NOM is a group dedicated to “protecting” straight marriage from the threat of same-sex marriage. The organization is perhaps best known for the much-lampooned “Gathering Storm” commercial, which is mysteriously no longer available on their website.

A spokesperson for Hortons indicated that a regional branch had at first agreed to provide coffee for the “marriage protection” rally, and the decision to participate had not been made by the corporate headquarters.

A flurry of protests from LGBT bloggers helped make Hortons customers aware of the nature of the event and drove a campaign to contact the company’s headquarters in both the U.S. and Canada. Hortons, citing a company policy against sponsoring political or religious groups, backed out of participating.

The NOM event is called “Rhode Island’s First Annual FREE Celebrate Marriage & Family Day,” and is scheduled to include a ceremony for married couples to renew their vows, “live worship music, guest speakers, plenty of food, and activities for children.”

But no coffee.

Read full versions of the story at CBC News and The Advocate.

Tunney made a similar proposition in 2003 that died almost immediately, but this time around city lawyers seem more willing to explore the issue.

If the plan is accepted, Chicago may be the first city to qualify LGBT businesses for minority contract set asides.

Read the full story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

The survey found that 55% of adult gays and lesbians read some kind of blog, compared to 38% of adult heterosexuals.

The survey from Harris Interactive comprised 3,000 U.S. adults, of whom 404 self identified as gay or lesbian.

Similar results were found regarding social networking sites. Fifty-five percent of the gay and lesbian adults surveyed said they were members of Facebook, compared to 46% of heterosexual adults who are on the site. Results for MySpace were similar as well, with 43% of gay and lesbian adults being members compared to just 30% of heterosexuals.

“In several years capturing trends, we see again that gays and lesbians are not only looking to stay well informed but also to expand their key social, professional and personal connections online”, said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications. “As companies work to make the most of their advertising budgets in the current economic climate, blogs and social networking sites are an even more powerful cross-section of opportunities today when reaching out to this market.”

You can read the full Harris Interactive survey results here.

During a May 28 show, one of the three hosts on KRXQ’s “Rob, Arnie & Dawn” show said he would hit his son with his shoe if he put on high heels. Another said he would tell a boy he was “a little idiot” if he asked to wear a dress.

Officials with Bank of America Corp. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Friday their companies pulled advertising because they found the comments offensive.

“We listened to the segment and the follow-up comments, and found it quite difficult to defend,” Bank of America spokesman Joe Goode said.

Representatives of Verizon Communications Inc., Nissan Motor Co. and Carl’s Jr. restaurants also said they stopped advertising.

Transgender advocates and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have sought an apology from two of the show’s three hosts, Arnie States and Rob Williams. The third host, Dawn Rossi, defended transgender people on the show.

“Our issue here is that Rob and Arnie advocated violence against children because of who they are and have failed to take responsibility for their dehumanizing and defamatory words,” said Rashad Robinson, senior director of programs at GLAAD.

John Geary, vice president and general manager of KRXQ, did not return a telephone message or e-mail Friday.

During a follow-up show Wednesday, States said he never advocated abuse. He said his comments were meant only as a joke and that he didn’t do anything wrong, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee.

During the May 28 broadcast, States and Williams discussed the California Supreme Court ruling upholding Proposition 8, the initiative on last November’s ballot that banned same-sex marriage. The hosts then turned their attention to transgender lifestyles.

“If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him,” States said on the air.

Williams suggested transgender people suffered from a mental disorder.

“They are freaks. They are abnormal,” he said. “Not because they’re girls trapped in boys bodies, but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them.”

A new national study has found that gay couples plan to spend 50 percent more on home improvement projects than non-gay couples over the next 12 months.

These study was undertaken by the Chicago-based, online research agency, Socratic Technologies and Target 10, a gay and lesbian marketing agency based in New York.

“Gay couples planning home improvement projects lead the way when it comes to spending,” the study’s authors said in a statement.

LGBT homeowners intend to spend an average of $2,077 within the next 12 months while non-gay couples intend to spend only $1,384, according to the findings.

“With 63 percent of gay homeowners intending to start home improvement projects within the next 12 months, it’s not surprising that more than half also plan on purchasing more new home appliances or furnishings within a year’s time.”

The kitchen in particular is high on the “to do” list.  In the next 12 months, 34 percent of gay homeowners reported that they intend to replace a kitchen appliance vs. 27 percent of straight homeowners.

“Gay men and lesbians have a reputation of being major home improvement shoppers and this survey reaffirms that,” said Matt Tumminello, president of Target 10.  “Renovating and refurbishing homes is in many ways a part of gay culture.  Even in bad economic times, they are not stopping.” Over the last three years, 72 percent of gay homeowners had made home improvements.

