The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of marriage equality,
has launched a boycott against JPMorgan Chase over an internal survey
which asked employees whether they support gay rights.
The banking giant's voluntary and
confidential survey asked employees whether they were “An ally of
the LGBT community, but not personally identifying as LGBT.”
Conservatives criticized the question's
inclusion, calling it an “LGBT loyalty test.”
“The message to all employees is
perfectly clear: You are expected to fall into line with the approved
and required thinking,” NOM co-founder Robert George said in a June
29 blog post. “Nothing short of assent is acceptable. Silent
dissent will no longer be permitted.”
In announcing its “Void Chase”
boycott, NOM quoted an unnamed employee as saying, “I am afraid I
could lose my job or have it used to stack the deck against me.”
“We are demanding that the bank issue
a formal apology for their offensive conduct and pledge never again
to invade the privacy of their employees by attempting to learn their
private views about LGBT issues, and – until they do so – pledge
to take your banking business elsewhere,” NOM's boycott states.
Roughly 4,000 people have signed NOM's
“Void Chase” pledge.