Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: Rev. Philip “Flip” Benham, founder of Operation Save America, says he knows something about who you are, and more importantly, who you aren’t.
“The homosexual community isn’t going to shop at Wal-Mart. That’s not where they shop,” said Benham, whose organization tasks itself with combating the agendas of Muslims, abortion rights groups, and gay men and lesbians.
But Wal-Mart officials are betting otherwise with a new wave of stores opening in major metropolitan markets throughout the United States — including the first Wal-Mart location inside Atlanta, which opened Oct. 18 on Howell Mill Drive in gay-centric Midtown.
Now Benham is promoting a nationwide boycott and demonstration against Wal-Mart during the Thanksgiving weekend shopping free-for-all.
Planned in conjunction with conservative groups Americans for Truth and the American Family Association, the move is a right-of-center retaliation against the retail giant for its partnership with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, which chamber officials say could add gay-owned businesses to the vast Wal-Mart supply chain.
But to Benham, when Wal-Mart paid $25,000 to join the NGLCC in August, the largest retailer in the world bowed down to “extortion from the radical homosexual movement.”
“It’s happened over and over again with corporations throughout this country. Every single corporation that you can imagine, the homosexual community has come in and said, ‘If you don’t do what we want you to do and give us a little cash, then we’re going to label you homophobic and not gay friendly,’” Benham said, also citing IBM, Delta and Coca-Cola as alleged corporate blackmail victims.
Benham referred to Operation Save America’s day-after-Thanksgiving Wal-Mart demonstrations as a “gospel information explosion,” during which he and his followers will distribute handbills “exposing the truth about the way the homosexual agenda” has shaped Wal-Mart policy to customers and employees.
The American Family Association, which is based in Mississippi and boasts more than 3 million members, launched an online petition asking its membership to pledge to boycott the stores during the busy shopping weekend.
“Our responsibility is to get this information out, and what better time than the busiest shopping day of the year?” Benham said.
By working with the NGLCC and other gay groups, Wal-Mart is giving a “show of support to help homosexuals legalize samesex marriage,” according to the Americans for Truth website. 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.
“The program that they’re talking about is basically our affiliate program. And it’s designed to drive web traffic to our site. It’s a very common online marketing practice.
“We have more than 43,000 organizations that participate in the affiliate program.
Affiliates ask to be included in the program and receive a small percentage of the sales based on the customers they refer,” he said.
To date, Tovar said, the D.C. center had received $4.17 in compensation for walmart.com link referrals.
Wal-Mart takes no stance on the issue of legalizing gay marriage, and reaches out to “multiple groups” as a business matter, as well as a “commitment” to diversity, according to Tovar.
NGLCC Co-Founder and CEO Chance Mitchell said his group addresses business and economic affairs, not winning the battle for gay marriage.
“Our focus is on issues like business and healthcare. To the extent that there’s overlap with the issue of marriage, obviously we feel like marriage equality is something important because it affects things like healthcare and inheritance rights. That’s just one example of how they twist the facts to suit their own purposes. It sells a little bit better for their membership,” Mitchell said.
According to Benham, the “radical homosexual agenda” took its cue to extort corporate America from the African-American civil rights movement. In the 1980s, Benham said, activists for people of color like Rainbow/PUSH Coalition founder Rev. Jesse Jackson successfully taunted companies with claims of racial discrimination.
“He would go to a corporation and say ‘I think that there’s some racial discrimination. I think it’s happening. I think I see it. But if you could give $50,000 to the NAACP, I might not see it,’” Benham said, accusing Jackson of extortion.
Benham charged that there have been similar conversations between gay rights organizations and corporate executives.
“They have perfected this. The homosexual community is saying, ‘I think that I see discrimination here. I see what you’re doing and you are homophobic. You wouldn’t want to be branded homophobic, would you,’” he said.
Business as usual Wal-Mart earned a score of 65 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2006 Corporate Equality Index, the highest score the retailer has ever reached on the national gay political group’s ratings. Up from a 57 in 2005, the higher score was partially credited to the NGLCC partnership.
Wal-Mart includes sexual orientation in its employee non-discrimination policy, but only offers domestic partner benefits in the few jurisdictions where it is required by law, according to HRC.
Wal-Mart does look to attract gay men and lesbians, as well as other urban populations, for its new metropolitan stores.
Tovar said that Wal-Mart will stock urban stores with merchandise the company feels will appeal to the people who live nearby.
“We try and provide as much as we can for as many people as we can in a diverse community,” Tovar said.
On the day after Thanksgiving and beyond, business will proceed as usual at Wal-Mart, despite any boycotts, Tovar said.
“The way we’re going to counter it, I believe, is to remain committed to offering a shopping environment that is familyfriendly, and we look forward to serving all of our customers for their Christmas and holiday needs,” he said.
Reaction to the planned boycotts from the NGLCC was slightly more skeptical. Mitchell predicted that Wal-Mart had little to worry about.
“Our view on it, the boycotts aren’t particularly effective. And I think those organizations know that as well. They really use those as veiled efforts to drum up membership and support,” he said.
