7 Amazing Companies That Strongly Support Gay Rights
Have you ever used OkCupid before? It’s okay to admit it – even if you’re not single, it’s a pretty fun site to waste time on (and figure out how compatible you are with your friends, with fun personality quizzes.) Members who tried to log on to the site by using Mozilla Firefox got a bit of a surprise the other day, when a note popped up that openly stated how the site was actively protesting Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, who supported an anti-same-sex marriage campaign. Since 8% of the matches made on OkCupid are between same-sex couples, OkCupid felt like it wasn’t right to silently run on a browser that’s against the love connections they help to create. The site only encouraged a switch-over, and didn’t demand it from their users – so really, the choice is up to the individual members. However, it was smart of them to get the word out about Eich’s priorities and voice their stance on it, as it got the message out to many who might not have known what they were supporting.
OkCupid isn’t the only application to announce a ban on Firefox, and Mozilla as a company in general. After the announcement of Eich’s promotion to CEO, app development company Rarebit announced it had pulled its apps from Firefox. “As a married gay couple who are co-founders of this venture, we have chosen to boycott all Mozilla projects,” said founder Hampton Catlin. Even a few of Mozilla’s employees have expressed their distaste for the new CEO, which is a risky yet pretty courageous move when jobs are somewhat hard to find.
While a blog post from Eich himself insists that his company will be supportive towards everyone, many people still aren’t buying it. If you’re looking to support a company that openly support gay marriage, here are a few who have made it no secret that they believe equal rights are the way to go.
1. Amazon
Back in 2012, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, and his wife agreed to donate $2.5 million to help pass a same-sex marriage referendum in Washington State. Plus – remember the amazing Kindle Paperwhite commercial that came out recently?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnmDlk6F3d0
In a twist that made it seem like the guy was into the girl based on her suggestion of buying a Kindle Paperwhite, he was really into her personality, solely based on the fact that she provided a great suggestion while his husband was offscreen buying him a drink.
2. Expedia
If you’re looking to travel, consider using Expedia. Back in 2012, Expedia President Dara Khosrowshahi released a statement that said the following:
They also released a commercial, which is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Nikki Weiss-Goldstein, the narrator’s brand new daughter-in-law, even said through social media that the airing of the ad helped her in a life-changing way. The ad actually helped sway a social worker to determining she was fit to adopt her son that her wife gave birth to. How awesome is that?
3. Bud Light
Back in 1999, Bud Light decided to advertise in a gay magazine, and felt the heat from conservative groups. The ads, which featured two men holding hands, included the phrase “Be yourself and make it a Bud Light.” They were only featured in certain magazines, but regardless, the company didn’t seem to care about the negative press whatsoever.
A spokesman for Anheuser-Busch was quoted as saying “It’s surprising to us that one print ad placed in select gay-oriented magazines has attracted attention. Today’s consumer is not one of a specific gender, race, geography or orientation.”
4. Absolut
On the subject of alcohol, Absolut has been amazing throughout the years for showing support towards the gay community. It started in 1981, when Absolut, a relatively unknown brand back then, ran ads in The Advocate and After Dark, two magazines that had an audience of predominantly gay men. This continued up to 2008, when they ran a campaign around the theme, “In an ABSOLUT World All Men Are Created ‘Equal’ and Gay Marriage Is a Celebrated Reality.”
5. Smirnoff
Okay, it looks like a few brands of alcohol are into supporting the LGBTQ community. Maybe I should have spaced these out a bit.
To support marriage equality, Smirnoff posted an image of three different drink pairings with the headline, “Every pairing is perfect.” Even though post didn’t specifically call out the issue at hand, the overwhelmingly positive comments proved that readers got the message, loud and clear.
6. Levi’s
Back in 2009, the company best known for All-American jeans began using white to demonstrate its support for gay marriage. Back then, the White Knot program encouraged people to demonstrate their support of marriage equality by wearing a small piece of knotted white ribbon – and while many celebrities took action, so did the mannequins sporting Levi’s. This wasn’t the only thing they’ve done – they also made the decision to offer health benefits to “domestic partners of unmarried employees”, which is amazing, and advertised pretty heavily on the network Logo.
7. Starbucks
Whether you love or hate Starbucks, you have to acknowledge that they’ve been extremely supportive of gay rights. Just last year, CEO Howard Schultz defended his company’s support of same-sex marriage at the Starbucks annual shareholder meeting. While he acknowledged that being open about his beliefs might hurt profits, he made it clear that Starbucks was all about embracing diversity, regardless of money.
A year prior to the meeting, the National Organization for Marriage organized a “Dump Starbucks” boycott when the company endorsed a Washington state bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, their sales were at a record low based on the protest. If Schultz wasn’t serious with his beliefs, you’d think he wouldn’t encourage those who were against his position to sell their stocks – but, he did. And Starbucks is still thriving.
What are your opinions on companies that take sides on marriage equality? If you disagree with them, do you still support them?
