Minnesota Marriage Amendment

Here’s a fascinating story from Valley News Live (Fargo-Grand Forks) about vote yes / vote no t-shirts. According to the story, a church youth group gave students “vote yes” shirts to wear to their school. When they did this, parents called the district to complain sharing that this message didn’t belong in the schools. [read more]

In June, General Mills came out in support of equality and encouraged Minnesota to vote NO on the mean-spirited marriage amendment. Today, I’m happy to report that the “Dump General Mills” boycott put on by Minnesota for Marriage had no impact on company performance. Both sales and profits rose for the quarter and General Mills shared that the results were “a little bit better than we’d planned.”

[read more here]

Late last week, Minnesotans United for All Families released a statement announcing Capella University’s public opposition to the mean-spirited marriage amendment on ballots this fall. From the release:

Today Capella University demonstrated its leadership among educational institutions. The decision to publicly oppose this amendment shows that more and more, companies in Minnesota are speaking out against this hurtful measure because it is not in the best interests of businesses, families or Minnesota. 

Capella University is in good company with General Mills, St. Jude Medical, Thomson Reuters and other businesses in the state of Minnesota that have encouraged voters to just say no.

An article from USA Today that talks about Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and his commitment to donate $2.5 million dollars to Washington United for Marriage to help defeat Washington State’s marriage amendment.

The article references other companies standing for marriage equality, including Microsoft, General Mills and JC Penney, and compares them to the recent media flurry surrounding Chick-fil-A.

An interesting read on big business and their role in these debates.

In early July, Twin Cities Business released the results of a poll conducted with newsletter readers and social media followers. According to Twin Cities Business:

Roughly 65 percent of respondents to a recent Twin Cities Business poll said they believe the marriage amendment would have an impact on Minnesota businesses, and 50 percent said it is appropriate for companies to take a public stance on such issues.

The majority of respondents think that this amendment will have an impact on businesses. One respondent shared:

As the owner of a creative marketing business, that kind of intolerance sends a disastrous message to potential recruits/employees and clients.

So when the other side claims that this amendment will have no impact on businesses or Minnesota, it’s simply not true. Thomson Reuters, General Mills, Target Corp., RBC Wealth Management and others all know this and that’s why they’ve taken a public stand against the amendment. The more companies and businesses that start to realize this impact and take a stand, the more likely we will be at defeating this thing!

Note: The above poll received 183 individual responses. While the message this poll sends is great, I’d like to see the Star Trib or another organization do a similar poll across a much larger audience to get additional insight.

Last month, General Mills shared fourth-quarter earnings and CEO, Ken Powell indicated that he’s seen no sales impact as a result of publicly opposing the Minnesota marriage amendment. I did a quick check of the stock price today and it appears that General Mills is up since the announcement opposing the amendment. While stock price is a short-term sign, engaging and attracting talent will be a much longer-term measure and the company will have the ability to say “we did the right thing” for many years to come.

An interesting article that talks about how groups like the National Organization for Marriage are losing ground in the fight for marriage equality. The author talks about several big companies that have come out in support of gay rights and how NOM has had little impact to sway those decisions. According to the story:

…the Human Rights Campaign launched a petition in support of General Mills [for their opposition to the marriage amendment]. To date, more than 70,000 people have signed HRC’s petition.

In contrast, NOM launched a petition denouncing General Mills, which so far has been backed by only 17,000 people, nearly five times fewer than HRC’s petition.

In addition to General Mills, the article talks about Starbucks as well:

When Seattle-based Starbucks, a coffee titan, opposed the anti-gay amendment, NOM called for a boycott of the company. A “Thank You Starbucks” Web campaign received more than 650,000 supporters, while NOM’s “Dump Starbucks” campaign has received about 45,000.

Could this be a sign that NOM’s influence is waning across the country? Is it a sign that organizations are becoming more willing to stand up against these mean-spirited measures regardless of backlash from the other side? As a Minnesotan, and a voter that will be saying NO this NOvember, I hope that this change of tide is in time to help us defeat the amendment in the fall. We’ve already seen several Minnesota businesses take a stand opposing the amendment, let’s rally on many more!

Interesting article from the Star Trib highlighting the fact that amendment supporters have launched a more aggressive campaign here in Minnesota than other states. The article makes reference to the Dump General Mills Rallies that took place last week to “spook” other Minnesota-based companies from coming out against the amendment.

From the article:

Minnesota law already forbids same-sex marriage, but amendments supporters want voters to cement it into the state Constitution to prevent judges or future legislators from changing it.

Minnesota for Marriage leaders are heading into the summer months with a dogged focus on keeping supporters energized and pushing back hard if other Minnesota businesses surface to oppose the amendment.

Minnesota for Marriage says it has identified 65,000 supporters to help with the campaign. Staffers reach out daily to new church groups, which are being counted on as core support. They plan to try to draw in union members, minority communities and the elderly — groups that tend to vote Democratic but who have often opposed same-sex marriage in other states.

The article goes on to talk about how both sides have been active in building a coalition of supporters. Amendment supporters continue to rely heavily on religious ties to pass this amendment:

Religious observers say church activity is likely to tick up by September. Supportive pastors are expected to preach on the issue, endorse the amendment, even raise money to support the measure.

Some good quotes from the other side; paints the picture of just how hard amendment supporters are going to work to pass this thing in the fall. More proof that we must continue to fight and tell our stories each and every day!

Well, it’s official. The dumpgeneralmills domain came to life today asking folks to sign a petition against General Mills. The goal of the site is to tell the company that standing on the side of equality will result in lost business.

I’m sad to report that the site has almost 7,000 signatures. If you’ve not already sent a note to General Mills to say “thank you for opposing the mean-spirited amendment and standing on the correct side of history,” I’ve made it really easy. Just click here. Let’s make sure that the amendment supporters aren’t the only ones that General Mills hears from!