Their prices may be low, but Wal-Mart’s support of discrimination appears to be through the roof. Thanks to the site KnowThyNeighbor.org, the signers of an Arkansas petition to limit adoption only to married couples (effectively denying adoption to gays, who cannot legally marry) are now available for all to see. Well, they always were: This data is public information, and publishing it is perfectly legal (although the scourge of anti-gay advocates). But browsing Know They Neighbor, one name in particular sticks out: Mike Duke of 16 Pinnacle Drive, Rogers, Arkansas. Yep, that’s the guy who Wal-Mart just named CEO on February 1.
As KTN points out, Wal-Mart says it’s committed to diversity! From the perspective of the new chief of the company, which has a market cap of almost $200 billion, that means eliminating the rights of gays and lesbians in the name of traditional values!
Now what? Well, you can throw this evidence into yet another hat as reasons to boycott Wal-Mart, right next to “poor employee health care,” “unfair labor practices,” and “destroying local businesses.” If Wal-Mart’s chief executive supports such discrimination, buying lawn chairs, toilet paper, and clothes for your kids effectively puts dollars in Duke’s pocket.
Though raise your hand if you’re really surprised by this. The leader of the world’s largest retailer supports good ‘ole family values? That he donated the maximum amount toward Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign? That his wife Susan is also a supporter of the Arkansas petition?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Duke, who also sits on the board and first joined the company in 1995, is a guy who “understands retail and appreciates the complex global environment in which we operate,” according to Wal-Mart chairman Rob Walton. Well, at least there’s something Duke supposedly understands.
rogue dandelion
too bad i can’t not shop there any more than i already do.
An Other Greek
shock? how?
WalMart’s politics are predictable and consistent.
That family will bring the country down…
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dfrw
I am shocked…NOT!
Trey
Shocking no… but I will definitely not be shopping at the neighborhood Walmart in the future.
hardmannyc
I won’t boycott a store because one employee — even a CEO disagrees with me. On the other hand, I have never been in a Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club in my life, so I guess that my opinion doesn’t matter.
KyleR
Unfortunately, there are some places where Wally world is the ONLY place to shop. Everything else has been run out or the prices are way to high to afford.
Dave
What gay man would shop at WalMart in the first place? We got the money in the pocket. I buy my velveeta cheese at Macy’s.
Good lord
Retail at that level is one of the last bastions of the good old boy club. They all know each other (Walmart’s head of marketing came from Target), they all golf together, they all take their blood pressure medicine together, and they are uniformly dull people, which is why so much retail is so dull.
DM73
Any relation to David Duke? Just asking.
Shocked? Wal-Mart is chuck full of family values. Like not paying a living wage. Not paying over time. Selling sweat-shop produced materials. And let’s not forget the Wal-Mart special…killing Mom & Pop stores across the land…Yes a very pro-Family organization. Children don’t need a loving home, just a broom and a mop and a “Welcome to Wal-Mart” tag.
Rob Moore
I think none of us are surprised. I don’t shop there anyway, and I won’t start. I am lucky enough to have alternatives. If you have never been to Arkansas, look at the man’s photograph. That is how all Republican men look in the South. I think they have some sort of requirement to have the same haircuts or comb-overs and they all look the same in their suits. It doesn’t matter if the suit came from a thrift store or Dolce in Italy, they make it look the same. Republican women tend towards the same sameness. Laura Bush was about as different from other Republican women of a certain age as cherry gelatin is from strawberry gelatin.
They want everyone to be just like them. They think everyone should be white, have bland personalities, be christian (preferably protestant), comb their hair the same way, wear underwear (preferably white cotton), speak English like one of their ignorant preachers, have sex in the same position using only one appendage and one orifice, keep a gun, eat the same food, and speak reverently about family values. It is a mental defect.
Rob Moore
Did I mention they all smile the same way? There is just nothing behind it. There is a nothing natural in the smile. It is the smile of a pod person.
Bruno
He’s a conservative from Arkansas, so it’s not a shock.
strumpetwindsock
@An Other Greek:
@KyleR:
Not just your country.
They are the biggest corporation in the world.
Fortunately they have been driven out of Germany. But for all their anti-union rhetoric they are big enough whores that they have accepted collective bargaining as the price of doing business in China.
