Anti-abortion group Right to Life has launched a bizarrely backwards campaign against Starbucks because it's disappointed the coffee giant is "officially supporting sodomy and gay marriage". The New Zealand group is following in the footsteps of conservative groups in the US, which are calling for an international boycott of the company. It follows Starbucks Executive Vice President Karen Holmes writing to US partners expressing support for gay marriage legislation in Washington State. She writes that the important legislation "is core to who we are and what we value as a company". In a blatantly homophobic statement, New Zealand's Right to Life says "the support of Starbucks for homosexual marriage is no surprise, as the company has been putting pro-homosexual messages on its take-away cups since 2006. Starbucks claims in its mission statement to embrace diversity. It promotes gay pride events but refuses to support events celebrating heterosexual marriage." The group says people in New Zealand who believe that marriage is exclusively for one man and one woman "will be offended by the attack of Starbucks on the family". They are encouraged to boycott Starbucks Coffee shops and to take their business to coffee shops that support the family and "who do not support sodomy and homosexual marriage". The group is also calling on Starbucks' New Zealand owner Restaurant Brands to publicly dissociate itself from Starbucks USA's support for gay marriage. It's not the first time Right to Life has directed such sentiment at a global chain, you can read its letter to McDonald's over its free WiFi website block here You can comment on this gay New Zealand news story in the GayNZ.com forum here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 4th February 2012 - 3:21pm