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Report: Same-sex marriage foes redouble efforts against Starbucks

The Associated Press

With the passage of laws approving same-sex marriages in several states including Washington, the National Organization for Marriage says it will keep up its efforts to make Starbucks suffer for its support of the laws.

The Colorado Independent, an online news organization, reported NOM’s efforts against Starbucks will be focused in the Middle East. The news org said it got the information from a news conference.

NOM President Brian Brown said during the conference the group was targeting the international business of companies that support same-sex marriage such as Starbucks, which NOM also hit with a national boycott effort this year.

“Brown said the aim is to make these companies’ political stances known in countries in the Middle East and elsewhere that generally do not support same-sex marriage, or homosexuality in general.
“ ‘Their international outreach is where we can have the most effect,’ Brown said. ‘So for example, in Qatar, in the Middle East, we’ve begun working to make sure that there’s some price to be paid for this. These are not countries that look kindly on same-sex marriage. And this is where Starbucks wants to expand, as well as India. So we have done some of this; we’ve got to do a lot more.’ ”

In March, the group fired up its "Dump Starbucks" campaign in the U.S. and picked up 48,551 “pledges.” That effort was countered by an online “Thank You Starbucks” campaign that got 651,702 “signatures” for its thank you card, a version of which was delivered to the company in April.

Credit Someofus.org
SomeOfUs.org delivered its

CEO Howard Schultz defended the company's stance during a company shareholder meeting in March, saying the decision was made "in our view, through the lens of humanity, and being the kind of company that embraces diversity."