Good News, Lesbos, You Can Still Shop at Home Depot, Build a Tree Fort

The American Family Association, a right-wing conservative religious group of imbeciles, is boycotting Home Depot. The American Family Association will stop at nothing to stop the spread of the gay agenda! They will sacrifice the potential varnished beauty of their back porches, the functionality of their toilets and the blossoming of their gardens if that’s what it takes to send a message to Home Depot.

Except Home Depot really doesn’t care about The American Family Association and it’s ridiculous petition or boycott and won’t apologize for supporting gay rights.

See, the American Family Association has been boycotting Home Depot since July 2010 on account of Home Depot’s “participation in numerous ‘gay pride’ evens, parades, and festivals across the U.S. where small children are exposed to “open displays of homosexual activism.” More specifically:

The American Family Association (AFA) has launched a protest against Home Depot for setting up a children’s workshop at the Southern Maine Pride Festival…the AFA pointed out that homosexual “pride” events are generally marked by obscene displays, including nudity and public sex acts.

The Home Depot, which the AFA says conducted Kid’s Craft Workshops at the festival, is shown as a sponsor of the event on the 2010 Southern Maine Pride website.

“To this end, Home Depot is basically encouraging the attendance of children at events which openly expose them to transvestites, cross-dressers, and homosexual activists,” said Tom Wildmon, president of the AFA, in an email to supporters Monday.

Home Depot also sponsored and participated in the 2010 Boston Gay Pride parade.

“Gay pride events have a long track record for offensive public displays of homosexual conduct. Obviously, Home Depot is OK with the idea of exposing children to an unhealthy and risky environment,” said Wildmon.

Furthermore, AFA executive vice president Buddy Smith (he ain’t my buddy, I can tell you that) went all the way to Atlanta this week to attend Home Depot’s annual shareholders meeting where he was given three minutes in heaven to address Home Depot chairman Frank Blake and other company executives and tell them all about his petition.

Randy Sharp, executive of “special projects” for the American Family Association, told OneNewsNow about this thrilling experience:

“We presented to the shareholders and to the chairman and the board of directors over 470,000 signature petitions asking them to remain neutral in the culture war, specifically when it addresses gay marriage and homosexual activist groups.”

The reception was cool, adds the AFA spokesman. Blake thanked AFA for the petitions but again, as in the past, reiterated the company’s support for “diversity,” which includes same-gender “marriage.” [sic]

Sharp adds: “We’re disappointed that The Home Depot continues to close the door and not listen to the millions of customers who are offended that they are engaging in the culture war and taking a position in favor of gay marriage.”

We talked earlier this week about how every corporation ever is at least partially evil and Home Depot is no exception — their PAC gave generously to PAC’s associated with conservative anti-equality candidates like Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Pat Toomey and Lynn Westmoreland. Should we expect more responsible spending from Home Depot, or is this just par for the course?

As I mentioned in the aforementioned article, companies tend to support candidates whose policies improve the profitability of said companies and those candidates are often Republicans, who carry a lot of Social Issue Baggage with them. Here’s Home Depot’s spending:

But didn’t Home Depot donate to Yes on 8, you may be thinking? There were some rumors about that and well, yes and no. Basically when you search Home Depot on opensecrets, you’ll see where many of its employees chose to donate privately, which includes such terrible recipients as Michelle Bachman and Christine O’Donnell. Can a company be blamed for its employee’s political opinions? Probably not.

The HRC gives Home Depot an 85 on its Consumer Index, which puts it in the “green” or “the highest workplace equality score.” You can access the entire Corporate Index here.

Queerty says:

Remember the AFA is headed by Bryan Fisher, a man who has publicly said that gays are Nazis, that Glee gives people AIDS, and that prospective Presidential candidates should hate gays more than they already do.

You can express your gratitude to The Home Depot and help lessen the AFA boycott by shopping there. But know this: they also support Republican candidates.

 

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3164 articles for us.

