Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Get In Your Explorer

Posted on | January 11, 2006

The American Family Association and a horde of bigots took another shot in their war on homosexuals by making another run at Ford. In a long-winded letter whining about how much of a sore loser the organization is, Donald E. Wildmon and company whined about how Ford backed away on a promise to stop advertising in gay magazines and such. I guess they are still upset Ford chose to continue to have access to a $610B market as opposed to cow towing to a bunch of religious hysterics.

Pam has the full text of the letter but one part I found amusing was this:

"We strongly suggest that Ford remove itself from involvement in the cultural war and apply its resources to building the best product possible. It ill serves the purpose of Ford to take sides in the cultural war."

So basically what Donald says is: "Ford should not get involved and take sides in a culture war but you should do what we, one of the warring factions, say you should do". I think Donald and company are just bitter because their supposed market share is probably a lot less than what they think it is. While it is not ideal, I have the feeling that the vast majority of America frankly does not give a shit either way whether or not Ford, or any other company for that matter, advertises in gay media and such. But Donald thinks that by making a fuss about it his Taliban can seem larger than it really is and then, when companies like Ford see through the smokescreen, it drives him nuts.

One interesting thing to note is Exodus International president Alan Chambers signed the letter. Exodus International had a lovely little PR problem back in 2000 when one of its poster children, John Paulk, was caught in a gay bar flirting with patrons who happened to work for the Human Rights Campaign. Paulk tried to claim that he was in there to use the bathroom and did not know it was a gay bar. I guess it sounds plausible because when I go into bars to use the bathroom it takes me an hour and a few drinks to do the deed. And we all know how gay bars are instantly made straight by the presence of drag queens.

I do hope Ford stands its ground this time though.

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