D-Sun
I like Target better anyway.
osocubano
Fortunately, I live in an area (Washington DC) that for some reason remains Walmart-free.
Josh
Where I live (eastern KY) Wal-Mart is the main shopping center and the main hang out place (sad reality).
There is a ton of gay and lesbian employees at the local Wal-Mart too.
andy_d
When the CEO of a company and/or members of the board of directors thereof is shown to have made a definite stand to hurt me or my fellow GLBT brothers and sisters through a CONTRIBUTION, either monetary or otherwise, THEN I will boycott the company.
Boycotts have traditionally been, and should continue to be, based on actions, not words.
Alec
@andy_d: I think signing a petition to ban adoptions by gay couples constitutes “action,” don’t you?
Michael White
I am always surprised that they are always yelling about “christian” family values. But which store is open on Thanksgiving and Christmas. If they supported family values they would close their stores so their employees can be at home with their families.
The only thing they value is money.Thou shalt not place strange gods before me (money).
TANK
Now I’m never going to…a letter? Pfffft. I don’t shop at that place…and it’s not because I’m a snob or anything: the people there make me physically ill.
letter writing campaign?
Tony
Wal-Mart, that sweatshop using, employee abusing corporation has a leader who opposes human rights for LGBT people?!?! Nah!!
Sam’s Club is also part of the Wal-Mart family. Boycott them as well.
strumpetwindsock
Want to know how shameful they are?
When the largest corporation in the world wanted to build their new (number three) store in our city they tried to get the city to take money out of our library budget to pay for a new overpass to their sucking black hole of a store.
Fortunately it did not pass.
strumpetwindsock
They also own Value Village now.
Marc
@D-Sun:I agree, plus I have friends who work for Target and they are very pro-gay and offer same sex benefits even in states that don’t offer theses benefits to state employees.
Wal-Mart has been anti-gay since day one.
Mary
Looks like a Big Moe to me! and no ring…Hmmm…
Pragmatist
@rogue dandelion: Har, Har. I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing. I don’t believe I’ve set foot in a Wal-Mart in the past decade.
hardmannyc
NYC won’t allow WalMarts either. Another reason why we put up with the utter ridiculousness of living here. There are some advantages, like buying food from the people who actually make it (i.e., bakers, butchers, cheese farmers), instead of in horrid plastic packages.
alan brickman
not a huge fan of boycotts..but this one seems right until he changes his position…..
Jon from Maine
Well come on………the store is not carpeted. What do you expect.
niles
shop there sometimes, but i feel dirty.
CHIP
I would rather pay the extra 5 cents to buy my items at Target.
damon459
Is any other large chain retailer any better ? I will say this about large retailers. I’m a disabled and can you believe poor gay man I live on food stamps and social security I use to love costco because the have great prices and pay their people a livable wage but I sent them an email asking if they would except food stamps or EBT cards as sam’s club does and I was told and I quote ” we at Costco are a cash company serving a wealthier cliental as such will we not be at any time in the future excepting EBT cards as this would go against out cash and carry model and yet they except debit cards which is what an EBT is. Maybe if I was one of those fag’s with all that disposable income I might be able to consider voting with my dollars but I must be practical and shop where I can afford to and no be looked down on for being poor I’ll just have to worry about my gay rights when I can afford to not worry about putting food on the table.
mb00
@CHIP: I second that. I don’t even go to wal-mart, they’re nasty and all those throngs of people. eewww.
Dawson
Hell-o. A rich white boy from the South. Does this really surprise you. It is time to let the South be it’s own country. 250 years of being anti-women, anti-minorities, anti-science, anti-brain. Please can’t we do something to make the South a seperate country? Seriously.
strumpetwindsock
@damon459:
Plus Costco is NOT cheap.
I went into one last year to help someone shop, and was surprised that their prices were consistently higher than at the small store where I usually shop.
I don’t know where they get that reputation from, but it is obviously not from people who actually do price comparisons.
And I’m surprised that they can refuse food stamps. Are they not legal tender? What if every retailer did that?
Milosz
so what?
what is wrong with you people? It is his own choice.
I know that being gay is cool nowadays but looks like nobody seems to care about children…
In that case I’m gonna buy @Wal-mart 🙂