Thanks to MoveOn.org and change.org, we have at least two examples of tangible and quantifiable protest against Target Corp. and Best Buy for their attempts to buy the Minnesota governor’s office.

While it’s too early to determine the size of the boycotts or the impact on quarterly sales, some investors in both corporations are not waiting for those data to emerge: They are demanding that the giant big-box retailers revamp their political-donation guidelines.

According to the Los Angeles Times — which receives substantial ad revenue from the merchants:

“Imprudent donations can potentially have a major negative impact on company reputations and business if they don’t carefully and fully assess a candidate’s positions,” said Tim Smith, a senior vice president at Walden Asset Management, one of three asset management firms that this week filed a resolution asking the retail giant to overhaul its campaign donation policies. He cautioned that funding ballot initiatives, as many corporations have done, “can similarly backfire.”

The three management firms sponsoring the resolution — Calvert Asset Management, Trillium Asset Management and Walden — together hold $57.5 million of Target stock. Other institutional investors, including the giant New York State pension fund and union investment managers, are considering co-signing the resolution, which calls on Target’s independent directors to review the criteria and risks in making donations to organizations active in political campaigns.

According to the Times, the New York State pension fund holds 3.8 million shares in Target alone, with a market value of $283 million.

Neither retailer cares — yet — about the customers whose lives will be negatively impacted if Minnesota candidate Tom Emmer wins the governor’s seat and continues his habit of recklessly aiding hate groups and the lawmakers (such as Michele Bachmann) who use these groups as their base of support.

Efforts to pressure Target and Best Buy must not be limited to discouraging shoppers from entering stores; efforts must also publicize the importance of this resolution to shareholders and their bank accounts.

In the end, return on investment may be the only thing that most large retailers — and the executives that operate them — care about.

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Stating clearly that McDonald’s advertising will not acknowledge the existence of lesbian or gay diners in the United States — and that such advertising may be withdrawn elsewhere around the world — the company’s chief operations officer Don Thompson had this to say to the Chicago Tribune:

Thompson: (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we’re going to learn from. But, you’re right, that commercial won’t show in the United States.

Chicago Tribune: How has it done in France?

Thompson: Interestingly enough, there have been no negatives coming out of France. The brand is a local brand and different things will occur in different parts of the world. We just have to make sure that we understand the impact one action may make on another part of the world.

Translation: McDonald’s does not wish to offend bigots in its central African and Islamist market territories, so in the interest of global cohesion, McDonald’s will ostracize certain minorities from its advertising all over the world.

Gays are not the only demographic that is stigmatized in nether regions of the world; Jews are verboten throughout the Arab world, and Hispanics are unwelcome in the American Southwest.

Can we expect them to be ostracized, as well, by a Christian Right operations chief who bases corporate “core values” upon the prejudices of the world’s most primitive and oppressive places?

Hat tip: Box Turtle Bulletin

Jamaica is a nation where antigay vigilantism is culturally accepted; authorities leave violence unpunished; and no GLBT organization can meet in public, hold events, or advocate publicly for justice and equality. In Jamaica, it takes courage to simply say “no” to violence.

Columnist Diane Abbott of The Jamaica Observer on Sunday wrote a column citing numerous recent reports of antigay murder and vigilantism. She warned that public denial of the severity of such violence harms Jamaica’s reputation.

Because attitudes to homosexuality in Jamaica are so hostile, it is not sufficiently understood how damaging its stand on the issue is outside the country.

A U.S.-based, pro-equality boycott against Jamaica was put on hold earlier this year when J-FLAG, Jamaica’s GLBT organization-in-hiding, withheld its support.

Nevertheless, Abbott says Jamaicans should learn from the boycott and from numerous reports of antigay violence:

The boycott has so far been unsuccessful. But a country dependent on tourism cannot afford to ignore the fact that attitudes to homosexuality in other countries have moved on. There are probably as many people in Britain who are privately judgemental about homosexuals and lesbians as there are in Jamaica. But the British take the view that what people do in the bedroom is their affair. So gay marriage is legal and leading politicians in both the government and opposition parties have publicly acknowledged their sexual orientation and married their partners. It is difficult to imagine such a state of affairs coming about in Jamaica any time soon.

