Coffee Chain Embraces Diversity
in the Face of Religious
Conservative Boycott
SEATTLE, WA – Marriage equality supporters delivered a giant “thank you” card to Starbucks officials for their support of diversity and inclusiveness. The card, which contained more than 650,000 signatures, was partly delivered in response to an online campaign launched to protest the coffee chain’s progressive corporate policies.
Said James Olson, Starbucks’ Vice President of Global Corporate Communications: “We are long-standing supporters of a culture of diversity, and inclusion and equality for everybody, and I’ll share this with our fellow leaders and partners. Thank you very much.”
The gay marriage supporters—a coalition that included the groups MoveOn.org, Washington United for Marriage, and SumOfUs.org—said that “Thank Starbucks” was conceived in part after the Seattle-based chain was condemned by the National Organization of Marriage (NOM), which set up a “Dump Starbucks” to protest the company’s pro-gay policies.
“We are urging customers across the globe to ‘Dump Starbucks’’ because it has taken a corporate-wide position that the definition of marriage between one man and one woman should be eliminated and that same-sex marriage should become equally ‘normal.’ As such, Starbucks has deeply offended at least half its US customers, and the vast majority of its international customers,” reads a statement on NOM’S Web site. At press time, NOM’s site has 25,862 recorded pledges.
Last month, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz defended the chains policies during a shareholder meeting. Schultz said that the coffee giant had enacted its policies “through the lens of humanity, and being the kind of company that embraces diversity.”