Anti-gay marriage group wants Starbucks boycott

OLYMPIA – A national group opposed to gay marriage called Wednesday for a boycott of Starbucks in response to the company’s public support of the new same-sex marriage law in Washington.

Following a shareholders’ meeting of the Seattle-based coffee giant on Wednesday, the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Marriage announced a “Dump Starbucks” protest.

The group says it will place ads throughout the country, as well as in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, urging consumers to boycott the company. The group is supporting a referendum effort to overturn the recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington.

“We will not tolerate an international company attempting to force its misguided values on citizens,” said the group’s president, Brian Brown, in a written statement announcing the boycott.

Phone and email messages left with Starbucks seeking comment on the threatened boycott were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

CEO Howard Schultz defended the company’s stance on gay marriage during the shareholders’ meeting, saying it was made “in our view, through the lens of humanity, and being the kind of company that embraces diversity.”

Schultz received loud applause when he told the group that the decision to support gay marriage was “not something that was a difficult decision for us.”

Starbucks is just one of several prominent Pacific Northwest businesses that have expressed their support for same-sex marriage, including Microsoft Corp. and Nike Inc.

Schultz was asked by three shareholders about the company’s stance, with one asking: “Is it prudent to risk the economic interests of all the shareholders for something that might affect the private lives of a very small percentage of our employees?”

“I would say, candidly, since we’ve made that decision, there’s not been dilution whatsoever in our business,” Schultz said.