Where to Shop: A List of Companies "Too Gay Friendly" for Christofascists

As always, the Christofascists are incessantly seeking to force their hate/fear based religious beliefs on all Americans.  This year, for those who have not completed their holiday shopping, "The Faith Driven Consumer 2013 Christmas Guide," produced by a group called the Faith Driven Consumer ("FDC") may provide a good list of where to shop.  Shop at any of the stores condemned as too gay friendly.  There are lots of options because retailers - surprise, surprise - are out to sell goods and products and, therefore, except for certain companies under Christofascist ownership, tend to want to market to all Americans.  Gay Star News looks at the list.  Here are article excerpts:

American Express, Adidas, Microsoft and Target have all been listed as too gay-friendly for Christmas by anti-gay Christians.

They have made a list, they’ve checked it twice, they’ve decided who is naughty and nice.

While some companies like Hallmark and Toys R Us still make it into the ‘faith-friendly’ category despite supporting LGBTI equality, others like Gap, Visa and Sears are deemed beyond the pale.

The Faith Driven Consumer 2013 Christmas Guide is produced by the Faith Driven Consumer group, based in the US.

It particularly targets companies that ‘normalize’ LGBTI people ‘in the economic arena and broader culture’ and back same-sex marriage.

It also attacks companies that support a woman’s right to have an abortion or who have ‘pornographic’ rather than ‘wholesome’ advertising. But firms win points for philanthropy, corporate responsibility and backing Christian values.

While GSN can’t confirm the accuracy of the research, the list could equally be used by LGBTI people and their friends to decide which firms should win their custom this Christmas.

Here’s FDC's list of companies condemned as too gay friendly along with some of their claims about each company:

• American Express: ‘Strong support’ for gay, bi and trans equality
• Apple: ‘Vocally supports same-sex marriage… and caved in to pressure from small groups of homosexual and transgender activists and their allies by removing previously approved, faith-based apps supporting natural and traditional sexuality’
• Barnes & Noble: ‘Strong embrace’ of LGBTI rights
• Best Buy: ‘Strong proponent of the homosexual and transgender political movement’
• Costco: ‘Nearly perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign – indicating strong corporate support for the homosexual and transgender political agenda in the workplace’
• Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic: ‘Strong support’ of LGBTI rights ‘including same-sex marriage’
• The Home Depot: ‘Stubborn and staunch support’ for LGBTI rights and allowed filming ‘for a flash mob same-sex marriage proposal at one of its stores – igniting a social media phenomenon that homosexual activists leveraged to promote same-sex marriage to young children’
• JC Penney: ‘Came out in support of same-sex marriage'
• Levi Strauss and Co: ‘Full embrace’ of LGBTI equality and same-sex marriage
• Macy’s: ‘Actively campaigns for the homosexual and transgender political agenda and has a whole section of its website devoted to gay “pride” and history’
• Microsoft: A ‘leading corporate advocate’ for LGBTI rights whose ‘top executives made six-figure contributions to the effort to redefine marriage in Washington state in 2012’
• Nike: Supports gay and trans equality and donated ‘$280,000 to the current effort in Oregon to redefine’ marriage
• Sears, Kmart, Land’s End: ‘Committed supporter’ of LGBTI issues and same-sex marriage
• Sony: ‘Strongly supports the political and social agenda of the homosexual, bisexual and transgender activist movement’
• Target: ‘Strongly supports abortion rights and the homosexual and transgender political agenda’
• TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods: ‘Not come out in support of same-sex marriage’ but gets a ‘perfect score’ from the Human Rights Campaign for LGBTI workplace inclusion
• Visa: ‘Embrace of the homosexual… agenda is a concern’

By coincidence, all of our purchases so far have been at stores condemned by the Christofascists! 
  

