Garff Boycott

I saw this article in the Desert Sun about the Desert Stonewall Democrats re-initiating a boycott of four Coachella Valley car dealerships owned by Katherine Garff and the Garff family (Toyota of the Desert, Honda of the Desert, Acura of the Desert in Cathedral City, and Ken Garff Cadillac-Chevrolet in La Quinta). Katherine Garff donated $100,000 to support Prop 8 last year. I didn't pay much attention when the original boycott was announced on February 11, 2009 since I wasn't in the market to buy any cars and I don't own a Toyota, Honda, Acura, Cadillac or Chevy..

But I felt really motivated to share info on this new boycott just so I could highlight this comment by CalifCowBoy1:

I watched Brokeback Mountain last night on HBO and that really opened my eyes. Forget religion . This life style is against nature ! It was like watching something very dark and not right. I would like to see more people support the companies that support prop 8 and at least keep marriage between a man and woman. Gay men have come along way, just look at Barney Frank. Well on second thought.

I watched Brokeback Mountain on HBO last night and got the urge to make some mutton stew.

But back to the Garffs and the boycotts. The Garff boycott ended a couple of weeks after it started as announced by Fred Karger, founder of "Californians Against Hate." In my opinion, the only justification for ending such a boycott would be a $200,000 contribution (double their first contribution) to a pro-gay marriage organization. Or, if not that, a public act of harakiri would satisfy me. We didn't get either of those, however.

It's not clear what we did get.

Some terms of the agreement could not be released, but Garff officials agreed to adopt a nondiscrimination policy for gay, lesbian and transgender employees, said Bruce Bastian, a Utah gay-rights advocate who mediated the process.

"They were almost there anyway," Bastian said of the policy. "The main thing was we were able to talk things through and they had a better understanding of … why what they did hurt. They want to be our friends, not our enemies."

So before this they thought it was a fine business practice to discriminate against gay employees and actively fight equal rights in California. After these negotiations, they've backed off from randomly firing gay employees, and we're supposed to be happy with that? Here's a comment by gotommy that says it well, I think:

I'm not convinced...they throw in a ton of money to pass a law that denigrates gay folks and strips away our civil rights. You call for a boycott asking that and fair-minded people everywhere not allow their dollars go toward paying off those bigots. They start to sweat because they realize their bottom is being affected...so you have a lil' chat, announce victory, and call off the boycott?

Am I missing something?

What exactly did you get in exchange? A promise to adopt a non-discrimination policy at their dealerships? What does it mean to "pretty much already" have a non-discrimination policy anyway? Did you share a hearty chuckle at that nutty ol' battle-axe Mom and her whimsical $100,000 "personal gestures"?

How about a matching donation to an AIDS charity or to organizations that now must fight to defeat this monster he and his family helped to create. How about a wad of cash to support a GLBT youth center in his city?

"We promise not to fire any fags we find working at our dealerships. I mean, we already *pretty much* don't fire 'em when we find em now."

That's what you got? That's not penance. That's not setting things right. That's lip service.

You had an "open and honest" discussion...pointing out that gays are human beings capable of complex thought and feeling, and deserving of the same civil rights they have...and you think they "understand now why this was upsetting and hurtful to many people."

What are they...5 year olds? Did you teach them to put their underpants on first and to look both ways before crossing the street?

Unless the boycott extracted more than a "I had no idea" and a "my bad" from these folks, then I don't see why you're calling it off. This isn't summer camp - we're not sitting around campfire singing Kumbaya. This is war - and they started it.

Money talks, bullsh*t walks. They need to put their money where their mouths are. Unless there's more to this deal, it sounds to me like you just took a hike.

February 28, 2009 2:28 PM

The Desert Stonewall Democrats (remember? we started with them) don't say anything about Fred Karger or Bruce Bastian. In fact, they don't say much. I couldn't even find this info on their page of press releases [hey, D.S. Democrats, how about putting some dates on your press release page?]. I found it, instead, on their blog. They are also planning a protest at the dealerships. It'd be interesting if they would explain why they disagree with the earlier decision to drop the boycott, if they do, and what they would like to achieve now.