The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) on Wednesday launched a boycott against Starbucks over the
company's support of Washington state's recently-approved gay
marriage law.
At a shareholders' meeting of the
Seattle-based coffee giant, Jonathan Baker, director of NOM's
Corporate Fairness Project, asked company officials about the
decision to back marriage equality.
Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard
Schultz received a warm round of applause from the audience when he
answered: “I think any decision of this type or magnitude has to be
made with great thoughtfulness. And I would assure you that the
senior team of Starbucks discussed this, and it was … To be candid
with you not something that was a difficult decision for us. And we
did share this with some members of the board as well.”
He added that the company made its
decision “through the lens of humanity and being the kind of
company that embraces diversity.”
When a second shareholder followed up
with, “Is it prudent to risk the economic interests of all the
shareholders for something that might affect the private lives of a
very small percentage of our employees?” Schultz responded that the
decision has had no effect on the company's business. (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
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Following the meeting, NOM, which is
supporting a referendum to repeal the law, announced a Dump
Starbucks protest.
“We will not tolerate an
international company attempting to force its misguided values on
citizens,” NOM President Brian Brown said in a statement. “The
majority of Americans and virtually every consumer in some countries
in which Starbucks operates believe that marriage is between one man
and one woman. They will not be pleased to learn that their money is
being used to advance gay marriage in society.”
The group said it would place ads
urging customers to “dump Starbucks” in the United States as well
as in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.