« Federal Judge: Supressing Voter Registration Not an Option in Ohio | Blog Index | It's a Good Day to Take Out the (9/11) Trash »


Advertisement
recent entries After Five Years Al Jazeera Journo Still at Gitmo Hastert Will Go -- It's the Disloyalty, Stupid Hastert: Dead Man Walking Maybe the Question Is: Who Didn't Know About Foley? Foley Interrupts Vote Sending Money to Troops in Iraq to Have Internet Sex with Former Page State of Geographical Denial (Note to Cheney: Get a GPS Unit...) Cheney Channeled Ghorbanifar (After All) The Washington Times Calls for Speaker Dennis Hastret to Resign Over Foley Scandal What Can Women Write? The Byline Divide Media on Foley: Bloggers vs. Old Media

Attention Gay Wal-Mart Shoppers...

Wal-Mart has formed a partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, a move that Wal-Mart calls "a very sincere effort to reach out to people who are a significant part of our customer base."

As sincere as the effort may be, Wal-Mart chose not to announce the new partnership, leaving that job to the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. And now that the word is out, there has already been some backlash from conservatives.

Wal-Mart does not offer benefits to domestic partners, though the company is said to be considering making a change in that area. At last count, Wal-Mart gave 85% of its political donations to the Republican Party, which has actively sought to curtail rights for GLBT citizens.

Wal-Mart discriminates against women in a variety of ways and is the defendant in several gender discrimination lawsuits. Wal-Mart also discriminates against working people in a variety of ways, too. Yet women and working people stand in line to shop there, so there is every reason to believe that GLBT citizens will also be sucked into the company's latest marketing ploy.

Posted by Diane E. Dees on 09/01/06 at 3:52 PM | E-mail | Print

TrackBacks

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://161.58.185.225/mb/mb-backtracks.cgi/1664

Comments

Funny use of tense there Diane: We already shop at Wal-Mart. Not when it can be avoided in my case, but we've certainly been in line with you there already, so it's not a future issue. But the GLBT community is better educated than the public at large and more politically left, so I wouldn't count on this half-ass lame-ass PR ploy creating a pride tent at Wal-Mart anytime soon.

Posted by: shaygets on 09/01/06 at 4:33 PM

Point made, though you certainly haven't been in line with ME. I've boycotted Wal-Mart for many years. I hope you're right, shaygets, and that this one backfires on Wal-Mart.

Posted by: Diane on 09/01/06 at 5:43 PM

As a gay consumer, I'll weigh in on this. I don't shop at Wal-Mart and think shaygets is pretty accurate, although, as a rural American, I have to say there are certainly gay Wal-Mart shoppers. For the record, I don't shop anywhere where there is a lot of product AND fleurescent lighting.
The sad thing is that Wal-Mart didn't come 'out' with the announcement. On the other hand, if they don't back down, it could be good pr not necessarily within the GLBT community, but to fence-sitters who are easily influenced by mainstream trends:
'I think Walmarts was right in stickin up for those gay people, AND for boycottin' those Dixie Chick girls. You know, my cousin's one of them.'

Posted by: paul miller on 09/01/06 at 6:18 PM

"Yet women and working people stand in line to shop there, so there is every reason to believe that GLBT citizens will also be sucked into the company's latest marketing ploy."

I think people are standing in line to work ANYWHERE, so that doesn't really say anything about WalMart in particular.

Posted by: a517dogg on 09/01/06 at 7:08 PM

I really don't care what Walmart or the Gay class do . I just think it is not quite right to try to change the "difination" of marriage. It "is" and always should be a man and woman joined in unity. I am sure this has been said before but God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Joe, Jim, Jerry ,etc. He knew what he was doing.

Posted by: wanda on 09/15/06 at 12:50 PM

As a gay Jew, I do not shop at WalMart because WalMart told me that it doesn't need nor want its Jewish customers. The only time I would shop at WalMart is when there was no other alternative, as in rural Georgia, where I go once a year.

Posted by: Michael on 10/04/06 at 10:47 AM