46 Comments

  1. I used to work there! My boss was pretty sexist, but I don’t think that was Home Depot’s fault. Other than that, they were actually really nice and paid me really well for my first job.

    Also yes, I understand the irony that I started working at Home Depot six months after I came out.

    • I love Lowes more than Home Depot. Lowe’s employees are lovely, and they have helped me to choose my home improvement products many times and they gave me amazing suggestions to choose the best product. Lowes retail company also values its customers’ feedback, and they are conducting the Lowes customer feedback survey program at https://lowescomsurvey.co/survey/ official site. The customers who participated in the Lowes survey will have a chance to get a $500 gift card for free.

  2. Every time I go to Home Depot, I stay for hours marveling at all the amazing things I could buy if I had the funds. And then I usually end up in the gardening section purchasing a bunch of plants I don’t need (but they look damn good!)

    Also, there’s always at least 4 other lesbos everytime I go. I once loudly mentioned Dinah Shore to my friend in the middle of the paint section to see if anyone noticed and we ended up in a convo with this lady couple for like 20 min, haha.

    • “I once loudly mentioned Dinah Shore to my friend in the middle of the paint section to see if anyone noticed…”

      This sounds like a good tactic.

  3. YAY HOMO DEPOT! I feel like t-shirts need to made. This makes me so happy!

  4. Even though Home Depot does take money from the Right Wing, I still have to commend them for being out there and not only challenging AFA but also sponsoring Pride events.

    Also, on a less serious note. The one thing I couldn’t get out of my head while reading this was “Well I guess only kids of gay parents will be building tree houses from now on”

  5. “To this end, Home Depot is basically encouraging the attendance of children at events which openly expose them to transvestites, cross-dressers, and homosexual activists”

    oh no, not transvestites AND cross-dressers!

    • wqhart else would you expect from the AFA. officially a hate group. Headquartered in MI, the most backwards state in the union, still wishing for the days of slavery, the KKK and segregation.

      Evil handed down, father to sun in the old confederate states. Still fighting the civil war, just with a new victim.

      I think the head of the AFA is one Brain Fischer – looks like a german name. ir correct , it proves that breeding tells all.

      the only question is wheter he wears a belt buckle that says Gott Mit Uns. God is with us, in german.

      Inscribed on every german soldiers belt buckle by order of Adolph Hitler.

      http://Www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm

      • I’m quite sure that comparing modern Germans and people of German descent to Nazis is pretty prejudiced. I am in no way ignoring the atrocities of WWII but that was 65 years ago. The Germans I’ve met, and I know quite a number, are ashamed of that past, in a way in which Australians are not ashamed for halving the indigenous population, using them as slaves (which is rarely spoken of), attempting to breed them out (rape as genocide anyone?) and stealing their children. Let it rest, or at least concede that not every German or person of German descent today was complicit in the Nazi regime and continues to buy into their ideology.

        • “The Germans I’ve met, and I know quite a number, are ashamed of that past”

          …and well informed. because our schools still make sure that we learn about WWII in ca. a gazillion lessons. ;)

        • Thanks, I grew up in Michigan, I was about to say, “Um, no, it’s not the most backward state in the nation, and I don’t think AFA is headquartered there, what?”

      • “it proves that breeding tells all”

        On this account, I would be a Nazi, a Jew, a Communist AND a Fascist, all at once. I’ll let you figure out the implications of that for your bullshit racist theory.

  6. I’m so glad Home Depot isn’t evil. I love that store and it’s the only place I go where I get unsolicited part-time job offers when I ask for help.

  7. Home Depot used to offer pet insurance but not domestic partner benefits. They weren’t always so popular with the gays and got low grades from the HRC. All this means is gay groups have more sway over them now as consumers than anti-gay groups.

    Being anti-gay or even folding to an anti-gay group is bad for business now.

    I work at a locally owned hardware store. With my partner. And we’re out. They don’t donate to political parties at all and they don’t allow the Tea Party to hang their flyers in the windows. Just sayin’ small businesses usually don’t have the conflicting values problem that big corporations do. The bigger the business gets, the less the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.

