NOM Expands Failing Starbucks Boycott to Countries Where Homosexuality is Stigmatized or Criminalized
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) started a boycott of Starbucks back in March after confronting the company's chairman and CEO Howard Schultz at the annual shareholders meeting about Starbucks' inclusive policies toward LGBT people and its support of marriage equality.
Since then, the company has seen a groundswell of support from the LGBT community and its allies including a petition with 643,838 signatures (at this posting) thanking the company. Its stock has risen, and the Schultz reports that they have not seen any negative effect of the NOM boycott.
Maybe that's why NOM is making a desperate attempt to expand its boycott internationally, into countries where homosexuality is either heavily stigmatized, or criminalized:
In our first week, we gained 25,000 pledge signers in the U.S. alone; today we go international, expanding DumpStarbucks.com campaigns into Mandarin, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, and Bahala (one of the chief languages of Indonesia)," announced NOM President Brian Brown. "DumpStarbucks.com online ads will also start running in Egypt, Beijing, Hong Kong, the Yunnan region of China, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait."
"What happens in Seattle won't to stay in Seattle," Brown (pictured) continued. "By making gay marriage core to his brand, Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz is telling millions of customers and partners who support traditional marriage in the Middle East, China, South America and North America that they aren't truly part of the Starbucks community."
Flailing.
I think Mr Brown's desparation indicates that he knows he is on the losing side of history. There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. And in the Western World, at least, equality for LGBT folks is here!Sorry Brownie!
Posted by: jack | Apr 10, 2012 10:15:57 PM
How exactly is boycotting a company in places that it has a minimal presence really a boycott?
Posted by: Garst | Apr 11, 2012 12:30:52 AM
@kpo5
I thought the same thing - it's NOM, not IOM. Once they start getting other countries involved, their entire position falls apart, and their 'we're not a hate group' facade shatters. Hate's all they've got to work with.
Posted by: Gareth | Apr 11, 2012 7:09:13 AM
what you are missing is that this map http://www.dumpstarbucks.com/use_voice.php?lang=en allows people to type in any city or country and find EVERY Starbucks on a map and with an address. GalliFUCK & BrownSHIT are not just against marriage equality. They want us all KILLED and they want every Starbucks worker and customer killed too.
Posted by: Jessica Naomi | Apr 11, 2012 6:02:11 PM
Brian Brown if you are going to be a bigot, at least be more educated. The national language of Indonesia is Bahasa, not Bahala.
And I am glad that I am not the only one who spotted that example of Brian Brown's cultural incompetence.
It's not just a language of Indonesia, it's the official language of Indonesia.
Bahasa is also spoken in Malaysia, Singapore, and some islands.
As for Muslim majority countries, being gay is legal in several of them:
Turkey,Indonesia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Jordan, etc. Turkey is an officially secular state. Many Turks are not fond of gays, but there are some more liberal towns like Istanbul where both Turkish and foreign gays live and apparently not too big a deal. A gay Turkish soccer got onto a Turkish TV talk or news show to explain/protest his firing from his coaching job for being gay. Gay bars can be found not far from mosques. A number of American gays live in Istanbul, like it and call it home.
In Lebanon, gay sex is not legal, but enforcement there is lax according to Wikipedia's article on gay rights around the world. Same article says gay sex is legal in Jordan.Not officially prohibited in Iraq,but murders of gay men are very common in Iraq.
The Muslim/Christian world of the Middle East and the nearby Muslim majority countries of the Caucasus and the Balkan region are not of one belief about gays.
And someone pointed out China's growing tolerance of gay people and the difference in Chinese regional dialects, etc. Gay sex is not officially prohibited in Taiwan, Hong Kong,People's Republic of China, etc.
Brown mentions also Japan as another example where same-sex marriage is unknown and not cultural custom.
Japan recognized recently the same-sex marriages of those from lands where current legal even though Japan has not OKed its own marriage equality.
There are now many Latin countries with same-sex marriage and civil unions from Spain and Portugal to Spanish-speaking South America and Portuguese-speaking Brazil. Many of these coffee and tea-drinking countries. Brazil recently become the world's largest civil unions country with a same-sex marriage Brazilian state Alagoas.
And of course the world's largest marriage equality country Canada has Starbucks locations and Canadians are not going to pay NOM's boycott any heed.
Australia is gradually moving toward civil unions and maybe eventually same-sex marriage for some of its various states, so I predict a major fail for NOM in AU and in the civil unions country New Zealand.
NOM can forget about most of Western, Northern, Central Europe and parts of Eastern Europe, areas that have civil unions, civil partnerships,domestic partnerships, pacts,same-sex marriage, etc.
Italy, Greece, Malta and even Poland are proposing some kind of national recognition for gay relationships, even though they won't be marriage. Marriage has been proposed/pending in Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Nepal, Uruguay, Colombia,etc. this year and next. Civil unions pending in Chile. Marriage in the UK by 2015. Even Eire/Ireland has civil partnerships now and could eventually have marriage equality.
Coffee-loving Iceland has marriage. Starbucks has come to Cul Rathain/Coleraine in the UK-ruled North of Ireland where a friend of mine lives.
SO, CULTURALLY INCOMPETENT NOM,YOUR WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT IS A FAILURE AND MEANS NOTHING TO PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD WHO CAN AFFORD STARBUCKS.
Posted by: Mousemess | Apr 12, 2012 2:16:16 PM
I thought NOM already had plans anyway to bring a Starbucks boycott to countries around the world in a bid to bring Starbucks to its knees and to force it to move away from its support of gay rights.
The average worker at Starbucks looks stunned or surprised when I mention NOM's boycott of Starbucks. Apparently, NOM is not doing a very good job of making its boycott felt or known here in the USA.
Posted by: Mousemess | Apr 12, 2012 3:23:53 PM