NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, Monday attacked Starbucks for its recent position reaffirming support for same-sex marriage equality in its home state of Washington, in a post on their website, titled, “National Organization for Marriage to Starbucks: ‘Stay Out of Marriage Fights’.” Washington is about to put forward a bill that has enough votes to pass in the legislature, and their Governor, Chris Gregoire, who sponsored the bill, will of course sign it into law. But the democratic process in the state of Washington is unacceptable to NOM President Brian Brown, whose comment today, “Stay Out of Marriage Fights,” makes him sound more like a thug than the head of a lobbying organization beholden to the Church.
It’s also interesting to note that Brown sees the exchange of ideas, the common discourse, and even the rule of law as “fights.”
“Americans should be able to drink a peaceful cup of coffee without worrying that a portion of the company’s profits is going to be used to push gay marriage without a vote from the people,” a statement today from Brown said.
The hypocrisy here is not only unbelievable, but unbelievably extreme.
“This is a gratuitous leap into a hot button culture war issue; respect for diversity touted by Starbucks ought to include respecting the diverse views of all its customers and employees,” Brown added.
NOM, which has supported organizations and companies based solely on their stance against same-sex marriage, or based solely on their support — or that of their employees — of Prop 8, is actually threatening a highly-respected company that is based in Washington, telling it to “stay out of marriage fights”?
“NOM pledged an intensive public relations effort to ask Starbucks customers who favor retaining marriage as the union of husband and wife to complain to company headquarters,” the statement reads, and adds:
Jonathan Baker, head of NOM’s Corporate Fairness Project, called on Starbucks to make it clear they will not discriminate against customers, vendors or employees who oppose same-sex marriage. “Increasingly, gay marriage extremists are arguing that people known to oppose same-sex marriage should not be hired, or even, should be fired. Diversity and tolerance are a two-way street. Having waded into a social issue where Starbucks has no special competence, the company has an obligation to reassure its customers, vendors and employees that it will respect the most important diversity—diversity of opinion,” noted Baker.
“Corporate Fairness Project”? Really? In other words, NOM now equates “fairness” with being only a “traditional marriage” supporter.
And the notion that Starbucks would refuse to serve a customer based on their same-sex marriage position — how would they even know — is also ludicrous, and part of their ludicrous attempt to cloud their argument, which is unsustainable on its face.
If Starbucks decides it will do business, say, buy coffee cups, only with companies that support same-sex marriage then NOM will interpret that as a violation of their civil rights? Are they kidding?
Starbucks is joined by a long list of Washington-based corporations that support marriage equality, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nike, and Real Networks.
NOM is headquartered on K Street in Washington, D.C.
The people of Washington state know the difference.