Here’s why. I paddle past all the flotsam and jetsam on fire== as on the Cuyahoga River that exploded in fire some years back, from all the garbage floating in it– tossed there by human beings. I paddle past the arguments of progressive, regressive. Past the hoo-holler about bigots and spigots. Past all the rest.
In 1992, Colorado passed by voters’ affirmation, Amendment 2, which set aside GLBT persons from full rights enjoyed by others, including the sponsors of the set-aside and unjust amendment…
which was cobbled and sponsored by ‘Focus on the Family” James Dobson, [Read ‘focus only on MY fundamentalist christian version of ‘family’] and two other far right wing christian men–
…and a Colorado voter had to check ‘no’ on the ballot if they meant ‘yes,’ and visa versa, confusing many. The amendment passed and the fundies crowed and hooted, and the GLBT communities of all ethnicities in Colorado rose up in unison in many ways that were effective…especially the legal pushback [and the amendment was overturned as unconstitutional in time].
But not before thousands of Coloradans were laid off or lost their jobs. Why? Because some from out of state went to press and called for a boycott of all of Colorado.
As one of the voices against the boycott, we were called names back then that are not repeatable in old fashioned newspaper standards. I recall especially a particular evile, blowfish-tempered editor [speaking of ‘bigoted’ – the word works as a descriptor in both/all directions as one travels through life] from out of state… who took huge umbrage that I or anyone else would suggest trying to solve problems of prejudice in this particular case by NOT calling for a BLANKET boycott across an entire state.
The now defunct magazine editor [the magazine, not the editor] was only one of several from out of state who held to their precious values but who had NO allegiance to the community of workers in Colorado. In my opinion, that grotesquely misguided gran mal pique for past wrongs globally, was what undergirded the animus of some of those who tried to whip the fires up here during a time when so many were already suffering from the shock of the amendment… and the economic struggle to make ends meet. Those shouts and bellows for immediately boycotting the state of Coloroad, were, as I and others foresaw huge deleterious outcome… cruel. Yes, cruel. As the harpers for boycott globally across Colorado screeched onward, the thoughtless, and as witness, it WAS thoughtless about outcome for the ‘least of the least’ who would be made to pay for the ‘sins’ of rich men who sponsored the amendment to begin with. Cruelty. Abject.
Why?
Many of the bed and breakfasts in the tourist areas were run by GLBT folks. The boycott called on Colorado tourism effectively and definitively ran them out of business. Any hotel, hospitality, convention, meeting room, restaurant that depended on tourist trade suffered from lack of business and some ‘activists’ made their nut on flogging ‘bad’ Colorado voters. Why is boycott cruel when called on an entire culture? Because the FIRST PERSONS LET GO FROM THEIR JOBS ARE THE POOR, THE WORKING CLASS: THE SINGLE MOTHERS, THE STRUGGLING FATHERS… the drivers, food preparers, room preparers, housekeeping, janitors, cooks, waiters, fast food servers, welders, plumbers, the fruits and vegetable famers, the livestock ranchers, the front desk personnel and so many more. So many more.
For many in this world, one paycheck lost, let alone MONTHS of paychecks lost because an easy boycott is called without care and regard for the poor and the lower economic classes of working poor it will affect, is a poisonous idea in my opinion.
Chick fil A’s Dan Cathy publicly feeling the need to say for whatever reason ‘no support for gay marriage’ and Barilla Pasta’s chairman, Guido Barilla for whatever his reason for suddenly publicly stating what normally would be debated in a private marketing meeting.. wont change that all Chick’s and Barilla’s thousands of persons employed still DONT have to take a loyalty oath to despise or denigrate any class of person.
No doubt, most employees, including GLBT employees of both companies [yes there likely are such] keep their personal lives personal like so many straight people do at work.
That Guido Barilla says he wont use a gay family in adverts; his call. That some dont want to eat his pasta, fine.
That Guido wants to be the scion to what he calls ‘the classic family’ whatever that is, remembering that Rome over the centuries had MORE than its share of ‘family types’ including according to Maria Montessori, tens of thousands of orphans being used as sexual toilets in the last century, because those in power, didnt give a rat’s tail for the children and their remnant families [too poor, too uneducated, ‘they’ said] he’s honking on the tin horn
— No large country that I know of has a ‘classic family’ but rather sometimes has an ideal that even here, the reality of decently fed families, decently housed families, decent work conditions for families, falls FAR short of the ‘ideal.’ So Guido can ‘classic family’ dream all he wishes. The reality is quite different, there and across the world. And if only PASTA could make the difference between drowning families and families above the water line. But dreaming ‘classic family’ wont make it so for those in the trenches. Not even close.
I seldom eat pasta, have a weight lifter’s food program, but for those who do ‘eat the wheat’, one ought do as one wishes. But I’d strongly-gently suggest taking care in calling boycott. Be thoughtful. You wont hurt the Mr and Mrs Deep Pockets of the world. They have enough socked away to take care of themselves for life. The only ones such global boycott of a company hurts– spilling over thereby onto their subsidiaries and suppliers and distributors and retailers– are the struggling poor.
If one were to do something about Guido and Kathy from Chick Fil A, I’d first look into their charitable giving, and demand that they give double to poor children for decent, proper and superior [compared to what they have now] education. There is NOTHING like educating children to give a chance for a new world that is BEYOND and beyond those dented and demented values held by ANY side, about humane treatment of others.
Just my .02
Pax y Pax.