The survey also uncovered some interesting findings on how consumers shop.

“We found that gay consumers are shopping in more places than straight consumers to find the items that they want.  This includes both at retail stores and online,” said Jeff Kerr, vice president of Socratic Technology.

Gay consumers reported higher rates of shopping and purchasing at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Sears, Best Buy and the warehouse shopping club, Costco.

“They are savvy shoppers who are determined to find exactly what they want and at the best price,” Kerr said.

The survey also found that gay consumers are looking for high-end products.

Homeowners were significantly more likely to seek out products from top-tier brands such as Viking, Sub Zero, Jenn-Air and Miele.  And while non-gay homeowners showed a willingness to use less expensive materials during the economic downturn, this is something most gay consumers are not willing to do.

But the survey discovered that most companies have been slow to go after gay consumers.

“In the last few years we’ve noticed very few household appliance and home improvement brands taking steps to court gay consumers and no one brand has emerged as a market leader,” said Tumminello.

“Gays and lesbians are famous for their brand loyalty and an opportunity exists to fill that void.  Those first in, win.”

This national online survey was conducted March 17-30 among members of the Socratic Forum and the Socratic/Regent Media Gay Consumer Panels.  Interviews were completed by 301 gay and 310 straight homeowners.

©365Gay.com 2009

Steele said that was just an example of how the party can retool its message to appeal to young voters and minorities without sacrificing core conservative principles. Steele said he used the argument weeks ago while chatting on a flight with a college student who described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay marriage.

“Now all of a sudden I’ve got someone who wasn’t a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for,” Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. “So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money.”

As Steele talked about ways the party could position itself, he also poked fun at his previous pledge to give the GOP a “hip-hop makeover.”

“You don’t have to wear your pants cut down here or the big bling,” he said.

Vermont and Iowa have legalized gay marriage in recent weeks, and a Quinnipiac University poll released in April found that 57 percent of people questioned support civil unions that provide marriage-like rights. Although 55 percent said they opposed gay marriage, the poll indicated a shift toward more acceptance.

The chief of the Republican National Committee has been criticized by some social conservatives in recent weeks after GQ magazine quoted him as saying he opposed gay marriage but wasn’t going to “beat people upside the head about it.”

Steele, a Catholic and former Maryland lieutenant governor, was elected chairman of the committee earlier this year.

Greg Quinlan, a member of the conservative American Family Associated affiliated group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays, presented a motion asking  stockholders to stop donating money to groups that he said ” aim to discredit the ex-gay community.”

In his speech to shareholders, Quinlan described the Human Rights Campaign and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) as “gay organizations that hate people like me.”

Over the past two years, Pepsi has given $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign and $500,000 to PFLAG.

“By funding PFLAG, PepsiCo promotes fear and hostility against the ex-gay community and our supporters, and spreads lies about ex-gay organizations. Diversity does not mean funding one organization so that it can attack another,” said Quinlan.

His motion received five percent of the vote.  Quinlan said he will keep pressing the issue at shareholders meetings.  Under company rules, any vote receiving more than three percent remains active.

PepsiCo produces Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola and Gatorade drinks, Tropicana juices, and Quaker foods.

The company already is under a boycott by the AFA.

The AFA in January issued an Action Alert to its more than two-million members, telling them to avoid Pepsi products.

“Pepsi refuses to give money to any pro-family organization that opposes the homosexual agenda. Plus, every homosexual organization we know of is overwhelmingly pro-abortion,” according to the Action Alert.

Previous AFA boycotts have had little impact on companies, although the group has had some success.

In October, it ended a boycott of McDonald’s after the fast-food giant agreed to end its support for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.  McDonald’s incurred the wrath of the AFA after it made a $20,000 donation to the chamber, and Richard Ellis, who until September was vice president of communications for the chain, was named to the chamber’s board of directors. Ellis resigned from the Chamber of Commerce board, though the company said Ellis resigned after moving to McDonald’s Canadian operation.

The AFA previously boycotted Disney for several years over its support for Gay Days at Disney World, although the company is not an official sponsor of the event. It has also boycotted Proctor & Gamble and Kraft, and has threatened to boycott Wal-Mart.

An AFA boycott of Ford over the automaker’s support for LGBT issues was heralded as a success by the organization, which noted that it had resulted in a drop in sales and share value.  But most financial analysts said that Ford’s problems were really the result of vehicle designs that failed to impress the public. Ford was the only carmaker of the Detroit big three to decline a federal bailout. 

The AFA claimed victory when Ford began pulling its ads from LGBT publications, but industry observers and the company said the ad pullout was part of a downsizing of expenses.

