Gay 'Replacements Ltd' Owner Faces NC Hate After Opposing Amendment One
A business owner who came out against Amendment One with a big financial donation is facing hate and boycotts from anti-equality North Carolinians, the NYT reports:
Replacements Limited, which sells silver, china and glassware, and is based in Greensboro. Its founder and chairman, Bob Page, is gay. The company lobbied legislators, contributed money to causes supporting gay marriage, rented a billboard along the interstate near its headquarters, and sold T-shirts at its showroom. Its experience may explain why no other for-profit company followed its example.
Hostile letters and e-mails poured into the company from customers canceling their business and demanding to be removed from its e-mail list. “I understand that your company donated $250,000 or so to the effort to ban the marriage amendment,” read one. “I am very concerned that with an increased visibility and acceptance of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, one of my children, who would have grown up and been happily married to a husband, could be tempted to the lesbian lifestyle.”
Another read: “I was excited to see your wares and expected a pleasant shopping experience. Instead I was accosted by your political views, which I do not share. It was very uncomfortable and unpleasant browsing with all those signs and T-shirts against amendment one, to the point where I had to leave.”
Here's Replacements Ltd's website. If you wish, show Page and his company your support!
the fear some parents *actually* have is that they won't be able to control their children.
when the world around them proves their beliefs to be bogus they lose their power. anti-gay parents in a pro-Equality culture have little to no sway.
for too long being gay made you a pariah. step up your visibility and ask your non-gay friends and family to do the same. popular opinion "counts" - and when people realize that being ANTI-GAY makes you the pariah it's a real incentive to get with the times.
Posted by: LittleKiwi | May 25, 2012 3:21:06 PM
@MIKE IN ASHEVILLE.... Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams did not participate in the fight against Amendment One.
Posted by: Tim NC | May 25, 2012 3:48:28 PM
@RICK.... Based on your own description it's not the sexual orientation that is a "choice". It's what a person decides to do or not do about it. In the case you cite, the "choice" is to ignore the natural orientation and choose an opposite -sex marriage for convenience.
Posted by: Tim NC | May 25, 2012 3:50:41 PM
@RICK.... Based on your own description it's not the sexual orientation that is a "choice". It's what a person decides to do or not do about it. In the case you cite, the "choice" is to ignore the natural orientation and choose an opposite -sex marriage for convenience.
Posted by: Tim NC | May 25, 2012 3:50:42 PM
Well, unless that sad example of a
Southern Lady knows of another place to find that completer set for her discontinued flatware, or a replacement for the saucer she broke, while a little too tipsy to be doing dishes, she's just gonna have to put up with the hommersekshuls! She was so uncomfortable that she had to leave...notice she doesn't say whether or not she bought what she needed before walking out the door!
Posted by: jim | May 25, 2012 4:54:09 PM
I can understand boycotts when business owners discriminate against specific groups, but this business owner *opposed* discrimination. Obviously our opponents don't view it this way, but the FACT remains that only ONE side is imposing its values on others, and that is the hateful Anti-Gay side.
Posted by: Randall Reynolds | May 25, 2012 4:57:00 PM
How many of those hillbillies would actually buy something so tasteful and expensive in the first place?
Posted by: boone68 | May 26, 2012 12:32:17 AM
Thanks Mr. Page, you are a mensch! He has chutzpah too! It is courageous for him to stand up for a just cause, just as it was for the early drag queens who fought back to change archaic anti-gay laws in San Francisco and elsewhere and were in the front lines of the gay rights movement. Again, Thank you Mr. Page for being there for gays in N.C and America.
Posted by: Jerry Pritikin aka The Bleacher Preacher | May 26, 2012 8:15:35 AM
I have spent a good deal of money on replacements from Replacements, and now, in addition to being a satisfied customer, couldn't be prouder one.
And I'm with MDENIS - more stories about businesses we can support.
Posted by: UFFDA | May 26, 2012 11:45:48 AM
Now if Mr. Page could just find me one of those wonderful brown Arabia mugs, also an espresso cup!
Posted by: UFFDA | May 26, 2012 11:48:46 AM
The silly part is how many of these boycotters will be back when they realize how few places one can go to replace a missing or broken piece of china or silver. Replacements is a near-monopoly and good for them! I hope their business increases because of this!
Posted by: johnny | May 26, 2012 12:59:21 PM
Bob--
Just read the Times article. Thanks for all you have done and are doing on behalf of our community in the fight for gay marriage equality
Posted by: John | May 26, 2012 12:59:40 PM
I wrote to Mr Page (offering my support) and received the following reply:
On behalf of Bob Page, thank you for your supportive comment regarding Replacements’ public opposition to Amendment One.
As you know, our Founder, Chairman & CEO is Bob Page. Bob grew up on a small tobacco farm in North Carolina. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, he served in the United States Army, leaving active duty in 1970. Bob founded Replacements, Ltd. in 1981, having started the business in his attic. Today, the company is the largest retailer of discontinued and active tableware in the country. Bob shares his life with his partner of 23 years, Dale Frederiksen. Together, they are raising their almost thirteen-year-old sons, twins they adopted as infants in Vietnam.
Because of the discrimination that Bob has experienced, he is committed to ensuring that all persons, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons, achieve equal protection under the law. For that reason, Bob is personally active in shaping public policy, and he proudly supports candidates who support the rights of LGBT persons, regardless of party affiliation. He has publicly advocated for the defeat of Amendment One because, as he has said, it is contrary to our core value of affirming the dignity of all persons. The matter is deeply personal to him, because it relates to what is most important to him: his family.
We thank you again for your comment, recommendations and send our best wishes.
Posted by: Oliver | May 27, 2012 4:46:25 AM
I wrote a letter of support to him and received a very nice response back. Did not know that he and his partner are raising twins that they adopted in Vietnam. Anyway, it does not seem as if he will be backing down anytime soon on his support of LGBT community in his home state.
Posted by: Swiminbuff | May 27, 2012 10:29:56 AM
Come on people, break a plate, drop a glass, bend a spoon; Replacements has the most complete inventory of tableware I have ever seen. Go on line to replacements.com, find your pattern and let's get clumsy! Bob Page deserves it.
Posted by: StevyD | May 27, 2012 8:48:53 PM
He screwed up with the posters in his store. No businessman that deal with the public should EVER put political posters in their place of business; especially about a publicly controversial matter.
Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!
Posted by: Jerry6 | May 27, 2012 8:48:55 PM
JERRY6, your advice is right only when the support is for evil and nasty things (like republicans), in Bob's case it is a sign of good breeding and righteousness.
Posted by: StevyD | May 27, 2012 8:53:05 PM
More proof that anti-gay Christians are oppressive and evil. They are the ones possessed by Satan and they do not even know it. Who else would want to destroy people that God has made to be equal?
Posted by: Dave | May 27, 2012 9:35:58 PM
Not only doI and my family support Robert, he is a GREAT SOURCE OF PRIDE AND INSPIRATION! Our GAY son just received his Masters from ECU as a therapist for which he particularly centers on LGBT adolescents as well as those who battle with substance abuse issues of both the Gay as well Straight.
Without your strong support and enlightened approach toward the LGBT citizens, they would be greatly bereft of not only a splendid role model but also an invaluable VOICE in our state. I am sorry to see how NC, a previously progressive state has become mean spirited and tremendously HOMOPHOBIC as well as RACIST to ALL MINORITY populations!
Robert , we will never be able to thank you enough for what you've for our STATE as well as a role model for our son.
Long may you live and prosper, for you are certainly a STATE/NATIONAL treasure!!!
Posted by: ahharden | Oct 7, 2012 10:33:50 PM