  8. You know that joke, “for every animal a vegetarian doesn’t eat, I will eat three?” Well, I feel a similar relationship with the American Family Association and their boycotts. They can’t even make the argument that they are just against changing the definition and don’t hate gay people — this boycott has nothing to do with Home Depot doing anything marriage-related and everything to do with Home Depot supporting the idea that gay people exist and are part of our society. The AFA thinks they can boycott their way into pushing gays to the dark corners of society. Then they will be happy: When society goes back to pretending gay people don’t exist, until a same-sex child molester makes the news. The AFA is a scary organization and, quite frankly, I’d say they are anti-American.

    • While I agree with everything else you’re saying, I hope you’re not saying that same-sex child molestation is the result of people being in the closet. Child molestation is never okay for any reason. And most men who sexually abuse boys are heterosexual, anyway, since it’s not about attraction, it’s about power.

      • Huh? Um, obviously not. What I am saying groups like the AFA think all child molesters are gay and all gay people are child molesters so the only time they acknowledge homosexuality could exist is when something tragic happens to a child. They would never acknowledge that, like, the world if full of a normal gay people who contribute immensely to society. I was making fun of the AFA.

  9. As a lesbian AND an artist, this fills my heart with joy. I spend countless amounts of money on plexi and paint products and those enormous wood boards that I used to unfailingly whack people with on the subway.

    So thank you, Home Depot, for only being nominally evil!

  10. I request a Homo Depot shirt because 1. the concept of a Depot of Homos is full of win and 2. it rhymes much better.

    • Hah! A depot of homos sounds amazing….I am sooo making a Homo Depot shirt now :)

    • I feel like there’s a good queer hiphop song to be written about the Homo Depot.

  11. Well, they do have pet insurance, and you can have your spouse on your plan, and they have rights for everyone…even very religious islamics..fyi…and if remember a employee survey they had several years ago asking ones sexual orientation…they found out they had a very large gay population, men and women. That is a fact in every local Home Depot in my city in Canada. However…some still have strong opinions…however voicing those opinions at work can cost you your job. It is not tolerated, nor is sexism of any kind. They work very hard to make the workplace safe physically and emotionally for everyone and everyone has the opportunity to move up in the company. Head office has many many gays …and it makes life at Home depot a pretty good place to work…the pay could be better…but it is really not a bad place. (some customers could learn some manners and treat others with more respect as some of them are just awful people)

    • “they have rights for everyone… even very religious islamics”

      ??? is it unusual for devout Muslims to possess rights?

      “employee survey they had several years ago asking ones sexual orientation”

      did this actually happen? in the better workplaces I have been in, taking stock of the state of the gay in the office would have been considered grossly inappropriate.

  12. Last time my mom was at Home Depot, her and her boyfriend were actually talking to a trans woman who worked there. She was all excited to tell me about it!

    She’s probably the only trans woman I’ve ever heard of that was hired to work dealing with the public, unfortunately, but I mean, it’s something, right?

  13. Why so much talk about gay “activists”? Like, do they think a gay holding a picket sign is more damaging to the young person’s psyche than a gay person standing around being gay?

    • There’s a chance a gay person standing around being gay hates themself enough to sit quietly and let AFA erase their rights and their existence, but a person with a sign is probs not going to go for that. It’s a shame/no shame thing.

  14. Home depot knows that not supporting gays would just be a huge blow to their work force

  15. Hey — my mom works for THE Home Depot- there is that article there. Anyway, it’s true-hell of lesbians (and gay men work there) it isn’t just a myth. crazy rught??? christmas party was poppin with gays

  16. If they have been boycotting since 2010 clearly there aren’t that many people who are upset by Home Depot’s understanding of Civil Rights as they are still open an running, despite not only this ‘mass boycot of millionz (note the z) of customers’ and our current economic problems.

    ——-({*})———
    For Women.
    For the Love of Women.
    http://www.VulvaLoveLovely.com

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