totally upscale. Fabulous!


21 posted on 08/23/2006 6:16:50 AM PDT by elfman2 (An army of amateurs doing the media's job.)
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To: sweetliberty

Has Target done this too?


22 posted on 08/23/2006 6:29:17 AM PDT by JRochelle
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To: DungeonMaster

You are right about finding it tough to shop without Wal Mart/Sams. We live in Northwest Arkansas and there isn't much else here. Most of the people here work for Wally World in some capacity. Most executives and everyone else lives here. I was personal friends with Sam and his family and they were and still are good people. Corporate PC has ovetaken them.


23 posted on 08/23/2006 6:33:53 AM PDT by kingskid
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To: sweetliberty

Finally. I real reason to hate WalMArt. I have found things stuck to my shoe with more spine than these corporate pukes.


24 posted on 08/23/2006 6:38:40 AM PDT by ohioman
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To: sweetliberty

I'm curious how Wal-Mart knows someone engages in homosexual acts? It seems a rather bizarre thing to be concerned about.


25 posted on 08/23/2006 6:41:07 AM PDT by TheDon (The Democratic Party is the party of TREASON!)
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To: TheDon

Will there be a question on application: who do you sleep with???


26 posted on 08/23/2006 6:43:17 AM PDT by acsrp38 (Found: WMD Saddam didn't have before he didn't have them)
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To: sweetliberty
" I suppose this will create quite a dilemma for the business-hating lefties."
And for a few of the 'Wal-Mart can do no wrong' uber free marketeer crowd, too.

(FWIW I don't care for the local wal-mart and would much rather shop in an offbeat local store but for some things they can't be beat)
27 posted on 08/23/2006 6:45:02 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, ATF and DEA)
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To: sweetliberty
............old Sam must be spinning, spewing, & cussing the nuevo management team....
28 posted on 08/23/2006 6:46:16 AM PDT by cbkaty (I may not always post...but I am always here......)
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To: DungeonMaster
Actually Walmart ain't that cheap....I manage to shop there about 3 times a year and quite frankly I could do without.
29 posted on 08/23/2006 6:46:21 AM PDT by ThisLittleLightofMine
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To: sweetliberty

Look, I don't mind products made by Chinese slave labor, but I'll be damned if I'll shop at a place that cozies up to gays.


30 posted on 08/23/2006 6:46:49 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: sweetliberty
educate corporate America on the benefits of workplace diversity.

Wonder what the sales pitch is like to convince a company that hiring homosexuals is beneficial to the company.

Little boys pants will always be half off?

31 posted on 08/23/2006 6:53:11 AM PDT by N. Theknow ((Kennedys - Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat - But they know what's best.))
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To: cbkaty
"............old Sam must be spinning, spewing, & cussing the nuevo management team...."

Actually most associates at wally world believe he's laying face down now...too embarrassed by what his company has become...I know...I work there.

32 posted on 08/23/2006 6:53:50 AM PDT by ~Vor~
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To: sweetliberty
I just left the following at the site. Please follow my lead and write of your outrage. Try to stay rational and reasonable. Hatred breeds hatred. Gays are sad. Homosexuals destroy society.

"Homosexuals are people who indulge in behavior that destroys, is completely selfish and is antithetical to a strong, vibrant, growing society. These are facts. To acknowledge, or to give support to these people's choices, which are detrimental to our future, is anathema. I also will never step a foot in another Wal-Mart store."

33 posted on 08/23/2006 6:56:43 AM PDT by MSSC6644
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To: scripter; DBeers; wagglebee

I think this one needs to be on the list, or maybe both lists.

:-(


34 posted on 08/23/2006 6:58:07 AM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: sweetliberty

-I suppose this will create quite a dilemma for the business-hating lefties.-

I think the hating part is all talk from the looks of my local WalMart parking lot.


35 posted on 08/23/2006 7:03:45 AM PDT by AmericanChef
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To: sweetliberty
My first-- and only-- WalMart experience is a perfect metaphor for why they are so successful and why they will have a hard time maintaining that success.

In college, I worked for a small-chain record store. They were still called a record store, even though we were about 50-50 on casettes and CDs. My mother, in her infinte wisdom, decided that, thanks to my employee discount, she could have a cheap Christmas with me getting her a ton of tapes and CDs for everyone: Mariah Carey for her niece, Englebert Humperdinck for Aunt Eunice, you get the idea.

An associate told me that, despite the employee discount here, I could get them for even less at Wal-Mart. Since my mom already gave me the cash, I saw a chance to skim a little.

Went to Wally World and had a great deal of trouble finding about half the CDs, especially the Rock and Country ones. That part of the CD display looked like a tornado hit it. (The rest of the store was not in better shape.) Finally, there was one left I could not find. Knowing that, at my current place of employment, stock was kept under the displays, I opened up a cabinet below the display (it was not locked), opened a box of CDs with the appropriate artist, took out a CD, and put the box back.

No one-- not an employee, not loss-prevention-- came up to me. The checkout clerk did not even bat an eye when 14 of the CDs had those plastic locks on them and the 15th did not.

I *saw* a total of two employees in the store, midafternoon one week before Christmas: the greeter and the cashier. Oh, yeah, the line was a mile long, they had one register open.

Oh, total savings on 15 CDs relative to the employee discount... $9.

THe chain record store for which I used to work filed for bankruptcy a year later.

Still have not gone back to Wally World.

36 posted on 08/23/2006 7:12:24 AM PDT by GoBucks2002
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To: AmericanChef
I think the hating part is all talk from the looks of my local WalMart parking lot.

People don't know what's been decided by Wal-Mart. Note the article states that the announcement of this decision was NOT published by Wal-Mart but the homosexual group that set this up.

37 posted on 08/23/2006 7:13:16 AM PDT by MSSC6644
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To: stevio

That issue doesn't bother me quite as much. I went through a big "Christmas is a pagan thing" stage and still have a little of that left over.


38 posted on 08/23/2006 7:13:17 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (More and more churches are nada scriptura.)
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To: sweetliberty
Meanwhile, the DUmmies are dubious.

Wal-Mart gets no credit for being PC.

Should we support wal-mart's quest to "support" us?

39 posted on 08/23/2006 7:35:03 AM PDT by Salman
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To: Wolfie

You stole my line.

It's gonna be tough, but the bad feeling I had about helping China's military buildup by shopping there is now increased by walmarts commitment to destroying us at home as well.


40 posted on 08/23/2006 7:41:05 AM PDT by Idaho Whacko
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