Under-Mom’d One Million Moms Throws Hissy Fit at GAP

Last updated on May 20th, 2012 at 08:10 pm

Yesterday, One Million Moms, “a project” of the hate group known as the American Family Association, posted an alert on their Facebook page:

In Los Angeles, CA, GAP has a billboard located downtown that reads: “GAP- BE BRIGHT- BE ONE” with two homosexual men pressed together under a shared t-shirt. They are hugging each other and facing the camera cheek-to-cheek. “BE ONE” is in large letters which emphasizes the same-sex relationship. GAP Inc. Brands, including Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta, does not deserve, nor will it get, money from conservative families until they decide to remain neutral in the culture war. GAP needs to seriously consider how their immoral advertising affect the youth of our nation. Christians should urge for the removal of GAP’s offensive billboard in Los Angeles and any other city where it is located. Please send your email to GAP now! Click on link to read more and TAKE ACTION!

They want to crush GAP for their temerity in ignoring the object lesson they made of JC Penney:

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GAP Inc. Brands, including Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta, does not deserve, nor will it get, money from conservative families across the country. Supporting GAP is not an option until they decide to remain neutral in the culture war. GAP needs to seriously consider how their immoral advertising affect the youth of our nation.

Christians should urge for the removal of GAP’s offensive billboard in Los Angeles and any other city where it is located. GAP will also need to cancel any plans to use the “Be One” ad campaign elsewhere including store-front posters, its website, and in print magazine ads.

TAKE ACTION

GAP Inc. Brands approved this type of ad in public areas where families and children are sure to see it. Please send your email to GAP now and let them know you are offended by their disrespect for family values and common decency.

You remember their effort to crush JC Penney for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. They said, “Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families” forgetting that being a member of a traditional family (whatever that is) doesn’t make you a bigot (Bryan Fischer went after JC Penney as well, claiming their support for Ellen will give women breast cancer).

It didn’t work. JC Penney stuck by Ellen. Women did not commit suicide or suffer increased breast cancer. On her show back in February Ellen discussed the boycott, saying, “They wanted to get me fired, and I’m proud and happy to say that JCPenney stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson,” she says. “Which is great news for me because I also need some new crew socks.”

Then she looked at some of the comments on the group’s Facebook page not attacking, but defending her and said,

“I usually don’t talk about stuff like this on my show, but I really want to thank everyone who is supporting me. Here are the values I stand for: I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That’s what I stand for.”

Ellen went on to win the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor for carrying on the tradition of Twain’s “observational humor”. One Millions Moms gave up trying to crush JC Penney, abandoning their hate Ellen campaign after only one month. Still, One Million Moms claims their effort have led to losses by the company but JC Penney says these losses are in line with their new strategy to restructure and reduce inventory. According to Jezebel.com, even while losing money JC Penney is gaining reputation:

Brand Index tracked the curious post boycott reputation bounce that JC Penney has enjoyed since OMM started trying to step to them and found that the store should actually rejoice when the homophobes are pissed. According to a brand perception index, the JC Penney brand has enjoyed a boost in perception among mothers with children under 18 following the Ellen flap and in the days after the May catalog would have arrived in the mail. American consumers like seeing varied ideas of what a happy family can look like.

Which brings us back to GAP and the new boycott. The headline of TheNewCivilRightsMovement illustrates how out of touch this under-mommed movement is: “One Million Moms: ‘GAP Should Learn From JCP Mistakes.’ (GAP: We Just Did)”, explaining that,

“GAP for an advertising series featuring Broadway’s “Book Of Mormon” actor Rory O’Malley and his boyfriend Gerold Schroeder. No doubt GAP is praying for the One Million Moms effect. LGBT shoppers and our allies actually formed shopping days and shopping flash mobs that drove thousands of buyers into JC Penney.”

When I checked, One Million Moms was liked by 47,062 people on Facebook. Not quite a million. Another 953,000 people would have to “like” One Million Moms to bring them to the desired million. In comparison, GLAAD reported “Nearly 50,000 advocates and allies joined GLAAD to #StandUpForEllenand thank J.C. Penney for its support of Ellen after OMM launched its call for the comedian to be fired simply because she’s gay.”

So One Million Moms rallies under 50,000 for all causes but GLAAD can must the same number for just a single, specific cause.

JC Penney, by the way, is liked by 2,660,434 people.

Gap is liked by 2,433,267 people.

I suppose you could look at this as a David & Goliath comparison and One Million Moms which doesn’t have One Million Moms might like this, but we are talking here about economic realities, not a Biblical anti-Pagan morality play. This economic reality is bolstered by ever-growing support for marriage equality and for LGBTQ rights across the nation.

According to the Gallup Poll, 54 percent of Americans now think that gay/lesbian relations are “morally acceptable” (up from 40 percent in 2001) and this trend “mirrors the growth in public support for legalizing gay marriage, which has risen from 42% support in 2004 to 50% or greater support in the last two years.”

Yes, 50 percent of Americans now approve of marriage equality. A whopping 63 percent of Americans think that gay or lesbian relations should be legal. Even if One Millions Moms had a million moms, 50 percent of all Americans makes for a crushing majority in favor of Ellen, JC Penny,  Rory O’Malley and his boyfriend, and GAP.

That’s the tipping point. Support at this point is not going to go down; it is going to go up. The most disturbing poll number for conservatives is that of the 18-34 demographic: a whopping 76 percent of this group believes that gay/lesbian relations should be legal and 66 percent believe same-sex marriage should be legal. This group represents the America of tomorrow.

One Million Moms is a dinosaur; even in this current atmosphere they can’t muster one million moms and they can only muster fewer than 50,000 Facebook likes. JC Penney hiring Ellen couldn’t rally the troops and neither will GAP showing two men in the same t-shirt.

The battle is far from over of course, as illustrated by this map from GLAAD:

Conservatives are doing all in their power to employ fear and loathing and religion-based bigotry to oppose an even distribution of rights. But they are on the wrong side of history. Gallup’s headline says it all: “U.S. Acceptance of Gay/Lesbian Relations Is the New Normal.” So hold your breath and stomp your little feet, conservative mommies; the rest of us will turn ours toward JC Penny and GAP and into the future.