The Faith Driven Consumer 2013 Christmas Guide is produced by the Faith Driven Consumer group, - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/apple-abercrombie-and-nike-are-too-gay-christmas-say-christians151213#sthash.DYsgB8QD.dpuf

Gay Marriage Goes Upscale: Plaza Athenee - New York

Years ago when I was in-house counsel for an oil company my favorite hotel to stay in when in Paris was the understated yet opulent and glamorous Plaza Athénée located 25 Avenue Montaigne (other hotels we sometimes stayed at were the George V and the neighboring Prince de Gaulle).  I was told by a senior partner of a Parisian law firm that the Plaza Athénée was where old European money stayed and at the time among the shops in the lobby were  Harry Winston and  Bulgari  boutiques.  Wikipedia reports that famous guests who have stayed at the Plaza Athénée over the years include Mata Hari (who was arrested here), Josephine Baker, Rudolph Valentino, Grace Kelly, Jean Harlow, Gary Cooper,  and Jackie Kennedy.

My glory days of traveling like the very wealthy ended when I left the oil company and moved back to Virginia from Texas, but years ago, the Plaza Athénée opened a branch in New York City, the Plaza Athenee - New York which captures much of the the magnificence and elegance of its larger sister in Paris.   And now, the Plaza Athenee-New York is marketing wedding packages to the LGBT market.  The image above is from the March issue of Out Magazine (it appears following page 44) and shows that savvy businesses and retailers recognize the viability of the LGBT market despite the nay saying and threatened boycotts by gay-hating Christofascist groups such as AFA.

I am glad that New York State and the folks at Plaza Athenee - New York believe in marriage equality.  Now that my brother has an apartment in New York, we may not stay at the hotel, but we will certainly stop by for a drink or more.

One of the ironies of Virginia's anti-gay extremism is that the state - which includes tourism as one of its biggest industries - is losing huge amounts of money from the LGBT market.  Why visit a state where one is clearly not welcomed or deemed equal.  And compounding the problem is the flow of money from LGBT Virginians who leave the state to marry(many of our friends have married in New York and Washington, DC) and vacation.  As noted many times on this blog, bigotry does have a high price.

The photos below are of the wonderful hotel in Paris:

Front Facade

Lobby

Patio Courtyard

Fairfax County, Virginia's First Gay Bar

In many ways, Northern Virginia is the most liberal area of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Admittedly, "liberal" is a relative term - especially when parts of that "liberal" region elect Neanderthals and cretins like Del. Bob Marshall to the General Assembly and Eugene Delgaudio to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, respectively. Now, as the Washington Post reports, Fairfax County boasts its own gay bar - previously, a trip into the District of Columbia afforded the only gay bar venues to residents in the Virginia suburbs. No doubt, Marshall and Delguadio publicly are not happy campers in terms of having a gay venue close to home, yet I suspect both have secret gay sex fantasies given the way they fit the tormented closet case profile. Here are some highlights from the Post's article:
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Austin Jennings is the manager of So Addictive Lounge, a Herndon bar and grill, where he's learned that it's a lot of work, this business of going fully gay. There are gay and lesbian bartenders to hire, and more drag queens to book, and fruit-flavored Michelob Ultras to add to the beer list, and an entire menu to be made over, with salads replacing all that deep-fried food, Jennings said, "because gay people are conscious of what they eat." And he has repainted, too. "Gay people have an eye for detail and decorating. It's a stereotype, but it's true."
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So Addictive, which started out as a coffeehouse (thus the name), launched a weekly gay night last summer - a Wednesday gathering that initially consisted of four people, including Jennings and his boyfriend, drinking beer, watching "Modern Family" at the bar and wondering where everybody else was.
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Now, the Wednesday night drag shows - featuring a wild mix of makeup, wigs, spangles and Lady Gaga impersonations - fill the place. Their success has persuaded Jennings and So Addictive's owner to swap out the bar's weekly hip-hop and Latin nights and turn their place into the only almost full-time gay bar in Fairfax County, home to more than 1 million people. The new format took effect on New Year's Eve; the only straight holdover on the schedule, for now, is heavy-metal Monday.
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The arrival of a gay bar in the heart of a quintessentially suburban community nearly 25 miles outside of Washington is a milestone for the gay community. It's also a broader test to see whether a business that caters to gay men and lesbians can succeed and gain mainstream acceptance in a town that was once featured in a book on the 100 "Best Places to Raise Your Family" in the United States.
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Sarah Gustafson, president of the gay rights organization Equality Fairfax, recently e-mailed the 900 people on her list to announce the "fantastic news" that "yes, Virginia, there is a gay bar in Fairfax County." "There's a tremendous amount of gay, lesbian and transsexual people who live in the county, so it's really great that a bar's coming to us," Gustafson said. "People might not realize there's a significant gay and lesbian population in the suburbs; everybody assumes we live downtown. But we are everywhere. We are your neighbors, and having a neighborhood bar finally puts a permanent face on that."
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Along with Freddie's Beach Bar in Crystal City, So Addictive will be one of just two full-time gay bars in the northern half of a state that activists say is not exactly the most hospitable place for gays.
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Jimmy Cirrito, the owner of Jimmy's Old Town Tavern, said he welcomed the gayification of So Addictive, which is across the street from his bar. "If somebody's against having a gay bar, then they're against America," he said. "It's freedom. We're all God's people. We do what we want."
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I like the unique business opportunity," Yen said. If there are 7,000 gays in Herndon and Reston, and 25,000 in Fairfax County (both numbers were guesses because there's no reliable data, according to Gustafson), not to mention underserved gay people in Loudoun and Prince William counties, that seems to offer "great possibilities," Yen said.
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I hope So Addictive is a big success and, who knows, maybe the boyfriend and I will visit it someday soon.

