There's an old joke about the actress Sylvia Miles: When a waiter once asked if she wanted her coffee black, or with cream, she responds, "I like my coffee the way I like my men." The waiter says, "I'm sorry, we don't have any gay coffee here."
The idea of gay coffee was once pretty funny. Not today. Various right-wing groups are up in arms about the gay coffee being served at Starbucks.
Okay, so it's not the coffee. It's the stuff the coffee comes in -- the cups.
Apparently, Starbucks is promoting the homosexual agenda with some of the words printed on these cups.
The particular cup that's currently annoying the rightwing quotes Armistead Maupin, author of the best-selling series Tales of the City. The books, which were made into an award-winning series on PBS, tell of pre-AIDS life in San Francisco. And the particular quote that offends the rightwing so much is: "I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."
Hard to argue with that thought. But the right-wingers see subversion in it. In fact, Baylor University, a Baptist college in Texas, has ordered the campus Starbucks outlet to jettison all of its controversial cups -- not just the ones with the Maupin quote on it, but ALL of them, a form of book banning that rivals the totalitarian regime in Ray Bradbury's famous novel Fahrenheit 451 -- don't just burn the books you don't like, burn them all.
The Maupin cup is only one of 100, which is a far lower percentage than the number of gay men and women in America although, in all honesty, probably not at Baylor, which has a long history of persecuting gay students.
Other groups fighting the gay coffee cups include the far-right Republican group, the Concerned Women for America, which also has a long history of fighting gay rights. The spokesmen for the group (and yes, that's spokesman -- apparently the Concerned Women are composed of concerned men), Robert Knight, says "There are active homosexual groups in most major corporations now and they do a shake down, where they say, 'If you don't promote our events, you're exhibiting bigotry and hatred, and we're going to let everybody know that and you'll feel bad about yourself and maybe it will hurt your sales.'"
He adds that he doubts sales will be hurt. In fact, he is encouraging Concerned Women, and Men, and Children, to "visit your neighborhood Starbucks and ask to see the manager and just say, 'You know, I've gone here a lot and I would love to go here but I have to tell you your company's promotion of something that is against my values prevents me from having coffee here anymore, and I've found alternatives ... You make a great product, but you deserve to know why people aren't buying your product anymore.'"
Across the country, these far-right Republican organizations, rather than helping victims of Katrina, or fighting poverty, or doing anything at all to help the country, are making their top priority the need to change our coffee cups to fight the increasing homosexualization of American coffee.
Sounds like a joke. It's not.
vergiss said:...:shock: At the risk of making a really bad pun... anal-retentive is the only word appropriate to describe these people.
Naughty Nurse said::rofl Nice pun.
Are these people really serious? Enquiring minds need to know!
Deegan said:I am much more offended by the price of that cup of coffee, lol, still, if you don't like the message, don't go to Starbucks, seems pretty simple to me.:roll:
jallman said:Unfortunately, nurse, they are serious. Not to be confused with taken seriously though...people like this are a joke. Starbucks will keep their cups and the Right will continue to look like a bunch of assholes.
Deegan said:I am much more offended by the price of that cup of coffee, lol, still, if you don't like the message, don't go to Starbucks, seems pretty simple to me.:roll:
Navy Pride said:Another amazing quote from my so self proclaimed Conservative friend.....
You just can't control yourslef.......
jallman said:When did I ever claim I was conservative? I'm serious...I want some of this stuff you are smoking every day.
Navy Pride said:From your profile:
Political Leaning:
Slightly Conservative
Busta said:Privet cooperations can say what ever they want. Privet cooperations can put what ever they want on their cups. If the free market doesn't like it, that will be reflected in Starbucks's bottom line. This is no different then Rush Limbaugh's Club'Gitmo gear.
Don't like it? Don't buy it.
Deegan said:But corporations are bad, they are trying to own our souls, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, someone please save us from the evil corporations!!! Stop making money, stop building roads, schools, parks, and let us be free of all your evils!!!:roll:
Not that you suggested this, I just had to go on a rant for a sec.
Duke said:From my point of view, the funniest reads are those paper written by conservatives trying to justify their hate for gays. The real reason is religion, of course, but some of them simply won't admit it to the public. So the make up all this junk saying how if gays are allowed to marry, your marriage will collapse, you will lose you job, the economy will implode, etc. It is great.
Duke
Duke said:From my point of view, the funniest reads are those paper written by conservatives trying to justify their hate for gays. The real reason is religion, of course, but some of them simply won't admit it to the public. So the make up all this junk saying how if gays are allowed to marry, your marriage will collapse, you will lose you job, the economy will implode, etc. It is great.
Duke
Navy Pride said:I personally hate no one.............I just beleive that marriage should remain between a man and a woman............I even know a couple of gay people that feel the same way.......They would like Civil Unions with the same benefits married people get......They tell me that they just wish the small minority of miltant gays would just shut up..........
galenrox said:Right, I'm really sure that the gays LOOOOOOOOVE being treated as second class citizens.
The fact is that you're a liar. I bet you don't know any gays, but you've imagined up a couple of gays out of convinience, just as you've imagined that you have even the foggiest idea about what logical thought is, that Bush never lied to you, and that fetuses are children is scientific fact.
Time out for you, go sit in the corner!
WAIT! Don't forget your helmet, there are things with sharp corners on the way!
Kelzie said:Yeah, well my gay friends wish your gay friends would shut the hell up.
galenrox said:I'm a religious man, yet I agree with Duke fully. It's ridiculous when people try to use logic to justify hating gays, or legislating against gays on topics that only apply to gays (yeah, not hateful at all).
The fact is there is no logical reason to hate gays, or even to think that they can't marry. People think it's immoral, but that's not a logical argument, since morals and logic rarely, if ever, have much in common. People oppose gays because of their religion. Fine, great, you don't have to like them, has no place in legislation.
Please, try to show me a logical argument against gay marriage, cause I've been trying to hear one since the whole contraversey began, and I'm still yet to hear a single one. I've heard "I think it's immoral", "the sanctity of marriage", "the dictionary definition of marriage", "they can't procreate", etc., all of which combined contain the same amount of logic that it takes for me to think breaking my TV with my head makes sense.
Navy Pride said:They do shut up..........They just want to live their lives in peace and hamony like every other American.......They don't need all the outrageous parades and staetments the gay militants make.......
Sadly a gay friend of mine lost his partner to AIDS......Now if you want to jump on and issue that is worth fighting for jump on that one.................Forget about this gay marriage thing and go for Civil Unions with the same rights every american has.......That is what most gays want...........
Kelzie said:Most gays meaning what? Your two gay friends?
Navy Pride said:I did have a couple othe gay people who were co workers..I noticed you did not say anything about the AIDS subject I brought up though or waht I said about Civil Unions with equal rights....
Kelzie said:Sooo...like three?
And what about AIDS? I have no secret insights into a cure if that's what you're asking. Info about it and protection is readily available in America today. If people won't help themselves, nobody can help them.
Civil unions=we don't think you're good enough for marriage. If it's the same thing, why don't you just call it marriage? Same reason black people couldn't drink out of the same water fountain. We don't want to "corrupt" the institution. No thanks. It's a way of saying we still don't respect homosexual love the way we do heterosexual, and I won't accept it.
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