Americans for Truth

UPDATE: after Donna Garner sent the message below, she did some more research on Wal-Mart’s “Gay & Lesbian” books section of its website and found that the corporation had not changed as much as she thought. Here is her subsequent ‘Correction’:

TAKE ACTION: Contact Wal-Mart by phone at 1-800-WALMART or through their online feedback page; thank them for moving in a pro-family direction but ask them to stop marketing offensive books that promote homosexual behavior, especially to youth. There are plenty of places to get these books: a “pro-family” corporation need not aggressively pursue this market.

Donna Garner writes: Now I am really sorry that I gave Wal-Mart a “pass” on their online offerings.  Last night when I was searching, I typed in the words “homosexuality” and “homosexuals” into the Wal-Mart search box. This is the same way that I had searched last summer and found so very many. 
 
This morning someone who is far wiser than I am has written me back and said these horrible teen homosexual books are still online at Wal-Mart [examples: The Best Gay Love Stories 2005, It’s in Her Kiss (see cover above), Queer Cowboys, Best Lesbian Love Stories 2005, etc.] and can be located by going through the following or by typing in the word “gay” into the search engine.  I should have thought to do that.  Please forgive my ignorance.

We still need to hold Wal-Mart responsible, and I will send my letters to the Wal-Mart executives as soon as I have time to get them written.
 
Here is what the wiser person wrote to me this morning: 
 
“In the Search box, choose Books from the drop down menu, but don’t type a search term in the menu.  Then click Find.  When it brings up a new screen, look on the lefthand side under SHOP BOOKS.  You will see in the list Gay & Lesbian.  Click on that.  In the next screen, it says Featured Categories.  Right under that is a section Gay & Lesbian Fiction, with a photo of a book Walk Like A Man.  Just below that book, just below the Add To Cart button, it says See all fiction.  Click on the word fiction.  It will take you to the Gay and Lesbian Fiction listings.”

__________________________

Donna Warner’s original message: Super-activists like Donna Garner and pro-family organizations like American Family Association — which led the charge against Wal-mart’s pro-homosexual drift — had a lot to do with this hopeful marketing shift. — Peter LaBarbera

TAKE ACTION: Contact Wal-Mart by phone at 1-800-WALMART or by through their online feedback page, and thank them for moving in a pro-family direction. 

By Donna Garner

Not only has Wal-Mart actually stopped funding Planned Parenthood and has been taken off the Life Decisions International Boycott List, but I believe the Wal-Mart online bookstore has been cleaned up also.
 
I went to the Wal-Mart online bookstore and typed in “homosexuality.”  Earlier this summer when I typed in that word, there were some 500+ books on the subject.  Now there are only 99 [there are actually over 400–Ed.].  I scrolled through all 99, and most of them are either about homosexuality and Christianity or homosexuality in history, art, foreign countries, etc. I wish many of them were not being sold by Wal-Mart, but I have to say that the really horrible homosexual novels and perverted books which teens might be lured into reading are no longer on the list [see note above on that]. 
 
Praise God!  I really do believe Wal-Mart has had a change of heart. The boycott did get their attention, and the Lord has answered our prayers. 
 
Thanks to all of you who joined in the boycott of Wal-Mart.  It took all of us working together to make a difference. God’s people are a mighty army!
 
Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com

by Donna Garner
June 26, 2007
 
On Monday morning (6-26-07), I went to the online Wal-Mart bookstore:
 
(http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=3920&search_query=gays+and+lesbians&ic=24_0&Continue.x=13&Continue.y=6)

I typed in the words “gay and lesbians.”  In the top, lefthand corner, it states, “576 items found for ‘gays and lesbians.’ “   Wal-Mart still has some cleaning up to do before it can say it is not supporting the gay and lesbian agenda. 
 
To read more about how to approach Wal-Mart with your concerns, please read Erin Roach’s 1.22.07 article in the Baptist Press (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=24812). 
 
While Wal-Mart appears to be removing its support of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender organizations, we need to ask Wal-Mart to remove these harmful books from its online bookstore because they could easily get into the hands of impressionable teens.  
 
Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Tony Perkins of Family Research Council wrote Monday (June 25):

Liberal Partnerships No Longer in Store for Wal-Mart

 

For Wal-Mart executives, the most pressing issue hasn’t been price wars but the broader culture war. A year after the company’s failed experiment of endorsing pro-homosexual groups, the retail giant announced that it will no longer donate to “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) organizations.” The news is a significant victory for many in the pro-family movement who took part in a grassroots campaign to oppose Wal-Mart’s liberal partnerships. In 2006, the company known for its Christian roots did a radical about-face, joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, sponsoring the “Out & Equal” convention, and selling homosexual-themed products in its retail stores. Wal-Mart’s liberal transformation angered many in its customer base and prompted several groups to boycott the chain altogether. FRC distributed thousands of educational fliers warning customers that Wal-Mart was rolling back family values. In the end, the broad backlash forced the company to revoke its political agenda. Hopefully, this latest decision will signal other companies to rethink their liberal leanings. Many have tested the political waters and found that embracing the Left’s agenda often means sacrificing profits and consumer confidence–a price more retailers are unwilling to pay. For the latest on the homosexual agenda, log on to http://www.frc.org/ to read an op-ed today by FRC’s Vice President for Policy, Peter Sprigg, which appeared in USA Today.

A followup to AFTAH’s exclusive special report on Out & Equal’s radical agenda…

From the Out & Equal website:

Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is proud to display our ever-increasing list of corporations who support LGBT workplace equality by encouraging and fostering their own employee resource groups (ERGs). With such valuable workplace groups in place, employees in one ERG can turn to leaders in other groups to share resources and establish good workplace practices for LGBT employees. LGBT employees trust their employers are keeping their interests in mind when making key business decisions that affect all employees…

True Out & Equal Workplace Leaders

TAKE ACTION – Pass this article forward to the executives at your company and contact your elected officials in Washington, D.C. (Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121) to express opposition to the “ENDA Our Freedom” Bill. (ENDA is the pro-homosexual, pro-”transgender” Employment Non-Discrimination Act.) Also, call President Bush at 202-456-1111 or 456-1414 and ask him to veto any and all pro-homosexual bills that emerge from the Democrat-led Congress.

AN Americans For Truth EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT

Amy Andre, program manager for Out & Equal, presented a workshop at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference, November 8-12, 2006, in Kansas City, Missouri, entitled 15 Steps to an Out & Equal Workplace. (AFTAH’s reporters went undercover at the conference because the Task Force ejects critical observers at its events.)

One key initiative revealed by Andre: the promotion of a “spousal equivalency policy” that would require employers to pay homosexuals a higher salary than married heterosexuals.

These are the steps that homosexual activists are recommending for American corporations (our comments are in bold and italics):

(1) Support and attend the annual Out & Equal “Workplace Summit”

(2) Start an “employee resource group” – This employee group will be used to pressure the company to complete the remaining steps.

(3) Offer domestic partner benefits – O&E supports domestic partner benefits for cohabitating heterosexuals as well as homosexual partners.

(4) Include “sexual orientation” in your company’s EEO policy – Such a policy would prevent the company from “discriminating against” homosexuals or bisexuals.

(5) Include “gender identity and expression” in your company’s EEO policy – This policy would prevent an employer from “discriminating against” a transvestite (cross-dresser) or transsexual (who might be considering a “sex change” operation or might be partially or completely “transitioned”), even if this situation creates a problem with clients. (For example, these policies have been used to ensure that a teacher who cross-dresses or proceeds with a “sex-change” operation cannot be fired. Instead, children are expected to understand and cope with this outrageous situation.)

(6) Include LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] workplace diversity training – “Knowing someone who is LGBT changes attitudes” so O&E recommends having the trainer or another employee “come out” during the session — a manipulative tactic.

(7) Support the LGBT community through corporate giving – Although homosexual activists generally express disdain for corporate America, executives are urged to contribute money to promote the normalization of homosexuality.

(8) Recruit and develop LGBT employees

(9) Market to the LGBT community

(10) Create LGBT-specific advertising

(11) Provide LGBT leadership development opportunities

(12) Develop spousal equivalent policies for LGBT employees – See below — this one is very important.

(13) Include LGBT-owned businesses in your supplier diversity program – O&E recommends the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s certification program. This policy results in business moving from family-oriented companies to pro-homosexual companies. (Case in point: Wal-Mart.)

(14) Promote an LGBT-friendly corporate culture

(15) Share best practices around LGBT workplace issues

Out & Equal convinces companies that homosexuals comprise both a vital source of talent and a uniquely attractive target market segment. Using data from Witeck-Combs, a pro-homosexual firm, O&E suggests that homosexuals comprise 6 to 7 percent of the population. (Their number far exceeds more scientific estimates that put the figure at 1-3 percent.)

Using their inflated numbers, O&E says the 14 to 16 million homosexuals will spend about $640 billion in 2006. They report that homosexuals are twice as likely to be professionals or managers, are early adopters of new technologies, are brand loyal, and have a higher discretionary income. That enticement, along with a little “social justice” guilt, deceives companies into implementing O&E recommended policies.