Family Research Council Outraged Over Amtrak Ads to Gay Traveler Market

I have written a number of times that marketing to the LGBT community makes good business sense if one is in business to make money. That approach is especially true in the travel market where during the ongoing recession LGBT travel expenditures increased even as all other market segments decreased. Given that reality, one would think that those who want quasi-government entities like Amtrak to market to population segments that can help the organization meet that goal. Indeed, such common sense might even reduce the need for taxpayer subsidies. In fact, one would think that this would make the anti-tax Christianists happy. But such is not the case. The Family Research Council ("FRC") - which misses no opportunity to denigrate and malign LGBT citizens - has its panties in a total knot over Amtrak's expenditure of $250,000 to encourage gays to use Amtrak. FRC bigot in chief, Tony Perkins is pictured above. Here is part of FRC's screed, I mean "action alert" to its members:
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If there was ever proof that the Obama Administration has gone off the rails, it's Amtrak. For the first time in the train service's history, Amtrak has decided to spend a quarter-million dollars recruiting homosexual passengers. As you may know, Amtrak isn't a private business. This is a government-run business, meaning that this $250,000 is taken directly from taxpayers' pockets. In a very real sense, this ad campaign is a federal endorsement of homosexual behavior -- one of the most serious public health threats in America.or call (202) 906-3000 to reach Amtrak headquarters in Washington, DC. Using taxpayer funds to promote this ad campaign is insulting to the millions of Americans who have deeply-held moral convictions against homosexuality.
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Please contact senior officials at Amtrak and ask them to stop this campaign using your tax dollars!
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We in the LGBT community need to counter this bullshit and contact the folks at Amtrak and thank them for(1) their common sense and (2) their willingness to reach out to all Americans. Contact information is here. You can also call 800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) or call (202) 906-3000 to reach Amtrak headquarters in Washington, DC..

