Unintended Consequence

WorldNetDaily: America's pro-homosexual giants

The Human Rights Campaign publishes a list each year of the best and worst companies for GLBT employees. The link above leads to a list of the 101 companies that got a perfect score this year, as published by WorldNetDaily, which doesn't approve of the trend. They're not the only ones--apparently some customers are threatening to boycott Starbucks because one of the 100 messages on their new coffee cups was written by Armistead Maupin, a gay man: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."

So here's the unintended consequence that I hope to create: start patronizing the names on the list, and avoid the ones that get poor scores. For instance:

In electronics retail, Best Buy offers full protections to GLBT employees, while competitor Radio Shack scores a 29 percent and Circuit City holds a 43 percent score.

Corporations shown to be actively working against equality include Emerson Electric with a 29 percent score; Entergy with 36 percent; Exxon Mobil with 14 percent; and Perot Systems with a 14 percent score.

So, if you can, buy your gas from Chevron or BP. Both scored 100. (Shell got an 86.) Ford/Volvo, DaimlerChrysler, and Toyota's sales division got scores of 100--but not Nissan, which got a 29. (GM came close with an 86.) Miller and Molson Coors scored 100--but not Anheuser Busch, which got an 86. JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual each got a 100, as did many other financial companies, while MBNA got a 43. Target got an 86, while Wal-Mart got a 57 and Meijer got a lowly 14.

You can view the whole report here. Listings by industry start on page 35.