Common sense trumps theocracy, for now
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Fri Dec 16, 2005 at 04:42:01 PM EST
According to BusinessWeek, the American Family Association is not happy. Chairman Donald E. Wildmon declared that Ford Motor Company, in deciding to continue its advertising in gay publications, 'violated' an agreement reached in 'good faith' with certain conservative Ford resellers and the AFA. The possibility of a renewed boycott has been floated but it doesn't seem that Ford is going to take the bait this time. Apparently CEO Bill Ford was not all too happy about Ford being used as a fall guy for the religious right's political ambitions...  Praise be to God. This is the second time this year that a major American corporation has had the resolve to tell the theocracy what to do with their un-Christian threats and boycotts. First Microsoft, as I blogged here and here, and now Ford.
Of course, with Microsoft the issue was a more fundamental one concerning the company's support for critical legislation that would positively affect the lives of its gay and lesbian employees as well as the general GLBT population of Washington state. It could be argued (and I do argue) that a company's decision as to where to spend its advertising dollars is of far less significance than its lobbying activities or human resource initiatives. Any victory by the AFA would have been largely symbolic than real.

But then the religious right thrives on symbolic (if not totally imagined) victories as it continues to fan the flames of the so-called 'culture wars.' It is the symbolic that they use so craftily to line their waistpockets with the funds needed to launch more fundamental attacks on civil rights and freedom of religion. So defeating them on the symbolic battlefront is equally as important as dealing with them in the economic and political arenas.

I hope Target and Wal-Mart take note from this episode and similarly give the AFA and their freedom-hating ilk the shove. I don't believe for a moment that even the most socially enlightened of these companies are motivated by much more than business considerations. Corporations are not people and do not have souls or consciences, only instincts. But I do believe that these instincts can be trained and even channeled toward socially beneficial outcomes -- when executives and shareholders are forced to respond to the legitimate wants and needs of customers and employees.

Equal opportunity has proven to be good for business. And no Fortune 500 company really wants to be beholden to an extreme theocratic minority that wants to run this country (and its businesses) the way the mullahs run Iran. I'd say the right is overextending itself and ought to prepare for a backlash.

For further intelligent discussion on this issue see Michelle Goldberg's earlier post.




Display:
against boycott threats from AFA, Pro-Life Action League, Concerned Women, and others.  Mattel and American Girl Dolls apparently backed down on its donation support to the pro-gay, pro-choice Girls Inc., as I note: in this piece.

by cyncooper on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:11:29 PM EST


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