McDonald's Operations Chief Basically Tells U.S. Gays to Go to Hell

I never cease to be amazed at the willingness of self-righteous "Christian" to attempt to inflict their religious beliefs on all - even in the business world where one ought to be courting every segment of consumers. Not so McDonald's operations chief, Don Thompson (pictured at left), who finds gays offense to his religious beliefs and has flatly rejected any U.S. advertising that might suggest that LGBT Americans are as welcome in McDonald's locations as say - blacks. Nope, that would offend Thompson as a Christian, so even though the gay accepting McDonald's ad running in France has done well - indeed, it probably made a positive impression on many LGBT consumers - Thompson has made it clear in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that no such ad will be seen in the USA. My response? I'm not big on fast food, but to the extent I will be buying any on car trips, etc., there are plenty of options besides McDonald's which will not be seeing a penny of my money. Here are highlights from the Tribune interview:
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Tribune: A French TV ad featuring a gay teen and his father has stirred some controversy — not there, but here. Can you talk about that?
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Thompson: It is an example that markets, cultures are very different around the world. (For instance), I've never shied away from the fact that I'm a Christian. I have my own personal beliefs and I don't impose those on anybody else. I've been in countries where the majority of the people in the country don't believe in a deity or they may be atheist. Or the majority of the country is Muslim. Or it may be the majority is much younger skewed. So when you look at all these differences, it's not that I'm to be the judge or the jury relative to right or wrong. Having said that, at McDonald's, there are core values we stand for and the world is getting much closer. So we have a lot of conversations. We're going to make some mistakes at times. (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we're going to learn from. But, you're right, that commercial won't show in the United States.
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Mr. Thompson, short of a public apology from you, you won't see me darken the door of any McDonald's location - EVER again. Sir, you are a bigot.

City of Hampton Solicts LGBT Investors and Entrepreneurs for Revitalization

Mellen Street, the next Rehobeth Avenue or DuVal Street?

I frequently describe Virginia as a particularly non-gay friendly place to live and work. However, there are elements within the state (which obviously exclude our current Governor and lunatic Attorney General) that want to change that situation. Indeed, there is growing recognition of the importance of the LGBT community in developing communities and cities that are magnets for what Richard Florida has termed the "creative class." One example is the May 3, 2010, conference of the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association held Norfolk which specifically looked at the importance of LGBT businesses and the LGBT community in the revival of areas such as Norfolk's Ghent, Richmond's Carytown, and the Del Rey area of Alexandria. The conference even included a session on "Being Out . . . and In Business" which included two members of Hampton Roads Business Outreach ("HRBOR"), Virginia's only affiliate of the NGLCC, as panelists.

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Now, for the first time to my knowledge a Hampton Roads city has specifically and enthusiastically sought the engagement of the LGBT community and LGBT investors/entrepreneurs in a revitalization effort. One June 9, 2010 the City of Hampton Department of Economic Development invited HRBOR board members - I was an attendee - to a meeting to review the investment and development opportunities in the Phoebus area of the city. Phoebus, which was a small independent city until 1952, has the potential for pedestrian friendly development like Ghent, Carytown, the historic section of Rehobeth Beach, Old Town Key West and other areas that have become thriving LGBT and artistic centered neighborhoods and/or destinations. With the U. S. Army's upcoming closure of historic Fort Monroe in 2011, Phoebus will have increased water front and beach access, increased marina space, plus the continued draw of the Casemate Museum at the 19th century fort and the newly expanded American Theater (pictured below).

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As for economic incentives, through various programs investors can pursue loan programs, grant programs, and both state and federal historic tax credits (combined a 45% credit), plus favorable zoning that allows the construction of new, green vintage look properties for first floor commercial use and second and third floor residential use. Information on these programs can be found here and here. As for marketing the area from a tourism perspective, Phoebus is centrally located and less than an hour from Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown, as well as less than an hour from Virginia Beach. Situated at the first west bound exit from Insterstate 64, Phoebus offers easy access for Norfolk shoppers/restaurant goers as well as the entire Virginia Peninsula population. Additional gay friendly accommodations will obviously be needed to make Phoebus a potential gay destination, but the city is looking into exactly that type investment already. Hampton is celebrating its 400 year anniversary this summer - and also the city's first ever Pride event this coming Saturday, June 19, 2010, at Millpoint Park in downtown on the waterfront.

