Starbucks Boycott Over Marriage Equality Spurs Tenfold Backlash

[iverglas]

6. you're thinking of something called Pink Pistols

Well, actually, it pretends to be about LGBT stuff, but it's really just a wing of the Libertarian Party in bed with the NRA.

Gun militants are well organized, very well funded, and loud. And one of their favourite pastimes is sitting around in casual restaurants in groups with guns attached to their bodies where everybody can see them (in states where that is legal, which aren't that rare). They do this "to exercise their rights". Presumably that's why they jump off high bridges, too: because it's their right.

They are right-wing assholes, astroturf for the right wing. The NRA itself is so blatantly right wing one should wear protective eye gear when looking at it. Why anybody would even consider associating with them would be beyond me. The publicity from associating with the NRA would make enemies of everyone on its enemies list -- and that one is 19 pages long, and includes a bunch of LGBT celebrities and such.

Starbucks is a giant corporation that I, personally, wouldn't patronize if I were dying of caffeine withdrawal, for reasons not too different from the reasons why I don't patronize McDonalds or Walmart. Obviously they think that pandering to gun militants is profitable, although that strikes me as unlikely. Obviously, too, supporting the LBGT community makes good business sense, and I'm quite sure they're right. They're doing the right thing there for whatever reason, and there's certainly no harm in handing out some positive reinforcement.

I realize the suggestion was at least partially tongue in cheek. But we're talking not just about the homophobic right-wing NRA, we're talking about people whose most fervent desire is to take and flaunt their control of the public spaces of society, from the internet to the coffee outlet on the corner. And what better visual representation of that occupation is there than a gun strapped to their leg? Inclusionary public space is important to the LBGT community, as it is to any vulnerable minority group. The NRA, and people with guns in coffee outlets, really are not after the same goals.