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This type of campaign feels right, as it did a few years ago in Colorado...but I wonder if it really bears fruit (so to speak...) Any thoughts?
Fri Jun 11, 7:36 PM ET
Patrick Letellier, PlanetOut Network
SUMMARY: Activists Thursday called for a boycott of Virginia in response to anti-gay legislation prohibiting recognition of gay marriage, civil unions, and domestic partner policies.
"Virginia is for lovers," according to the state's tourism slogan, but not if those lovers happen to be same-sex couples.
Gay activists on Thursday called for a boycott of Virginia in response to anti-gay legislation recently passed in the state prohibiting any recognition of gay marriage, civil unions, and domestic partner policies.
The new law, called the Marriage Affirmation Act, is so broad experts say it may even affect individual couples' wills, powers of attorney and other legal documents.
"We're here to prove that when a U.S. state attacks the fundamental legal rights of gays and lesbians, gays and lesbians know how to fight back," says a Web site promoting the boycott, VirginiaIsForHaters.org. The site's creators, Jay Porter and David Smith, a Seattle gay couple, are urging gay rights supporters to avoid traveling to Virginia and to boycott companies with headquarters in the state, including clothing retailer J. Crew.
"This is a national issue," Porter told the Associated Press. "Someone came up with this really punitive legislation and got it through the state legislature, and in my mind, that could happen just about anywhere in the U.S."
Passed in April, the new law has been soundly criticized not only by gay activists and legal scholars, who say it will be found unconstitutional, but also by the mainstream media. An editorial in the Washington Post called the law "jaw dropping."
"It so flagrantly violates norms of basic fairness and decency that federal courts are likely to balk," the Post said, concluding that the legislators' intent was to send this message: "Gays and lesbians aren't welcome in Virginia."
"I think it's a good idea for a boycott like this," said David Paisley, production manager for Community Marketing and Travel Alternatives Group, a national company which sponsors gay travel expos.
"There needs to be some consequences" to anti-gay legislation, Paisley told the PlanetOut Network. The travel boycott will help, Paisley said, but targeting the state's corporations is a more effective strategy.
"Though it's not universal, corporate America is pretty gay friendly," he said. "But they're not turning to their local elected officials and saying, 'Hey, you're not reflecting the values of corporations in this state.' And that needs to happen."
Porter and others promoting the boycott hope to sway companies into taking a pro-active stance against such anti-gay legislation, or, at the very least, they will feel the pinch of gay dollars being spent elsewhere. "We aim to make being based in Virginia just as difficult for companies as it is for gay and lesbian couples," Porter said.
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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