There are more people thanking Starbucks for supporting gay marriage than those boycotting it

According to On Top Magazine, supporters were outpacing opponents 8 to 1 as of Saturday night, with more than 141,200 people signing a thank you card and just under 17,500 pledging to avoid Starbucks shops and its retail products.

*Thank SBUX cars outpace boycott pledges in gay-marriage flap

Meanwhile, Starbucks Gossip reader Guat.My.Mala posted this in comments on another thread:

I have gotten two calls at my store harassing me and my partners because STarbucks supports gay marriage. I am completely appalled at these callers who say they are from a BIG church and are now boycotting Starbucks coffee. It is annoying. I support Starbucks and I love that my company stands for equality. There are some narrow minded people out there with nothing better to do that harass Starbucks employees. I don't believe in God, but I don't call churches and harass them about promoting him.

Are others getting similar calls?

Comments

[Revered Swaggart]

Since you don't believe in God, I can understand why you don't harass others about something which isn't real to you.

[baroosta]

If anyone called my store and said something like that, I would make sure to hang up and then dial "0" to report harassing calls.

[Guat.my.mala]

The people at this specific church don't believe in gay marriage and don't like that Starbucks supports it. I don't believe in God and I don't like that religion supports it. One of us called and harassed the other and it wasn't me. I don't care what people believe/think/do with their free time but they shouldn't push their beliefs on other people, especially in a horribly mean way.

[...]

we had someone call our store and say "i heard a part of all the money i spend at starbucks is going to fight the defense of marriage act, is this true?" we gave him the corporate number and told him to call them and ask. lol

[Managermatt]

I also received a phone call a few days ago from a man who said he was upset that Starbucks supports gay marriage. I encouraged him to contact the customer relations department and gave him the number. He thanked me for my time and hung up. I (personally) have absolutely no problem with someone participating in a boycott for something they believe in, nor do I have a problem with that person contacting that business to let them know they aren't happy with that business's practices. Just one of the many awesome perks of this country and it's freedoms/ rights. Many people in our nation don't believe in gay marriage, and that is based on their belief system. Many people don't believe in eating meat, yet we don't call them horrible names and laugh at they're beliefs. Many of those same groups attempt to force their beliefs down our throats (PETA), and yet we move on. If our nation does enact open marriage, then the Christians will be upset, but they will still continue to marry, and continue to go to church. The homosexuals will begin to marry and life will go on. Sheesh, let's get over everyone getting so mad that "Jimmy" has a belief that I don't agree with I don't agree with, so he must be dumb!

[Karen]

People who support traditional marriage are angry b/c the gay community is changing the definition of marriage that has stood for as long as one can remember! It would be like women suddenly saying that they should be called MEN b/c they want equal rights (ie; better pay for the same job, having female products cost the same as mens products, etc). To fundamentally change the definition of an institution is just wrong! AND the gay community knows exactly what it is doing...it's been a planned attack set in motion long ago. If Christians change what they call marriage to "George", the Gay community would want to "George" too...get over it Gay folks, getting what heteros have is never going to make you and your lifestyle feel "normal" and accepted....sorry to be the giver of bad news! Please just make up you own personal term for marriage and move on! I guess I am not married anymore b/c what some states are calling marriage sure isn't what I am. I guess I am "Georged" now! How cool is that! :-)
BTW - in the Catholic Church you actually have to have vaginal intercourse with your husband to seal the marriage....I wonder what plastic toys the gays will use to perform that union sealer...it just isn't the same is it now????? And two penis' cannot make a baby, nor two wombs. Yup, I know that adoption is available....but if things keep going down the drain there will be no more babies but those from a test tube...you pick your daughter, you pick your son too from a bottom of a long black tube.....

[usorthem3]

@Karen Marriage licenses are issued by the state, NOT the church. No religion is necessary for a marriage to be legal, valid or recognized. Over 131,000 same sex couples are indeed married in the USA none of which must be honored in the eye's of GOD to be legal or valid. And since you brought up the Catholic Church, I could give a rats ass what the Pope thinks about it since neither he nor the Vatican create secular civil law in the USA. Holy matrimony is one thing that belongings to the church, civil marriage however does not.
Just because you seem to be unaware, the global population since 1910 has tripled from 1.3 billion to the current 7 billion so that scare tactic of the end of humanity is just ignorance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

[Guat.my.mala]

Right on, usotherm3

[Starbucks Employee]

Why can't Howard stop putting us in the middle of politics and social controversies and just work on selling the best coffee experience in the world? It is getting tiring being put in the middle of of things when we have such diverse customers. Let's just work on increasing revenue and focus on the next market beverage such as the energy drinks!

[Roger]

What does it matter? The marriage contract is no longer enforced in western society today anyway. People take the vows, but there is no penalty for breaking them at all. So what if one person breaks his or her promise of fidelity? If that person isn't the chief bread winner and can get custody of the children, she or he gets half the assets, child support, and many times, alimony, regardless of who broke the contract.