First, a corporation would incur additional expense to fund “domestic partner” benefits. Most corporations contribute a substantial portion toward the cost of an employee’s personal health care and some toward the cost of coverage for an employee plus spouse or employee plus spouse/children. O&E recommends that an employer make that same contribution for those who are not married — for instance, a live-in boyfriend/girlfriend or a homosexual partner.

Homosexual “Spousal Supremacy”?
Next, Out & Equal’s “spousal equivalency policy” would require the employer to compensate the homosexual employee for the absence of tax exemption on homosexual partner and children health insurance costs. An employee normally makes a contribution, deducted from his paycheck, toward the cost of his health care coverage. For a married man, that expense is paid with pre-tax or tax-exempt dollars. Because there is no federal recognition of “gay marriage,” although a homosexual may receive domestic partner benefits, his contribution is paid with taxable dollars.

In the example Ms. Andre used (and she did note that the figures would vary according to each unique circumstance), she estimated that the employer would need to pay a homosexual employee with a partner $3787.20/year extra to compensate for the different tax status; that figure would soar to $7006.32/year for a homosexual with a partner and children. The net effect of this concept would be to pay a homosexual with a “partner” thousands of dollars more than a married heterosexual.

And add to that the cost of employee time spent networking, calling or e-mailing, meeting to focus on their “victim” status, lobbying HR/management, etc.

Executives would do well to examine Eastman Kodak, Ford, and Wal-Mart as case studies and to note the negative effect of capitulating to GLBT demands — on corporate revenue, volume, and stock price.

Or they could simply heed the words of one (white, female) activist in a separate Task Force Creating Change session, who expressed disdain for American corporations and said:

“…I am happy to take the white man’s money
and use it to subvert [everything he stands for].”

Out & Equal’s 2007 Workplace Summit will be held September 27-29 at the Hilton in Washington, D.C. Human Resource executives would do well to take their calculators along.

This article is a must-read for anyone working for an American corporation. From the automotive, airline, and petrochemical industries to banks, retail stores, and restaurants patronized primarily by traditional families, employers are capitulating to the demands of homosexual activists who are organizing homosexual employees.

The pro-family movement must re-engage in the corporate arena, or there is no hope of recovering moral sanity in the larger culture. To start with we can demand strict neutrality in corporate “diversity” and giving programs, and an end to one-sided tolerance seminars that are in reality training sessions in “gay” ideology. — Peter LaBarbera

Excerpted from Queer Inc, by Marc Gunther, published Nov 30, 2006, by Fortune:

…A platoon of Raytheon employees wearing identical blue-and-black bowling shirts, pins with the company’s logo and black pants proudly walked the halls of this fall’s convention of Out & Equal, an organization that brings together the networks of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people - GLBT, in the argot of the moment - that have taken root at America’s big companies.

For three days in Chicago, with about 1,700 delegates from other companies, the 67 members of Raytheon’s GLBT network could attend workshops with such titles as The Cost of Transgender Health Benefits, Breaking Through the Lavender Ceiling and Male-on-Male Sexual Harassment: An Emerging Issue…

When Justin Nelson was trying to get the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce off the ground in 2003, IBM offered its support. “If they hadn’t joined, there wouldn’t be a chamber,” Nelson says. Big Blue was followed by Wells Fargo, Motorola, Intel, American Express and recently, Wal-Mart…

Some companies are grappling with how to manage employees switching from one sex to another. American Airlines and its HR people helped a 58-year-old pilot - an ex-Marine and Vietnam combat veteran - go from being Robert to Bobbi. Energy giant Chevron published “Transgender@Chevron,” an eight-page guide to the issues that come up when a worker changes gender identity, ranging from the bureaucratic (don’t forget to get a new security badge) to the everyday (when it’s appropriate to move from the men’s room to the ladies’ room or vice versa)…

This is how workplace changes typically happen at big companies - from the inside out. Gay and lesbian employees come out of the closet. They find one another. They organize. They enlist straight allies. And they take their concerns to top managers.

These gay networks customarily meet in company facilities, use the company intranet, and receive financial support…

• Among corporations, IBM is the No. 1 financial supporter of gay rights groups in the U.S.
• To export its gay-friendly culture, IBM supports employee GLBT groups in 23 countries, including Singapore, Slovakia and Colombia. There’s plenty to do: In 80 countries homosexual acts are illegal, as they were in parts of the U.S. until a few years ago.
• Last year IBM convened a group of gay college students at the Human Rights Campaign to form a national organization of students in science and technology.
• IBM persuaded Dr. Marci Bowers, one of the world’s leading sex-reassignment surgeons and herself a transgendered person, to participate in the company’s health insurance program.

…the truth is that for the past 15 years, boycotts or no boycotts, corporate America has been moving in only one direction, and at a pretty rapid pace.