But Jamaica could do more to stress that despite the blood-curdling lyrics of much of its popular music, it is a more tolerant society than people think. And violence against gay people should be universally condemned.

Some Jamaicans have spoken out in favor of efforts to boycott Jamaican goods or music until leaders take serious action to reduce antigay vigilantism.

Perhaps most prominent among music-boycott supporters in 2008 was Gareth Henry, who was the co-chair of Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, Allsexuals, and Gays until he was forced to flee the country for Canada last year. J-FLAG publicly expressed disagreement with the 2008 music boycott, but according to Xtra.ca, Henry said that JFLAG could not be seen to publicly support a boycott.

“They can’t be the ones to call for the boycott,” he says. “They can’t be that voice. But the gays, lesbians and queers on the ground are supportive of a boycott.”

Henry says he’s tried talking to the government.

“We have tried numerous approaches, numerous dialogues with government officials,” he says. “They have been non-responsive to the call. We have to hit people where it’s going to hurt, where they’ll feel it. In the Jamaican context talk is cheap. After 10 years of JFLAG’s existence what else can we do?”

[Addendum: Henry opposes the 2009 boycott of goods and tourism that is advocated by BoycottJamaica.org.]

Stop Murder Music Canada (SMMC) advocated a boycott last year of Jamaican musicians whose songs contain violently homophobic lyrics .

Xtra.ca reported that Canada’s reggae community was split on the issue.

Christian Lacoste, an openly gay Montreal reggae fan who runs the website Murder Inna Dancehall, supported both the music boycott and an official immigration ban on visits by homophobic dancehall artists. But Cezar Brumeanu, who runs the Montreal International Reggae Festival and that city’s House of Reggae nightclub, opposed a boycott.

This year, Jamaican blogger Dave, supports BoycottJamaica.org, a newer boycott of Jamaican goods and tourism. Dave — who is forced to remain anonymous to protect his safety — says:

This could potentially devastate my country during this global recession but this is basically the only thing I can do to improve my living conditions without putting myself in physical danger. Jamaica sucks when it comes to addressing LGBT issues and I am tired of living under these stupid conditions. Obviously, LGBT issues require much more attention Worldwide, even in the US, but Jamaica just refuses to even give us any basic rights. And they NEVER speak out against violence against gays. I don’t F-ing care how long it takes, just Boycott our asses and pass the word along.

The goals of BoycottJamaica.org are modest: There is no requirement that Jamaica affirm same-sex orientation or legalize same-sex intimacy. Instead, BoycottJamaica calls for Jamaican officials to publicly commit to ending antigay violence, and for the Prime Minister to clearly and unequivocally condemn antigay violence and express regret for past violence.

But they refuse. Until Jamaican leaders declare a halt to antigay vigilantism, boycotts appear to be the only way for North American LGBT people and their allies to tell Jamaica that they will no longer subsidize Jamaicans’ war against their gay neighbors and against basic human decency in exported music.

Hat tip: Box Turtle Bulletin

I have long been outspoken on the abuses of GLBT people in Jamaica and the need for action. I can’t imagine why any American, European or Canadian who cares about human rights would spend a dime visiting this island bubbling over with hate. Last week, Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, firmly stated how he approved of the persecution of gay people. He stated that gay rights groups are “perhaps the most organized lobby in the world” and he vowed to fight to keep the nation’s sodomy law on the books.

“We are not going to yield to the pressure, whether that pressure comes from individual organizations, individuals, whether that pressure comes from foreign governments or groups of countries, to liberalize the laws as it relates to buggery,” said Golding.

Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin wrote an excellent piece describing the abuses in Jamaica.

Personally, I’ve had enough of the prejudice and persecution. Golding’s comments are one step too far. It boils my blood when our straight friends (and uninformed GLBT people) continue to travel and spend money in Jamaica. There are thousands of people, if they knew the truth, who would not visit a place more accurately described as “Ja-Murder.”

Today, Truth Wins Out purchased www.BoycottJamaica.org. We are not yet sure if we want to launch a full-fledged boycott. But, it is nice to know we have this site in our back pocket and can take action against this nation that seems to have a unique and disturbing – if not psychotic – antipathy towards GLBT people. (Read More)

Gay people in Los Angeles have long supported a local restaurant, El Coyote, thanks to the welcoming hospitality of its owner and a manager, Marjorie Christofferson.

