Compiled by Howard Israel
S/he Said
"Any decision of this type or magnitude has to be made with great thoughtfulness and I would assure you that a senior team at Starbucks discussed this. To be very candid with you, this was not something that was a difficult decision for us and we did share this with the board as well. We made that decision, in our view, through the lens of humanity and being the kind of company that embraces diversity. I would say, since we've made that decision, there's not been dilution whatsoever in our business."
-Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz, at a Starbucks shareholders' meeting, responding to questioning from a National Organization for Marriage (NOM) agents, claiming to be stockholders, about Starbucks' support of marriage equality, http://www.seattlepi.com, Mar. 21. The assembled stockholders responded to Shultz's remarks with enthusiastic applause.
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"To the CEO and Board of Directors of Starbucks: I am deeply offended by your corporate position to support same-sex marriage and your decision to wage a culture war against the moral views of half your US customers and the vast majority of your international consumers. Starbucks is using its resources to invalidate traditional marriage in the US and redefine the institution of marriage despite the strongly held views of so many of its customers, including me. Therefore, I will no longer purchase anything from Starbucks until you change your corporate values to be more reflective of my own."
-Petition of the "Dump Starbucks" campaign launched by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) lobbying group opposing same-sex marriage, calling for a world boycott of Starbucks because of the company's support of marriage equality, http://www.dumpstarbucks.com. Stating that Starbucks "has declared a culture war on all people of faith," NOM's "Dump Starbucks" advertising campaign appears in the U.S., the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
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"I would tell him that I'm praying for him. He obviously has some serious issues. You look at someone like that who can say and do the things that he's doing and you just pray for him and hopefully he can find peace."
-Rick Santorum, Republican presidential candidate, in a RealClearReligion interview, asked what he would say if he ran into Dan Savage, sex columnist, http://www.realclearreligion.org, Mar. 19. In 2003, in response to Santorum's anti-gay remarks, Savage redefined the former senator's last name into a now-popular phrase involving anal sex which has become a prominent search result for Santorum's name on web search engines.
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"Rick Santorum thinks that women who have been raped should be compelled – by force of law – to carry the babies of their rapists to term, he thinks birth control should be illegal, he wants to prosecute pornographers, etc., etc., basically the guy wants to be president so that he can micromanage the sex lives of all Americans…and I'm the one with issues? Because I made a dirty joke at his expense eight or nine years ago and it stuck? I'm the one with issues? Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Rick can pray for me. I'll gay for him. And we can call it even."
-Dan Savage, sex columnist, responding to comments made in an interview by Rick Santorum, Republican presidential candidate, motherjones.com, Mar. 19.
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