Do you recall that the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel fired gay workers back in 1991 for not having “normal heterosexual values”? Well, a few years ago, when a Kodak employee sent an e-mail to co-workers objecting to the company’s endorsement of National Coming Out day as “disgusting and offensive,” he was the one who was fired when he declined to apologize. He was entitled to his beliefs, the company explained, but his behavior was not aligned with Kodak’s values.

So it’s clear where big business is going. What’s interesting is to watch it pull the rest of the country along. It turns out that the most important factor shaping people’s feelings about gay issues is not their age or even their religion - although those do matter - but whether they have relatives, friends or co-workers who are gay.

Continue reading at CNN…

A letter from Texas pro-family advocate Donna Garner to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-mart.
To contact Mr. Scott yourself, click HERE.

Dear Mr. Scott,

My husband and I have been very committed to boycotting Wal-Mart because of its support of the homosexual agenda; but now that you have decided not “to support or oppose controversial issues,” we can happily go back to our wonderful Hewitt Wal-Mart and shop TODAY! We are excited because it has been a great sacrifice for us financially and time-wise to have to drive a long distance to go to other stores.

You have done the wise thing in making the decision to stop perpetuating the harmful and unhealthy homosexual lifestyle. We feel assured that you will live up to your commitment to American Family Association. If for some reason in the future you should decide to support the homosexual agenda once again, you can be assured that we will redouble our efforts to boycott Wal-Mart with even more commitment.

Thank you for listening to the traditional families of America who love our country and want to see it filled with healthy and whole families.

Sincerely,

Donna and Wayne Garner
Hewitt, TX

Dear Mr. Hudson:

This letter is in regard to your Nov. 17, 2006, article , “Wal-Mart faces anti-gay boycott“, published in Washington Blade, Southern Voice, SoVo.com, and Houston Voice.

ITEM ONE

You wrote:

“Working with conservative groups Americans for Truth and the American Family Association, Benham is planning a nationwide boycott and demonstration against Wal-Mart during the Thanksgiving weekend shopping free-for-all.”

There are two problems with that sentence.

First, according to the Americans for Truth post: “AFA is calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart on the Friday following Thanksgiving, which is typically the biggest shopping day of the year.”

Americans for Truth has not formally called for a boycott of Wal-Mart. Americans for Truth simply reported that American Family Association had called for a one-day boycott.

Second, Flip Benham has not engaged in any conversation with anyone from Americans for Truth on any subject . In fact, I cannot recall having ever met or spoken with Flip Benham, so I was surprised to read that Benham is “working with…Americans for Truth.”

ITEM TWO

You wrote:

“By working with the NGLCC [National Lesbian & Gay Chamber of Commerce] and other gay groups, Wal-Mart is giving a ’show of support to help homosexuals legalize same sex marriage,’ according to the Americans for Truth website.”

The Americans for Truth post clearly cites American Family Association as the author of that sentence — and you should have, too.

ITEM THREE

You wrote:

“The site claims that Wal-Mart is forwarding 5 percent of the value of online sales from walmart.com to the Washington D.C. Center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender People.

“David Tovar, director of communications for Wal-Mart, disputed that claim. He noted that the gay center receives only a percentage of sales from people who click on walmart.com from a link on the gay center’s website — not all online sales.”

There are two problems with that statement.

First, the Americans for Truth website post clearly notes that the percentage is only on sales via the DC Center’s website:

Title of AFT post: “Wal-Mart Contributes 5% Of Online Sales Via D.C. Homosexual Community Center Website”

Text from AFA: “The cash donation will come from all online purchases made at Wal-Mart through the homosexual group’s web site.”

Americans for Truth did not state/did not imply that DC Center was getting a percentage of ALL online sales.

Second, although Mr. Tovar of Wal-Mart seems to dispute the 5% figure (of online sales deriving from the Center’s website), the DC Center’s own website, which is linked in the Americans for Truth post, confirms that number:

“The percentage of each sale donated to the Center is indicated next to each store… Wal-Mart [5%]”

We would appreciate a public correction on these points. And next time, please call to verify the facts first.

Sincerely,
Peter LaBarbera
President, Americans for Truth

(For the background on this update, click HERE.)

Excerpted from Wal-Mart Drops Gay Sex How-To Manual for Teens after LifeSiteNews.com Expose, by John-Henry Westen, published Nov 15, 2006 by LifeSiteNews:

…A Wal-Mart advertisement for the book was listed on the Wal-Mart website, but the web page which listed the information now says: “Product Not Found!”

LifeSiteNews.com contacted Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg for comment on the book’s removal, but no comment has yet been received.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…