Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay

The Christianists are making a new push to ghetto-ize the gay populace and whip Corporate America into submission. Here's a wrap-up of the recent dealings with Ford from Salon's War Room:

When Microsoft caved into pressure from Christianists earlier this year and withdrew its support of gay-rights legislation in the state of Washington, it explained away its decision by claiming that it was just a business decision made by its government-affairs department. "We made a decision before this legislative session, as we do each year, that we would focus our energy on a limited number of issues that are directly related to our business," Microsoft said.

We were reminded of that line as we read this morning's New York Times report on Ford's decision to pull most of its advertising from gay publications in the face of a threatened boycott by the American Family Association. The explanation a Ford spokesman gives the Times today: It was just a business decision made by Ford's advertising department. "As they begin planning their marketing for next year, they've streamlined their budgets," Ford's Mike Moran tells the Times.

As John Aravosis notes at AMERICAblog, that's not exactly how Moran characterized the decision in an initial interview with the Advocate last week. In a statement announcing the cancellation of the boycott, AFA President Donald Wildmon said that Ford had "heard our concerns" and "responded, we think, in a very positive way." When the Advocate first contacted Ford's Moran about the advertisements in gay publications, he "referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with Wildmon's assertions." But in a second conversation, Moran began toeing the line Ford is pushing now: The decision to pull ads for Jaguar and Land Rover from gay publications is about business, not boycotts.

And then there's this from the San Francisco Chronicle:

The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family has closed all its Wells Fargo accounts because the San Francisco bank contributed to a gay rights group that promised to use the funds to "fight ... the anti-gay industry."

A Focus on the Family official would not disclose how much money the organization kept with Wells Fargo, its primary bank, but said the nonprofit group's income was $146 million last year.

"We don't expect corporate America to do our bidding on the issues, but when they use the proceeds from our business and give them to others who clobber us over the head, we say enough is enough," said Tom Minnery, who oversees public policy for the organization.

Focus on the Family's move follows a recent spate of conservative boycotts and other actions against large companies that support gay and lesbian causes, including Walgreens drugstores and Kraft Foods Inc., both of which contributed to the Gay Games.

And finally, for some welcome laughter as the steam flows from your ears, check out this Colbert Report video (in Windows Media format).