Oh, do pass the chai lattés and the dark roast this way. Once again, the homophobes have shot themselves in the foot, and this time, quite publicly.
A friend of mine on Facebook (who's 100% gay) linked to a Facebook page this morning called "Dump Starbucks," which was apparently just started on Tuesday of this past week. This page is trying to get people to boycott the #1 coffee seller in the United States because of their corporate stance towards marriage equality (they're for it).
On a post to the page crowing about the 2,295 signatures that it's supposedly garnered for the Starbucks boycott, the comments are nothing short of hilarious. Pro-gay people from all over Facebook have commented to point out to these anti-gay folks that they are on the wrong side of history. A few staunch commenters have stood up for NOM's bigotry point of view, but the overwhelming majority of comments on this page say that NOM is, indeed, on the wrong side of history and won't outlast the next few elections.
Obviously I'm not going to share the link - they don't need more publicity for this public failure - but drop behind the fleur-de-Kos and I'll share the rich, bold, robust flavor of some of these comments with you as they roast NOM and its few supporters to medium-dark and then put them through the grinder.
One of the main themes of the comments is along the lines of "Do you even get that most of Starbucks' supporters and customers are already gay-friendly or gay? This is like asking a Mormon to boycott a strip club. How stupid are you?" Pretty stupid, I guess - the page is still up, after all.
Many of the comments focus on NOM's use of dodgy methods to hide the sources of their income, and call on them to come clean. "Where's the 95% of your hidden income?" they ask. No answer seems to be forthcoming.
A number of commenters are Christians, taking NOM to task for their distinctly un-Christian ways. They're not getting much in the way of responses apart from the usual "it's not natural" and "it's against god" soundbites that have been deconstructed so many times that we can all recite the deconstructions in our sleep. It's almost embarrassing to watch them trot out the same old tired discredited arguments - kind of like watching someone walk around in their underwear without realizing that's what they're doing.
Yet another group of commenters ask them how their boycott of JCPenney's is working out for them, or point out that their 2300 signatures equals an incredibly insignificant portion of the 300,000,000 people living in the United States right now. Surprisingly, there's been no answer here, either. You'd think they could drum up some pride for their insignificant response rate. The few, the proud, you know the drill.
A fifth group thanks the page for making it so easy to thank Starbucks by posting their customer service number. Oh look - the law of unintended consequences hits home once again!
There's also the "I used to hate Starbucks/not drink coffee" cohort, who have now admitted that because of this, they feel compelled to start drinking a double caramel macchiato with a quad shot every day. (What was that I just said about unintended consequences?)
A final group falls into the "shame on you" category - a shame which NOM, like all good sociopathic corporations people, doesn't seem to feel. I'm sensing a trend, here.
Snark all aside, though, the comments give me more hope than I've had in a long time. This is where the true change is coming. Attitudes are changing. People are openly on our side. Boycotts against pro-gay groups and companies are failing and failing hard. Boycotts and other public reactions against anti-gay groups, on the other hand, seem to be succeeding - witness the failure of the Hundred Million Mom group against Ellen and JCPenney, for example, or the bad press that Chik-fil-A is getting for its openly homophobic stance. (I'm waiting for their store-closure and layoff announcements, and hoping that their ex-employees find better jobs at Starbucks'.)
Like I said, pass the coffee and the heavy cream. This implosion is so much fun to watch that it's almost as good as the Hunger Games.
(Hey, I said almost, didn't I? Give me a little credit. Sheesh.)