Is it any wonder that 50% of marriages end in divorce, or that 70% of those are initiated by women? Traditional marriage no longer exists so there really is nothing to defend.

[S.g.]

Karen, you sound like a nut aka religious fanatic. Take your bigotry somewhere else.

[R1]

Thanks to all who don't like being harassed at work or anywhere else. And thanks to S.g. Because you said Karen is probably a religious fanatic nut and definitely a bigot, you saved me from having to post that myself. But I do have to add ignorant and sick to your list.

[S.g.]

You're welcome R1. I am beyond sick and tired of people hiding behind their religious beliefs so they can attack others. Just because you believe one thing does not give you the right to treat others as any less than 100% equal. And you can have strong values without religion.

[Anon]

Karen... May you never call my store because I would most certainly lose my job with what I have to say to you... Absolutely disgusting. Ignorant is too kind a word...

The church doesn't own marriage anymore than it owns pot luck dinners.

I am proud that my company stands for not just something but for someone... Might want to read that Holy book again... You seem to have missed some BIG sections on Love, and Grace.

[7yearbarista]

why does anyone even spend their time caring about who marries who? seriously, get a life!! if someone wants to enter into the "contract" of marriage, let them. why does all the religious right seem to care so much about who is doing what in the bedroom? focus on what you are doing in life.

[7yearbarista]

btw, i do believe in God, and i do have a personal relationship with Him. however, i believe in the New Testament, where Jesus does not ONE time speak of homosexuality. if you choose to focus on the old testament, you better be kosher and you better not eat lobster.

[Conservative Manager]

Should they have called? No. But let us within the church handle that.

But it always amuses me when those "open-minded" "liberal" or "socially moderate" types are the ones who cannot stand it when people have a differing viewpoint than they do. The definition of baffling.

As for the Jesus and homosexuality. No, he doesn't mention homosexuality (Paul does specifically in a few places). But that is because he certainly wouldn't have felt it was even anything to entertain. Remember, Jesus was born into a real culture, with real issues, and surrounded by real people. And Jesus' main audience was a people group who had for thousands of years lived under a Law that specifically forbade the practice under penalty of horrifying consequences.

And what Jesus does not say about gay marriage he certainly makes up for in references to what a biblical marriage looks like. Marriage is spoken in highly favorable terms throughout the OT and NT. The term is defined by it's positive connotations, not misrepresentations a culture seems to have believe about it.

And besides, simply calling something a name does not negate it's truth and place in the world.

People who call stores to bitch and moan have a very limited understanding of the biblical concept of rebuke and correction. Jesus was not preaching condemnation to "non-believers" as it were. He was preaching against the notion that this life, and "pleasing" God was possible by ones own merit. It's simply not and that is what Holy Week is for (Happy Holy Week btw)!

Anyway, not trying to flame and troll, just trying to push, ever so gently, against the notion that because people believe two people of the same gender ought to be able to call their partnership a marriage, does not make that viewpoint any more correct then the next.

I have my belief, you have yours, that's what tolerance means (note: "acceptance" is a very different thing)!

Cheers!

[S.g.]

I always thought of marriage as something between two people who love each other. I didn't think gender should have anything to do with it. As long as those getting married actually love each other, who cares if it's a man and and a woman or two women or two men? I thought it was the love that's supposed to matter...

[anythingelseinyourbutt?]

@Kosher Jesus was not just addressing Jews. What an ignorant statement.

[Conservative manager]

@anything... Don't know who @Kosher is, did you mean Karen?

Text without context is just pretext. The statement that Jesus primarily spoke to the Jewish people is true. That was his people. He was a rabbi, a Jewish minister if you will. (@7yearbarista The same people found in the OT (which is why the OT is just as important as the NT if we are too understand Jesus's life correctly)

While Jesus does address "Gentiles" as they were called, it is primarily within the context of teaching the Jews how to interact "with the outside world" now that their long awaited Messiah had arrived.

It's not an ignorant statement, the Bible is greatly misunderstood because people don't take the time to read it and apprehend the " good news" found within.

We are way off topic, haha. Forgot what this post even started as. Oh yes, loving thy neighbor!

[Confused as always]

Is it OK to be against ''gay'' marriage just because? What would happen to you if you state so publicly? Is it a firable infraction in most companies nowadays throughout the Western world

[Onky]

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[Arrya]

i think gay people souhld be allowed to marry eachother and have it called marrage. I think its just discriminating when they dont allow it to be called marrage just because the two people are of the same sex. Marrage is supposed to be the union of two people who love eachother, it souhldnt matter what your gender is.

[Bora]

EVERYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET MARRIED!!!! I am bisexual (pansexual to be more acurcate) and I really want to be able to get married! I didn't choose my sexuality I was born this way. Love is love and when I fall in love I WILL get married!