One Million Moms' low success rate with its JCPenney boycott after the retail giant hired Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson has not deterred the group from attempting another Penney’s-related attack. This time One Million Moms is offended by a page in the May catalog that features a lesbian couple with their family and the words “freedom of expression” emblazoned on the picture, according to The Dallas Voice.
In a blog post entitled “Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They’re Hatched,” One Million Moms asserts:
“JC Penney has laid low in the month of April by airing two different commercials that portrayed them as remaining neutral in the cultural war. Even though JCP seemed to have changed their approach, their May catalog shows they are making a strong effort otherwise. On pages ten and eleven, under the title “Freedom of Expression,” you’ll find “Wendi and her partner Maggie and daughters” and again “Wendi, daughters Raven and Clover, and partner Maggie” in text. In the picture both women are wearing wedding bands.”
Later in its call to action One Million Moms reveals the source of its reinvigorated ire asking, “What was the purpose in stating on page eleven that Wendi and Maggie are partners?”
One Million Moms, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, asserts in the blog post that JCPenney store managers have actively dismissed concerns voiced by antigay customers about the retailer’s support of the LGBT community. Now, One Million Moms has threatened that JCPenney had better listen or lose their business – again.
“Last time OMM contacted JC Penney store managers, we were brushed off. Some even experienced in person the store manager saying “Thank you” and walking off while their customer and our concerned members were in mid-sentence,” according to One Million Moms’ blog. “OMM has been told that JCP corporate office told store managers to say “Thank you” and then walk away. If they want our business, then we will not be ignored!”
The organization, which gave up on its boycott earlier this year when JCPenney’s vowed to stand by its spokesperson DeGeneres, is encouraging people to essentially nicely harass store managers until the antigay message from “traditional” families worms its way to corporate officials.
“Managers will not want to be in the middle so when we politely express our concern to them, they should realize that they are the ones taking all the complaints and corporate is not having to answer for the decisions they are making. Managers will pass along customers’ frustrations, and their own, to corporate because they will likely get tired of their game,” One Million Moms writes. “Managers will also have to answer to corporate for the loss in sales from traditional families, so we will give them the proof they need to back this up when we tell them we will no longer be able to shop with them until they take a neutral stand.”
The group further encourages antigay people to “TAKE ACTION.”
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