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Will Hampton pull this revitalization off? Time will tell, but a good starting point already exists with a diverse population and existing restaurants and art venues. For more information on these exciting opportunities that offer ground floor entry prices, contact: Don Davis, Redevelopment Manager, Department of Economic Development, City of Hampton, VA, (Tel: 757-728-5144). e-mail: dedavis@hampton.gov

HRBOR's President Among Women in Business Receiving Honor

Inside Business, the local business newspaper, will honor 20 women in the Hampton Roads business community for their accomplishments in their careers and contributions to their community. Among those being honored is my good friend Nicole Carry, the current president of HRBOR, the regions LGBT and LGBT friendly chamber of commerce. The awards ceremony is being held at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. I and seven other HRBOR members will be attending the event which should offer great networking opportunities and spotlight HRBOR among members of the larger business community. HRBOR's mission statement is as follows:
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Hampton Roads Business OutReach (HRBOR) is a broad based coalition of LGBT owned and LGBT supportive businesses and professionals dedicated to the development, growth and advocacy of Hampton Roads and its LGBT community. By promoting an environment in which diversity can flourish, HRBOR is committed to the economic growth and prosperity of our members and our community.

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For more on Nicole, follow this link to the profile in today's Inside Business. Congratulations Nicole! We are very proud of you. P.S. Nicole demonstrates the idiocy of DADT - she served in the Navy with distinction for 6 years.

LGBT Buying Power is Expected to Total $712 Billion in 2008

Perhaps it is inspired in part by the money being spent by gays going to California to get married or by the new coverage of gay marriage in Massachusetts as the antiquated 1913 which has until now been an obstacle to out of state couples gets repealed, but in any event the latest issue of Newsweek has a story on LGBT buying power and the growing efforts to market to LGBT consumers. Not that this progressive mindset has taken too much of a foothold in backwards markets like the Hampton Roads area of Virginia where knuckle draggers and Pat Robertson still weld too much influence. Nonetheless, HRBOR and Equality Virginia are working to educate straight owned businesses that advertising to the LGBT market makes good business sense. As I have stated numerous times, I believe the LGBT community (in the USA and worldwide) needs to flex its financial muscle and support gay and gay friendly businesses while at the same time shunning those businesses that are not supportive of LGBT rights and the LGBT community. Here are some story highlights:

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There's a new gold rush in California, but the rush is to the altar. Gay and lesbian couples from any state can come to California to tie the knot. As a result, a growing number of businesses are saying "I do" to the same-sex marriage market, helping thousands of couples realize their dream weddings.

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LGBT buying power is expected to total $712 billion in 2008, according to a recent study by Witeck-Combs Communications, a Washington, DC-based firm that specializes in the LGBT consumer market. By comparison, the U.S. wedding industry as a whole will ring up an estimated $62.8 billion this year.

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According to a recent study by UCLA's Williams Institute, same-sex marriages in California would bring in $683.6 million and generate almost 2,200 new jobs during the next three years, both from 51,000 in-state couples and the projected 68,000 couples traveling to the state to get married.

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Building a loyal clientele in the LGBT community requires more than just gay niche marketing, Rudolph says, in which advertisements appear in strictly gay-audience magazines and websites.

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"Just slapping a rainbow logo on something isn't enough--there isn't anything wrong with that, but you have to do more," Rudolph says. LGBT consumers see through guarded or insincere marketing, she says. When choosing a business, they often look for references, a track record of supporting the LGBT community and a non-discrimination policy.

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Relaying a personal anecdote on a business website about why that business supports the LGBT community is a good idea."But even if you don't have a gay relative or story to tell, it behooves small businesses to do something within the community. Make a connection to the LGBT community," Rudolph says, either through participating in activities, making a donation to the local branch of a national LGBT organization or sponsoring the local high school's gay-straight alliance.