Focus on the Family yesterday joined the American Family Association in a boycott against Procter & Gamble, which is headquartered in Cincinnati and supports a repeal of the city’s discriminatory Article XII.
Article XII — previously discussed by XGW — prohibits the city from including gay and lesbian city residents in any antidiscrimination laws. Numerous Cincinnati companies and Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk favor repeal of the antigay provisions of Article XII. (365gay.com article.)
But both AFA and Focus on the Family accuse Procter & Gamble of supporting gay marriage, even though Article XII says nothing about gay marriage and the company has issued no statements favoring gay marriage. The boycott seeks to punish P&G for declaring that it “will not tolerate discrimination in any form, against anyone, for any reason.”
Citizens to Restore Fairness is leading the repeal effort; civil rights leader Rev. Dr. James Forbes, of Riverside Church in New York, led a pro-repeal rally in Cincinnati yesterday. Neither CRF nor HRC, NGLTF or Stonewall Cincinnati mention a response to the antigay boycott.
The jury-rigged case against P&G is not Focus’ only strawman of the week. In a letter to Focus on the Family copied to XGW, blogger Dan Gonzales complained about misinformation on USAID in the “Family News in Focus” radio program on Sept. 10.
According to Gonzales, the program asserted that US AID is sending Depo-Provera to Africa to prevent the transmission of HIV. A Sept. 10 article on the Focus web site makes the same accusation. Focus’ only source for its accusation is an article, by an anti-family-planning group called the Population Research Institute, that says USAID is sending drugs like Depo-Provera to prevent pregnancies — not STDs.
Furthermore, a search of USAID’s own web site confirms that the drug is viewed solely as a contraceptive; condoms are emphasized as the effective contraceptive device for HIV/AIDS prevention.
Boycott P&G? (snicker) I doubt that their adherents will eschew their Pringles.
I just sent them an encouraging message. They need to be consistent…I thought that irony would be the best way to get the point across in a short email. Their article’s rationale for the ban was ridiculous. It’s one thing to have your perspective, another thing to exercise your power as a consumer to encourage it, and yet another to effectively (tacitly, in their words?) approve discrimination. Certainly they wouldn’t want to be disciminated against in the same way….
Anyway, here’s what I sent them.
“Way to go, using financial, I mean, political, I mean spiritual muscle, to spread Christ’s message. Tacit approval of ‘gay marriage’ must be stopped. Discrimination against gays should be encouraged, not only allowed, but required. Once they’re homeless and unemployed, they’ll repent.
Keep doing Christ’s work in the world!”