How the left and right do boycotts

Homosexual organizations are using boycotts to attempt to reverse the California voter referendum known as Proposition 8. Boycotts have been used on the right for quite some time, but the methodology employed is very, very different.

When Conservative groups like the American Family Association call for a boycott they ask tow things: A. supporters stop doing business with the company being targeted and B. supporters contact (phone, email, snail mail) the company and let them know they are being boycotted. That last part never, ever implies more than one contact per supporter.

Most of these boycotts have been successful, albeit lengthy, because ultimately the company realized that a lot of people are willing to side with the agenda the AFA is pushing. It's not a radical agenda, but a simple, family-friendly, values-based agenda.

The left do things much differently.

Homosexual activists are calling on a boycott of the Marriott hotel chain, not because anybody that is a part of the Marriott corporation supported Proposition 8, but because the owner of the company, Bill Marriott, in spite of having very liberal policies in his company, is a Mormon, and the LDS church contributed greatly to Proposition 8. Marriot had no involvement, but because he's a Mormon, he's being targeted.

Meanwhile Mormon churches have had almost non-stop, violent protests at their doors. Other churches have had homosexuals assault members inside the church.

The LA Times reports...

Protesters have massed outside Mormon temples nationwide. For every donation to a fund to overturn Proposition 8, a postcard is sent to the president of the Mormon Church. Supporters of gay marriage have proposed a boycott of Utah businesses, and someone burned a Book of Mormon outside a temple near Denver.

Scouring through publicly available donation records, Liberal activists have located businesses which contributed to the support of Proposition 8, and rather than just boycott, they've organized protests to intimidate and harass the business. That's not political activism, that's RICO style intimidation.

News10 in Sacramento reports...

Protesters Amanda Booth and Erin Domingo, along with a handful of vocal supporters, said they wanted everyone who eats at Leatherby's to know that the family behind the business donated money to help pass Proposition 8....

[Dave] Leatherby [Jr.] said since his family's donation has been made public, they've received threats and hate mail.

The LA Times also reports...

The activists have pored though campaign contribution databases and then "outed" Proposition 8 donors on sites like Facebook.com and craigslist.com. "People are going to do what they want, and it's in this society where you have campaign reporting that is all public information," said Karger.

Some gay rights activists also have gone onto the restaurant website yelp.com, giving bad reviews to eateries linked to the Yes on 8 movement....

Hundreds of protesters converged on El Coyote on Beverly Boulevard on Wednesday night, and the picketing got so heated that LAPD officers in riot gear had to be called.

All because Marjorie Christoffersen, a manager there and a daughter of El Coyote's owner, had contributed $100 to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Other business being bullied by protests...

• Texas-based Cinemark, one of America's largest theater chains, whose chief executive contributed nearly $10,000 to Yes on 8.
• Lassen's, a family-owned chain of nine health food stores throughout California, from Bakersfield to Thousand Oaks. Lassen's owners gave $27,500 to the Yes on 8 campaign.
• Robert Hoehn, vice president of the Carlsbad-based Hoehn Motors, gave $25,000 of his own money to the Yes on 8 campaign in February.

Two things we can do is emphasize the difference between a boycott and racketeering-like intimidation. When you make threatening phone calls, or protest outside a business and harass customers, that's bullying, and borders on racketeering.

Another thing is to have a reverse boycott. If you live near any of these businesses, call them with compliments, and thank them for what they did, and even more importantly give them your business.

Posted by Danny Carlton at November 17, 2008 6:50 AM