Who is the blogger who convinced Subway to repudiate a Hate8 franchisee donor and change their fairness policy to include, “ sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected individuals under the corporate non-discrimination policies?”
This is an amazing story ofhow the internet changes everything when there is a will, a just reason and critical mass.
It all started as a quick read this morning about a bit of good news here on DU GLBTQ and within 10 minutes and a quick internet search, we were into the Washington Post, Company HQ for the “second largest food chain worldwide,” outing closeted gay- bashing pols and the power of grass roots internet activism.
The internet is a real force multiplier and the dissemination of information is highly efficient.
Take for example the story of how blogger Mike Rogers's convinced Subway to repudiate a PHate8 Subway franchisee donor and along the way change their GLBTQ policy.
The story was mentioned on DU GD and was cross posted to GLBT by PageOneQ, linking the story to the PageOneQ site:
International food chain responds to blogger's demands, franchisee retracts gift, job protections added
by PageOneQ
“Rogers found the contribution on a list of Yes on 8 contributors compiled by the Human Rights Campaign. "When I saw a franchisee of an international company gave $2,500 to opponents of equality, I immediately knew I would require someone at the company's world HQ to address this."
On Friday, Rogers made three demands of the company, with a Monday deadline:
1. Repudiate the gift.
2. Add sexual orientation and gender identity to the corporation's non-discrimination policy.
3. Give an equal gift to the opposing side”
http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/International_food_chain_111808.htmlThe PageOneQ blog also linked to Mike Roger’s site,
Blog Active, Direct from D.C.Rogers explained on his site:
http://www.blogactive.com/Monday, November 17, 2008
THE NATIONAL OFFICE DID WHAT WAS RIGHT!!!!
By: Michael Rogers
“Hey, I'm willing to give them a break...
It's why I have extended my original demand for action from 9:00am to 3:00pm.
I was reading through the Human Rights Campaign's list of companies that gave to Yes on 8, the California referendum that removed marriage equality from the state's constitution...I immediately knew I would require someone at the company's world HQ to address this. Or, I would.”
How would or could Roger’s do any more than register a one man complaint? For starters, he advised the company's world HQ to google: “The Most Feared Man on the Hill?”
Why should googling Roger’s strike fear in any company's world HQ ?
Mike Rogers’s blog also has another mission: writing about closeted people whose records are anti-gay and googling him will lead to the Washington Post story about his blog.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090301396.htmlThe Most Feared Man on the Hill?
For Gay Blogger, Craig's Resignation Is Just the Latest on His List
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; Page C01
Soon, a new name will pop up on Mike Rogers's hit list.
Larry Craig wasn't "the first on my list," the gay blogger says. And the Idaho senator, who announced his resignation Saturday, "won't be the last."
<snip>
For three years now, he's been a feared one-man machine, "outing," he says, nearly three dozen senior political and congressional staffers, White House aides and, most damagingly, Congress members on his blog. On Capitol Hill, a typical phone call from Rogers -- "Are you gay?" he'd ask -- is "a call from Satan himself," says a former high-ranking congressional staffer whose name is on the list.
Rogers reasons that there's justice behind his tactics -- "odious," "outrageous" and "over-the-line" as they might seem to his detractors.
In Rogers's mind, if you're against gay rights in your public life and you live a secret homosexual life, all bets are off.
In 2004, one of the first public officials he targeted was then-Virginia congressman Ed Schrock because of his voting record on such issues as gays in the military, same-sex marriage and gay adoption. In 2000, for instance, Schrock told the Virginian-Pilot: "You're in the showers with them, you're in the bunk room with them, you're in staterooms with them." Schrock decided not to run for reelection because of the rumors.
In 2005, Rogers blogged about Mark Foley, months before his inappropriate instant-messages to male congressional pages became public and he was forced to resign. The former Florida congressman had a varied record, sometimes voting in favor of gay rights, but at one point voting against adoption by same-sex couples.
And last October, he says, he targeted Craig -- months before an undercover sex sting in a Minneapolis airport men's room, and before the Idaho Statesman started its months-long investigation. Two years earlier, Rogers notes, the three-term senator had voted for the failed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
"Hypocrisy," Rogers sneers, "plain, hate-filled hypocrisy."
<snip>
There are 33 names on his published list, most of them men, 30 from the GOP. That fact reveals more about the Republicans, he says, than about him. Although a registered Democrat, he says he is bipartisan.
"I write about closeted people whose records are anti-gay," he says.
<snip>
Now, what was that about sit down, shut up, and wait another forty years?
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