Come on “Pro-Family” groups, lets have a real boycott

Currently because of their support for basic rights for all american citizens, Starbucks is in the crosshairs of NOM, and One Million Moms keeps going after JC Penny. However I got to thinking and I decided to look at the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index that rates companies based on their treatment of their queer employees and how they behave as a corporate citizen with respect to civil rights.

Here’s the official criteria

1a Prohibits Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation (15 points)
1b Prohibits Discrimination Based on Gender Identity or Expression (15 points)
2a Offers Partner Health/Medical Insurance (15 points)
2b Has Parity Across Other “Soft” Benefits for Partners (10 points) (half credit for parity across some, but not all benefits)
2c Offers Transgender-Inclusive Health Insurance Coverage (10 points)
3a Firm-wide Organizational Competency Programs (10 points)
3b Has Employer-Supported Employee Resource Group OR Firm-Wide Diversity Council (10 points) Would Support ERG if Employees Express Interest (half credit)
4 Positively Engages the External LGBT Community (15 points) (partial credit of 5 points given for less than 3 efforts)
5 Responsible Citizenship Employers will have 25 points deducted from their score for a large-scale official or public anti-LGBT blemish on their recent records (-25 points)

So if a company has 50 out of a hundred, they are far from perfect (hint hint T-mobile) but the sheer broad spectrum of companies who so called Pro-Family groups should be boycotting is still quite staggering.

If they want to use their cellphone, they should be avoiding AT&T (100 pts), Sprint (100 pts), T-Mobile (55pts) and probably Verizon since they have non-discrimination policies and partner benefits (Clocking in at an anaemic 20 points). They should also remember that all the other phone networks use those 4 networks to be able to exist and so you can’t go elsewhere and still maintain the boycott.

For your Internet options, you’re blocked again by AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner (90pts) which covers most of the major competitors…and the same applies for your TV with DirecTV (75 pts). You do have an option you could always go with the Dish Network (0 pts).

As far as your eating and drinking, problems abound, Pepsi (95 pts), Coca Cola (75pts), and Dr Pepper/Snapple (60pts) are going to force you to be thirsty, while McDonalds (75 pts), Burger King (55 pts), and even Yum! (45 pts) will keep you away from KFC. Don’t think you are safe at the supermarket tho, Kraft (100 pts), Kellog (100 pts) and Unilever (100 pts) are gonna need to be avoided like the plague.

When you sit down at your computer, you’d better hope its not using an operating system from Microsoft (100 pts), or even worse, put together by those lovely people at Dell, HP, or Apple (100 pts a piece). It’ll have to be using something from North Korea, because if its got an Intel (95 pts) or AMD (70 pts) processor in it…

Once you get online, you’d better not search with Google (100 pts), Yahoo (100 pts), or Microsoft’s Bing, and you should definitely not be shopping on Amazon (90 pts) or eBay (100 pts). If you order anything offline, best check to make sure its not UPS (100 pts) or FedEx (75 pts) doing the delivering.

Filling up at the tank, you’re in luck you can stop at Exxon (-25 pts) but you’ll have to drive past Chevron (100 pts), BP (85 pts) and Shell (85 pts). Of course you won’t be driving a car from GM (85 pts), Ford (100 pts), Toyota (100 pts), Chrysler (100 pts), Volkswagon (90 pts), or Subaru (85 pts).

Don’t even think about paying by card, because American Express (100 pts), Visa (85 pts) and MasterCard (90 pts) don’t share your values. Bank choices are easier, but that sock under the bed might be easier than avoiding Bank of America (100 pts), Citigroup (100 pts), and Goldman Sachs (100 pts)

This is an incomplete list, but I think if these groups are serious about fighting the march for equality they’ve got to really boycott, and not be weak on this issue. Boycott all the companies that stand up for our rights, and value our contributions. I know why you don’t, its because you know the fight is already over, even the one of the nasty ones (Dominos) has sneaked up to 30 pts. So you can have your little tantrums, and complain, but you know while you can boycott Starbucks, you can’t function without your cell phone.

You’ve failed to bully anyone other than Mitt Romney…I know you won’t accept that equality is only a matter of when, but it is. Hope some day you can accept that.

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Written by: gemma | June 21, 2012 | Categories: Articles | Tags: "Pro-Family", Boycott, christianright, Family Research Council, one million moms | Leave A Comment »