October 26, 2006

AFA Gets After Wal-Mart

The American Family Association, often a well-deserved object of scorn here, recently sent out an e-mail blast titled "Wall-Mart Rolls Out Red Carpet For Homosexual Marriage."

Among what the AFA considers the company's heinous sins are:

o Joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and being appointed to its board.

o Having the nerve to sell books that are supportive of same-sex marriage

Then this which really cracked me up:

"A quick search of Wal-Mart's website turned up the following number of items for sale: Gay - 1148 Lesbian - 468Transgender - 40 Bisexual - 38 Gay Marriage - 26 "

Personally, I think someone there has waaaaay too much time on their hands.

From my perspective, and I suspect that of most people who aren't aggressive homophobes like the AFA, Wal-Mart hardly comes across as a social activist. I have no doubt these measures were taken to promote business, and I applaud the company for that. It can only be a good thing, in my opinion, for large companies to be sensitive to the needs of GLBT consumers--a win-win for everyone involved.

Of course, the AFA just wants gay people to crawl back in the closet and it grinds their cookies when companies like Ford and Wal-Mart not only acknowledge the existence of the GLBT community but active engages it.

Good.

1 comment:

  1. Oh fer Heaven's sake... the AFA gets their feathers ruffled about any public/corporate entity which expresses an opinion that deviates even slightly from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Scriptures. I remember reading their newsletter when I was younger (raised in a baptist/evangelical family) and I was sometimes amused by the amount of supposedly Satanic themes they could derive from benign television shows and media statements. I swear they would go after Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood if they felt that it could benefit their platform at all. This is nothing new and I suspect they will be doing this for years to come. Incidentally, regardless of Walmart's changing stance on the GLBTQ community, I still actively boycott them. They are still an opressively powerful corporate entity that takes vast liberties with local labor laws and kicks viable small businesses to the curb. This country needs to wake up and realize that we are selling our soul for the sake of convenience. For a brief rundown of why, check out this article.

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