AFA targets McDonald’s for ‘aggressively promoting the homosexual agenda’
It’s been a while since we last heard from the American Family Association and its endless efforts to boycott companies that bother the group. As long-time readers may recall, every once in a while, Wildmon and the AFA will draw headlines for attacking a group or company for being insufficiently “pro-family,” though most of their complaints come across more as bizarre rants from extremists than anything else.
The targets from recent years include, but are by no means limited to, Wal-Mart (for promoting “Brokeback Mountain” DVDs), Target (for not having Salvation Army bell-ringers during the Christmas season), Ford Motor Company (for purchasing ads in gay-oriented publications), and the movie “Shark Tale” (which the AFA believed was intended to “brainwash children” into accepting gay rights). Last year, the AFA was particularly bold when it tried to block U.S. troops’ access to adult materials.
This week, the AFA decided McDonald’s is the new national scourge.
The “problem,” if you want to call it that, is the company’s vice president of communications, Richard Ellis, who has joined the board of directors for the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. In an “action alert” sent to supporters yesterday, the AFA’s Wildmon expressed his outrage.
According to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, McDonald’s will aggressively promote the homosexual agenda. In remarks on McDonald’s Web site concerning the company becoming a member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), Skinner wrote: “Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world … and we do.”
Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say.
Regardless, I hope McDonald’s has the good sense to ignore the AFA’s complaints.
The AFA’s campaigns tend to get some attention, in large part because it’s entertaining to laugh at the group’s odd efforts, but there’s one point that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle: the AFA tends to fail.
In 2005, for example, the AFA announced that it was ending its nine-year boycott of Disney. The group’s efforts drew lots of media discussion, but in the end, a grand total of zero of the AFA’s demands had been met and the targeted company enjoyed a surge in profits over the life of the boycott (though the two were no doubt unrelated).
The point for McDonald’s to remember is that the AFA goes after everybody. The group has boycotted Crest toothpaste, Volkswagen, Tide detergent, Clorox bleach, Pampers, MTV, Abercrombie & Fitch, K-Mart, Burger King, American Airlines and S.C. Johnson & Son. For all I know, the group is going to launch a boycott against me for writing this post.
It shouldn’t matter, because these campaigns never amount to much. McDonald’s need not respond or care about the AFA’s concerns, because the group isn’t really in a position to do anything to hurt the company’s bottom line.
That said, it’s kind of fun to laugh at the group, isn’t it?

Does this mean I have to go to McDonald’s?
Donald Wildmon once threatened to sue me for calling him a liar. He never did. I still have the letter on my wall.
Thanks AFA. Your research has finally confirmed what I had always hoped for…that Ronald swings for my team.
There are plenty of reasons to hate McDonalds. Unfortunately, the people most likely to care about AFA’s opinions are pretty much the same people who are least likely to give up their double quarter pounders with plasticized cheese product.
“aggressively promote the homosexual agenda” = treat homosexuals as you would have them treat you.
I never eat at McDonalds but today I will make an exception. I’ll let you know if they try to promote the gay thing
Does the AFA realize they are doing more to promote the “homosexual agenda” by publicizing those very things they are protesting? Would anyone have know (or even cared much about) that fact that Richard Ellis had joined the board of directors for the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce if AFA hadn’t made a “stink” about it? Please.
As for keeping porno away from soldiers (overly hormonal 18- 30 year olds) – good luck with that.
These people really are stupid and deserve to be mocked, and mocked loudly.
McDonald’s might be gay friendly, but their food is still made of crap I wouldn’t feed to anyone but a box of worms (and even then I would apologize).
Watch “Supersize Me” sometime, it’ll show you how ill advised you would be to eat McCrap.
It’s just as well McDonald’s did this.
It’ll take a lot of the shock away when Mayor McCheese’s “wide stance” gets out.
You may wish to read Ed Brayton’s mockery of the AFA at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/04/omg_mayor_mccheese_is_gay.php
I guess they missed that gay dogwhistle phrase, Supersize Me.
@8
Really? I always wondered about Grimace and Ronald. I’m not saying, just saying…
If it’s a way to slap Wildmon in the face, I’ll buy a whole bag of those ‘burgers!
Ah, the American Fascist Agenda rears it’s ugly head again….Everyone in that organization takes the hypocritical oath.
I don’t eat McD’s because the food is crap, but that’s not to say they shouldn’t be able to run their business fairly and openly.
These microparsers who see shadows where there are none need to get out of their cave. Bunch of mole rats.
I think someone should ask the Cheney’s about their opinion on this matter.
All Wildmon and his supporters prove is that ten generations of inbreeding does have an eventual effect. The looniest-tooniest of the loonie-toonies is more a bad joke than anything else – and too stupid to know it.
It’s always embarassing to watch people who are too stupid to know they are, being stupid in public.
I’m not about to defend McDonald’s, but “Supersize Me” was completely unrealistic, primarily because no one intentionally eats three meals a day at Mickey D’s every day.
Who’d have thought Ronald was “light in the loafers” with those big clown shoes and all.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=light+in+his+loafers
And they boycotted “American Girl” dollmaker company.
I never thought I’d say this, but hooray for McDonald’s!
(#4) JTK’s statement bears repeating:
“aggressively promote the homosexual agenda” = treat homosexuals as you would have them treat you.
Amen!
Still won’t eat at McD’s but my opinion of them has jumped up a notch.
Ok, the truth is out…. the phrase “Two all BEEF PATTIES, specials SAUCE, lettuce, CHEESE, PICKLES, onions on a SESAME SEED BUN” used to describe a Big Mac is just chock full CODE WORDS planted to sumbliminally promote the ho-mo-seck-shool agenda.
And as to BIG MAC, and McCHICKEN, well, isn’t it just OBVIOUS!
Notes from the crazy side: This homo agenda stuff is taken seriously by a lot of people. My missionary brother (hey, you can’t choose your family) emailed out a list of companies that “promote the homosexual agenda” to pretty much everybody he knew. When I went to visit my fundie parents and saw they were still using dialup on their computer, I incredulously informed them that they were paying over twice as much as broadband would cost with AT&T. I told them I’d send them all the info they needed to switch so they could get decent speeds and quit paying their extortionist dialup service that was charging them extra for time for their lousy pokey service.
After I sent them the info I found out, a couple weeks later, that they were still using dialup. How come? Because AT&T promotes the homosexual agenda! Seriously, they were going to pay through the nose for dialup instead of going all gay on their internet service. When my other saner brother went to visit he just called AT&T and had them install DSL, and they reluctantly agreed to it. I consoled them by telling them that probably no more than 2 or 3 gay couples would probably live happily ever after because of their broadband enjoyment.
Seriously, people really think (?!?) like this! I’m even related to some of them! Tell me such lunacy isn’t genetic. I feel fine. Do I seem okay to you? I’m not nuts, right. RIGHT???
“Do as thou wilt” is doing wonders for this country. Not only will my son need Kevlar to go to school, he’ll also have to question why his male teacher gets to wear a dress when he’s criticized for thanking God for his lunch. It will not be from McDonald’s, I can assure you. Whatever happened to a moral compass? Worshipping the “God of Tolerance” is driving this wonderful nation into an early grave. Since the truth has never changed, I guess we will all see it first hand once we’ve “shuffled off this mortal coil”.
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