How We Boycott and Why I Went to Starbucks This Morning
I’m not sure how we got to a place in which it’s considered a political act to buy fast food, but here we are. For the conservatives, it was fried-chicken sandwiches, and now, for the liberals’ turn, we get hastily prepared Frappuccinos. It would be one thing if Starbucks was working in conjunction with Equally Wed. If the coffee giant was giving some of the proceeds from National Marriage Equality Day to any of the very worthy nonprofits working to make same-sex marriage in America legal, I’d be the first one in line on August 7. As it stands, however, Starbucks has yet to make a peep about Starbucks Appreciation Day. Rather, the day is a response to Starbucks’ corporate office’s proclaiming in March of this year that it supports marriage equality in the company’s home state of Washington. Good for Starbucks, but what has it done for me lately? Specifically, is it ready to put its money where its mouth is on August 7?
That’s Billfold pal Cord Jefferson reminding us that today is “National Starbucks Appreciation Day,” a fake holiday created by gay rights group Equally Wed to “affirm a business that operates on moral principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for human dignity and upstanding values,” because Starbucks says it is supporting gay marriage legislation in its home state of Washington.
I went to Starbucks today for the same reason I go to Starbucks most work days: I wanted a cup of coffee (and Gregory’s Coffee doesn’t taste that great to me). It didn’t look like any of the customers in the coffee shop this morning were there to support gay marriage, but if so, I salute them, but I also agree with Jefferson and wish they’d just send their money to Human Rights Campaign, instead of Starbucks’s coffers. Get some coffee is you want some coffee, but your money will actually make a difference at an organization like HRC.
But! If you’re in Los Angeles, I would suggest you buy a Chick-for-gay sandwich that Abbey Food & Bar is selling from now until the November election. All the proceeds from the sandwich sales will go to the “American Foundation for Equal Rights, the sole sponsor of the federal challenge to Prop 8.” Also, it looks like it’d be tasty.
Haha, remember when liberals weren’t supposed to go to Starbucks because, uh, corporations?
@jfruh I think real liberals are supposed to live on urban farms, spin their own fabric out of illegally grown hemp, and wipe their asses with kale now.
Ehrm. Many of the LGBT people I know strongly dislike HRC. I am not sure why, off the top of my head, but I definitely know that’s a thing.
@cherrispryte Or Freedom to Marry, or your organization of choice! Your dollars will be better off supporting an organization directly than going into a Starbucks cash register.
@cherrispryte I think it has to do with their track record on transpeoples’ rights — my understanding is that they fight hard for the LGB part of things but generally leave out the T.
@carbonation @cherrispryte also they are corporate lobbyist middle-class sell-outs more interested in maintaining “access” to the power structures of the Democratic Party than in real radical change … OR they are realists who work within the existing power structure to achieve incremental but real advances for LGBT people instead of focusing on pie-in-the-sky “revolutionary” causes that have no near-term chances of succes. The eternal debate of all left-wing politics!
@jfruh but
BUT I’M A MIDDLE CLASS SELL OUT
@jfruh man sometimes you just gotta be the change you want to see in the world, and sometimes that means you want to be the extant power structure!
no, but really, i think it’s the part where they’re buying in to the “we’re the good kind of gay” that gets a little uncomfortable.
you know what I wonder sometimes? how the left can ever challenge the right when leftists are (thankfully, this is why i am one) unable to fall into line under a single leader (see, we learned something from extreme leftism, as in, it’s as bad as the extreme right, when it makes people fall into line and punishes them when they don’t comply, but how to go from here and be effective).