Wal-Mart, under pressure from America's right, has decided to revoke support to the LGBT community on Black Friday,possibly the most lucrative shopping day of the year.
According to the MSNBC news article ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15835445/ ), the company gave in due to threats of boycotts from the American Family Association. The AFA claimed that Wal-Mart was, by aiding the LGBT organization called the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, supporting the issue of same-sex marriage and, thus, alienating their vast clientelle of Christian families.
Personally, this sickens me. Wal-Mart, one of the country's largest (and most notorious) companies, tries to take steps in the direction of progress by supporting the LGBT community in the workplace, and they get smashed by uber-Christian Rightist Radicals.
I think the company will lose a great deal of credibility in the LGBT community, although they swear they will continue to support the LGBT population in other ways. What tells us they won't back down every time they are threatened by the AFA?
And, to the AFA, since when has promoting equality in the workplace been a crime? And when has it EVER meant pushing a completely UNRELATED political agenda. Just because they both have to do with the LGBT population, does not mean a thing.
I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this. I am honestly so bothered, that I can't form a coherent thought.
Wal-Mart Retracts Support to GLBT Group to Avoid Boycotts on Black Friday
By karlthehippy - Posted on November 22nd, 2006
Tagged: News and politics
• Personal freedom
This just shows us that money rules. Wal-Mart is either crazy to have made a commitment to the LGBT in the first place or well, like you I really can't form a coherent thought. This is crazy, I just wonder what these people that are fighting so hard and boycotting Wal-mart for supporting homosexuality are doing to help and support the troops? I just feel that people's priorities are in the wrong place, this statement includes Wal-Mart. How can you tell someone that y ou are going to do something, and then back out? GRRRR.....I'm a bit angry right now!
Peace n Bike Grease~Sara
I'm irate.
By Wal-Mart negging on their promise to the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, they are only allowing futher discrimination. The world has only begun to take baby steps in the right direction, and I was very proud of Wal-Mart for beginning its own open support of the LGBT community.
The AFA is full of crap, in my opinion, and I'd like to find a way to boycott them for their discrimination against over 10% of our population (including my mom).
I love Wal Mart, but seeing them back down because of a group of idiots refusing to care about anybody else but themselves kinda diminishes their credibility in my eyes. Personally, I'd've told the "Rightist Radicals" to stick it where the sun don't shine. It's a free country people. If you tell someone they can't do something, they're just going to find a way to do it anyway. Nobody gives a crap if gay people are going to burn in hell - which in my opinion is also a crock.
I feel that the biggest problem with this is that the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is an association dedicated entirely to equality in the workplace/business marketplace for the LGBT community. Wal-Mart has only just begun to work on these issues, and now they are backing down on a promise to help fund (based on ONE DAY of sales) the GLCC simply because the AFA has decided to misconstrue their intentions.
Equal rights in the workplace has nothing to do with same-sex marriage, which is the touchy topic here. So, what we've started talking about is denying the LGBT community rights across the board, even in their places of work! It's ludicrous!