But behind the friendly veneer, Christofferson was giving money earned at El Coyote — a small amount, $100 — to efforts to undermine gay couples’ well-being and take away their freedoms.

As a result of Proposition 8, thousands of California gay couples lost the guaranteed freedom to visit partners in the hospital and to inherit a shared home and property when one partner dies. And because of Proposition 8, marriages are nullified by a state government that grants favoritism to some religious beliefs over others.

When local gay customers found out that their hangout’s manager was voting away their marital and religious freedoms with a bit of money as well as her vote, the customers naturally lost their appetite and stopped eating at El Coyote. Christofferson belatedly resigned — and in a free country like the United States, she can find a rewarding job with an antigay employer that is willing to subsidize her future efforts to cripple her gay customers’ relationships. There are now plenty of antigay political organizations in California that appear eager to hire Christofferson as an outspoken victim of people who were relegated to second-class citizenship by Proposition 8.

Now Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas chimes in — calling the betrayed gay customers a “mob” for defending their freedom. He also falsely and baselessly accuses the restaurant customers of accepting money from antigay Islamic countries:

Do you find it … odd … that the California anti Prop 8 mob will ruin a Mormon woman’ life over a $100 contribution to Prop 8 but will apparently take money from rich Islamic theocratically inclined countries who actually practice work-place discrimination against homosexuals? The Mormon lady simply wanted a legal definition of marriage … not to stone or throw homosexuals in jail.

Emirates airlines does impose work place discrimination against homosexuals … and it is illegal to do so in their new hub of San Francisco …

So … where’ the Prop 8 mob on this one? … I am wondering how many Christian ministries/businesses have been denied or run out of San Francisco?

In his gratuitious and ignorant slap at “San Francisco values,” Thomas apparently can’t distinguish between Los Angeles and San Francisco — 400 miles apart — nor between a restaurant’s gay customers and a politically-moderate major-city government that frequently puts a higher value on corporate welfare than on the environment and human rights.

(Clownish AFA Says Ronald is Too Gay)

Well, thank God we can finally eat McNuggets in peace without the yahoos at the American Family Association annoying us at the next table. The AFA will announce a boycott today because they claim the company supports the so-called “gay agenda” and has taken sides in the “culture wars.”

“It is about McDonald’s, as a corporation, refusing to remain neutral in the culture wars,” whined the oft-offended AFA. “McDonald’s has chosen not to remain neutral but to give the full weight of their corporation to promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.”

The AFA – the Tupelo, Mississippi-based group that once claimed Mighty Mouse snorted cocaine – has once again gone mad. What next, they will claim that Grimace is secretly gay because he is the same lavender shade as the Teletubby Tinky Winky?

McDonalds is not promoting a “gay agenda.” They are simply supporting equality for all people in the workplace. This boycott will fail, just as AFA’s Disney Boycott fell flat. The group is all hat and no cattle and has emerged as one of the most dishonest groups on the far right fringe. They even sell a video, “It’s Not Gay” featuring failed ex-gay Michael Johnston – without a disclaimer telling AFA members that Johnston has participated in gay orgies, while claiming to have “changed.” Now, how moral is that?

I’m going to do my part this morning. I will put my yogurt back in the refrigerator, march down to McDonald’s, and buy a delicious Egg McMuffin. Yum!

Please call McDonald’s today and thank them for being a fair-minded company and let them know you would rather eat without the angry, puritanical AFA crowd.

1-800-244-6227

Focus science coverup: While acknowledging his role in cultural warfare, Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family declines to acknowledge that his employer covered up numerous false claims in a widely distributed and uncorrected press release about the alleged anthropology of marriage. Instead, he admits that publication of the release was premature, but he offers no retraction. Stanton has agreed to dialogue with an anthropologist on a watchdog blog, safely out of view of Focus’ subscribers and media contacts.

Investor activism: With the help of other religious conservatives, Exodus conference speaker Ken Hutcherson has launched a religious-right investor activist group to steer companies toward policies that discriminate against their workers who happen to be same-sex-attracted, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.