The number of people thanking Starbucks
for its support of gay marriage has outpaced those pledging to
boycott the coffee giant.
After the National Organization for
Marriage (NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay
marriage, launched its Dump Starbucks protest on Wednesday, a counter
protest thanking Starbucks was launched by the group SumOfUs.org.
NOM launched its boycott after
Starbucks
Chairman Howard Schultz defended the company's decision.
As of Saturday evening, supporters were
outpacing opponents 8 to 1, with more than 141,200 people signing a
thank you card and just under 17,500 pledging to avoid Starbucks
shops and its retail products.
People also rallied behind the
Seattle-based company on Twitter, circulating hashtags such as
#LatteLove, #StarbucksBrewsLove and #StarbucksEquality.
In addition to asking people to pledge
not to patronize Starbucks, NOM said it would place ads urging
customers to “dump Starbucks” in the United States as well as in
the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
“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.”