Supporters of Minnesota's proposed gay
marriage ban began their 4-day “Dump General Mills” protest on
Tuesday.
Voters in November will decide whether
to place the state's law which bans gay nuptials in the Minnesota
Constitution.
Minnesota for Marriage, the coalition
of groups working to approve the amendment, criticized General Mills
for speaking out against the amendment, calling the move “stupid.”
“I know it seems odd for a company
who spends billions of dollars marketing products to moms and dads
with young children to do such a thing, but General Mill has tried to
please a small minority of individuals who feel entitled to change
the definition of marriage for all of society. They have calculated
that we won't fight back. They have grossly miscalculated us!”
Andy Parrish, deputy campaign manager for Minnesota for Marriage,
wrote in an e-mail to supporters announcing the protest.
At the group's first rally, which took
place across from the company's headquarters, supporters “dumped”
General Mills products in the back of a van to be donated to a local
food bank.
“This is an opportunity for
Minnesotans to let General Mills know that they're dismayed with the
fact that they're spending billions to market cereal to parents of
children and yet all of the sudden they're coming out and deciding
that they're opposed to marriage between a man and a woman. And we
want them to understand that basically marriage is an institution
that is created by society for the best environment for kids to be
brought up and raised by both their mother and their father,” Chuck
Darrell, campaign director for Minnesota for Marriage, told
TheUpTake.org.
Opponents of the gay marriage ban stood
across the street from the protest holding signs such as, “Vote No
– Don't Limit The Freedom To Marry.” (Video from the protest is
embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)