As if I needed more reasons to get fruit cakes from them.
Posted on 12/03/2005 7:39:53 PM PST by bloggodocio
A national gay and lesbian activist group released a buyer's guide Wednesday that details which large companies have policies that are fair for gay employees.
The guide, released by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign, aims to steer consumers away from some brands they say are unfair to gays.
"LGBT Americans are changing the policies of corporate America at the checkout line," said Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign president. "The buying guide helps fair-minded consumers make their best choices this holiday season."
The 28-page pocket guide groups businesses into categories such as "electronics" and "household products." Each corporation is rated on a scale from zero to 100 based on seven criteria important for gay employees, including protection against discrimination and health care benefits for domestic partners.
Examples of suggested buying choices include shopping at clothing retailer Banana Republic over L.L. Bean, and purchasing high-tech gadgets from Best Buy instead of Circuit City. Three corporations tied for least-fair in the listing with a rating of 14: retail and grocery chain Meijer Inc., energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. and textile manufacturer Shaw Industries.
The campaign criticized Exxon Mobil for not offering health benefits to domestic partners of Exxon employees when the company merged with Mobil in 1999. Employees who initially worked for Mobil continue to receive benefits for domestic partners.
"We believe that basing employee benefits on legally recognized spousal relationships that are broadly recognized within the country is the only way our benefits plans can be applied in a fair, rational, and consistent manner for our 88,000 employees worldwide," said Russ Roberts, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, in an e-mail.
"Exxon Mobil is guided by the laws in the nearly 200 countries and territories where we operate. ... In the United States we have elected to adopt the definition of spouse used in federal legislation, which has the effect of limiting coverage to heterosexual couples.
"Our record on discrimination speaks for itself - we do not discriminate. Period," Roberts added.
A record 101 companies posted perfect ratings in the guide, up from 56 in 2004 and 13 in 2002, the index's first year.
"We don't ask these companies to know us, or even like us," said Sheila Alexander-Reid, founder of the black lesbian organization Women in the Life. "We just want them to treat all their employees equally and fairly."
Reid said the survey would play a large part in influencing where she shops. Most gays and lesbians want to buy from gay-friendly companies, but usually base their decisions only on which ones advertise in gay media, she added.
"With this guide, now we know for sure," Reid said.
According to research by Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive, 70 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are very or extremely likely to consider a brand that is known to provide equal workplace benefits for gay and lesbian employees. Solmonese said the gay and lesbian community has an estimated $610 billion of buying power.
The campaign sent surveys to 755 companies, including all Fortune 500 companies and those on Forbes' list of the 200 largest privately held firms.
According to the guide, 236 responded. The campaign rated an additional 166 companies based on its own research, which included searching public records and examining litigation and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Four other companies that fared poorly in the guide did not return telephone calls asking for comment.
For a complete listing of the campaign's rankings go to www.hrc.org/BuyersGuide
Now what would the MSM do with that Story?
'"A national gay and lesbian Christian activist group released a buyer's guide Wednesday that details which large companies have policies that are fair for gay Christian employees."'
I've never been discriminated against in the workplace as a result of being Christian, though it's an interesting question.
As for me, I'll do my holiday shopping on a dollar-by-dollar basis.
Thanks for posting.
I will print out the guide, and use it in reverse.
No real difference between Best Buy and Circuit City anyway. Etc.
Yes - I oppose the "Gay" agenda.
Gays make me sick
I think I might find their guide very useful to figure out which vendors to avoid.
Just google "boycott republican".
Here's a list of some of the businesses liberals hate from here, mostly based on contributions to the RNC.
| American Airlines | Amoco | Amway |
| Anheuser Bush | AOL Time Warner | AT&T |
| Bacardi | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Budweiser |
| Cascadian Farms | Chevron/Texaco | Chili's |
| Circuit City | Citibank | Clear Channel |
| CNN | Collin Street Bakery | Coors |
| Cracker Barrell | Curves | Dell Computer |
| Deloitte & Touche | Diamond Shamrock | Diebold |
| Direct TV | Disney | Dominoes Pizza |
| Ebby Halliday Realtors | Esso | Exxon/Mobile |
| Fed-Ex | Ford Motor Co. | Fox News |
| Fuddruckers | General Electric | General Mills |
| Genie Car Wash | Glaxo Smith Kline | Home Depot |
| Hotpoint | Iams | IBM |
| J C Penney | Kentucky Fried Chicken | Kraft Foods |
| Long John Silvers | Macaroni Grill | Mary Kay Cosmetics |
| Maxwell House | MBNA | McDonalds |
| Microsoft | Minyards | Monsanto |
| Mr. Coffee | NBC | Neiman Marcus |
| Outback Steakhouse | Pepsi-Co | Perry Homes |
| Pfizer | Phillip Morris/Altria | Pier I |
| Pilgrim's Pride | Pizza Hut | Proctor and Gamble |
| RJ Reynolds | Safeway | Sak N Save |
| Sears | Shamrock Foods | Sinclair Broadcasting Group |
| Starbucks | Supercuts | Taco Bell |
| Total Petroleum | TXU | UPS |
| Waffle House | Walmart/Sams | Wendy's |
| Winn Dixie | Wyeth |
So patronize them, and be sure to drop a line to the RATS thanking them for providing this information.
Gene Carwash?
Wow
CNN... Disney?
As if I needed more reasons to get fruit cakes from them.
2nd and 3rd runners up:
I send Collin Street Bakery fruitcakes to folks every year, and they all can't wait to get them. I hog one for myself. They are sumpin' special. When in TX, I actually made a point to see the place in Corsicana.
Yeah, still laughing about those two.
Keep in mind, the site this was from actually contains the word "Comrade".
The purpose of the exercise is to prove that any attempt by the libs to boycott or endorse will backfire when exposed to the light of day, which was Mr. Rational's point.
Gays are sick.
Actually, that gay group DID just issue a guide for Christians....and since between Evengelicals, mainline 'serious' Protestants, and practicing 'serious' Catholics, we are a population between 10 and 100 times as large as the militant gay population; let's reverse engineer this guide...
Reagan80
Nice!
I have a revision. You included Anheuser Busch, but left out Coors Brewing...yes, I know they had the 'gay' ads for Coors Light, but Pete Coors almost prevailed in Colorado for Senate in the last election...
Reagan80
So sorry,
Just went back and saw Coors, I was reading the columns down, instead of rows across...
Reagan80
You may want to send them to the Sacremento Bee Newspapers. There are a lot of gay fruitcakes in San Francisco.
Handy guide :-) Thanks! I'll be sure to put it to *good* use.
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