Since the news, the blogosphere has reacted with signature snark: After nine years of being told to take their business elsewhere, gay folks are skeptical. Likewise, conservablogs are accusing eHarmony of succumbing to government bullying and caving in to the gay agenda.

And in a move that took that gay agenda and draped it in 1960s game show dressing, a recent episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show unveiled the set of the Game Show Network’s new Newlywed Game, sponsored by eHarmony – not exactly a paragon of gay pride – as the affable host brought her wife Portia De Rossi on to play.

A segment of the Ellen show sponsored by eHarmony? How did it come to this?

Back in 2005, New Jersey man Eric McKinley wanted to experience eHarmony’s much ballyhooed matching methodology. The problem for McKinley was that he was a man looking for a man. And eHarmony’s services are strictly for heterosexual matches. So Eric lodged a complaint with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Division of Civil Rights.

After two years of “back and forth, back and forth,” says McKinley, the attorney general found probable cause. At that point, the parties agreed to negotiate toward a settlement. One of the conditions? That eHarmony would agree to provide an option for same-sex connections (McKinley and the first 10,000 to join up get free memberships).

Why would a company, so heaven-bent on promoting traditional marriage, “cave in” to the “gay agenda,” as so many conservative bloggers have alleged? Why didn’t they fight?

“We chose to settle ultimately because litigation outcomes are unpredictable,” says CEO and founding investor Greg Waldorf. “We were at it with New Jersey between 2005-2008 and said, ‘This is a real burden for the company.’ We’re just moving forward with a business that we hope turns out to be successful. ”

Compatible Partners is the settlement’s lovechild – a “what’s good for business” compromise negotiated between a gay partner-seeker and a company not known for its gay-friendliness. What’s unclear is if this unholy alliance is an arranged marriage or shotgun wedding.

It’s no secret that the company’s founder, psychologist Dr. Neil Clark Warren is a born-again Christian. National ad campaigns introduced the grandfatherly Warren boasting of the company’s exclusive ‘29 Dimensions of Compatibility’ to demographics larger than their original Christian following.

From the company’s emergence in 2000, when they first marketed their matchmaking services primarily to fellow Christian websites, Warren credited much of their early ascent to his relationship with evangelical group Focus on the Family and its founder James Dobson.

Inevitably, eHarmony’s growing pains put strain on that relationship, and in 2005, Warren broke from Dobson and Focus on the Family. The break, however, did not signal any change in the company’s policy of exclusively heterosexual match-ups.

While Warren was active in the company, whenever the topic of homosexual clients arose, he would insist that the results gleaned from his compatibility matching system were based solely on research of heterosexual couples. Competitor Chemistry.com launched their own ad campaign, “Rejected by eHarmony,” poking fun at the Christian matchmaker’s rejection of all types of folks.

Warren, 74, retired from active management in 2006 yet still sits on the board, today. Interestingly, under his watch, the company began offering spouse and domestic partnership benefits to their employees back in 2004. It took the threat of a lawsuit, however, for the company to offer the “benefits” of their patented algorithms to the general public.

After so many years of claiming that their 29 Dimensions were not compatible with homosexuality, how will the company convince people that suddenly, their system will work?

Current CEO Waldorf is “very hopeful that this will work just as well in the gay community. I think that anyone who says that they’re interested in a serious relationship,” he says, “will benefit from [our] deep compatibility matching.”

Next page: Working out the quirks

The Advertising Standards Authority said the ad violated its industry standards by vilifying gays.

The ad had been placed in the daily New Letter, a Belfast publication, and bore the headline: “The Word Of God Against Sodomy.”

The ad was sponsored by the Sandown Free Presbyterian Church and appeared days before Belfast’s Gay Pride parade.

Below the headline, the ad stated: “The act of sodomy is a grave offence to every Bible believer who, in accepting the pure message of God’s precious word, express the mind of God by declaring it to be an abomination.”

In a response to an investigation by the ASA the church said that it could not be held responsible “if readers were offended by the message of the Bible.”

The News Letter told the ASA that it was aware the ad was likely to be controversial but agreed to publish it on the basis of free speech.

In its ruling, the ASA said that the ad went too far and many readers were likely to find it unacceptable. The ASA ruled that the ad should not appear again in its current form.

Sandown Free Presbyterian Church pastor Rev David McIlveen, however, is not repenting.

McIlveen said the ruling was “setting a very dangerous precedent.”

“By determining that portions of the Bible have breached advertising standards on decency the ASA is taking the view that the printing and publishing of certain biblical texts is indecent,” he said in a reply to the ASA.

“This is an offence to every Bible believer.”

McIlveen also rejected an ASA recommendation that it seek regulatory approval before publishing future ads.