Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyApril 7th, 2015
As I’m sure you know, the National Organization for Marriage (theirs, not yours) has been promoting Dump campaigns wherein the get supporters to pledge not to use certain vendors and products.
It all started back in March 2012, when NOM launched their Dump Starbucks campaign in response to the coffee giant’s support of Referendum 71, a pro-equality vote. That was also when NOM still maintained some grasp on relevance, and the media took them seriously.
Helped by cross promotion from other conservatives, NOM was able to garner tens of thousands of signatures from those who promised not to drink Starbucks coffee, nearly 50,000 in three months (they currently have 71,193). Although this was laughably low, considering Starbucks’ ubiquitous presence, it did suggest that the National Organization for Marriage did have some reach.
Next on their Dump list, in July 2012, was General Mills. Although it wasn’t a complete and true boycott (signatories promised to ‘look for alternatives’ to the General Mills products), it didn’t catch quite the same success as their Starbuck effort. Perhaps more people were willing to give up over-priced coffee than were willing to ‘look for alternatives’ to Pillsbury or Green Giant. But for whatever reason, Dump General Mills only pulled about 23,000 in the next few months and now has topped out at 27,930.
That put NOM off the boycott business for a while.
Yes they set up a temporary and limited boycott of Target last August which drew at least 2,756 participants, but that was much more low-key and wasn’t sold on the scale of their Dump campaigns.
But now NOM is making another attempt. Among the hundreds of companies now supporting the gay community, NOM has selected Angie’s List as their next target.
It’s hard to guess why some garner their ire while others slide by. I suppose it must be driven by what they consider to be “theirs” or who they think is betraying them in some way. But, in any case, Angie’s List it is. (For those unfamiliar, Angie’s List is a bit like Yelp in that participants grade the quality of service providers).
In a petition titled “I DUMPED ANGIE FOR LIBERTY“, NOM now has 1,463 people who claim to have cancelled their membership in the service (something I very much doubt) along with another 3,662 non-members who are saying “ANGIE’S LIST: STOP YOUR ATTACK ON FREEDOM“.
It will, of course, go nowhere. But unlike some of their other efforts, you can read what NOM’s supporters think. Which is quite a revelation (if not exactly surprising).
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Lee
April 7th, 2015
I joined Angie’s List after its CEO took the position he did in Indiana and sent them a short email explaining why I had joined up. Got a lovely note from Angie B. in return.
Lee
Bose in Phoenix AZ
April 7th, 2015
It strikes me as mean-spirited for them to press their fans to leave a whiny comment on a completely unrelated business. Maybe that won’t impact the businesses much, but that still doesn’t make it fair or decent.
The irrationality just keeps coming. With it’s basic grasp of ethics and fairness, Angie’s List will likely be OK with losing members who are prone to discriminating against some businesses, or possibly rating them negatively for being LGBT-friendly.
With 3-million-plus subscribers, NOM would have to knock a lot of folks off the roster to make a difference, and even then, more of Angie’s revenues come from advertising than subscriptions.
But, this is NOM, so up is down and right is left.
Mark F.
April 8th, 2015
NOM has been taking a lot of dumps recently.
Eric Payne
April 8th, 2015
I love their misdirection…
One of the commenters posed the question: Can you name a single instance in the Reagan-Bush years where conservatives used the power of the courts to force a legal action on anybody?
So I responded to him: “Just one? How about Michael Schiavo” and spoke in broad detail of the Terry Schiavo case.
That same commenter responded in a different conversational “thread” to my Sciavo posting by stating the Schiavo case had nothing to do with “gay marriage”. In response to that, I replied that wasn’t the question he had posed, re-stated his question, and specifically spoke of the government’s intercession in the Schiavo’s lives all based, by his own admission, on the personally held beliefs of then-Governor Jeb Bush.
Oh, and the thread in which he posted the response was one in which I questioned his statements of “a majority of voters” imposed state Constitutional DOMAs. He claimed not to understand what I was saying… then, in that same comment, showed perfect understanding of my point.
I guess he didn’t know a user can configure their discus account to receive emails when a new comment I’d posted on Discus boards in which that user participates…
TomTallis
April 9th, 2015
Why don’t they call it the “Take a Dump on America?” My heart just bleeds for their failures…
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