Ronald McDonald part of gay agenda, says AFA in calling boycott

The American Family Association is accusing the happy clown and the Golden Arches of supporting the gay agenda and is calling for national boycott

What’s more American than the Golden Arches that dot our interstate highways and bloat our bellies? Why a good old fashioned boycott, and the American Family Association (AFA) of Tupelo, Miss., is doing just that.

Wednesday, as most Americans were preparing to celebrate the birth of the country and the Declaration of Independence, the good folks at the AFA were busy launching a national boycott against Ronald McDonald and his company. The “family” group is taking aim at McDonald’s not because it is pumping loads of fat into Americans, or because it offers rip-off gimmick toys attached to the latest movie. Instead, the group is attacking the fast food chain for supporting homosexuality.

The proof of McDonald’s siding with and promoting the so-called homosexual agenda? Evidently, the multinational corporation drew the ire of Donald Wildmon and his AFA because it supported the San Francisco gay pride march this year, and Richard Ellis, a company executive, is serving on the board of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). McDonald’s also donated $20,000 to NGLCC.

“We’re saying that there are people who support AFA who don’t appreciate their dollars from the hamburgers they bought being put into an organization that’s going to fight against the values they believe in,” Tim Wildmon, the association’s president, told the Washington Post.

“Hatred has no place in our culture,” McDonald’s USA spokesman Bill Whitman shot back in the Post. “That includes McDonald’s, and we stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment.”

Continued -This is not the first time the “family” group has targeted a major American industry leader. It just wrapped up a two-year boycott of Ford Motors. That boycott began because Ford was donating to gay groups, which the AFA opposes. The boycott of Ford led to the company pulling ads for its Jaguar, Volvo and Range Rover brands from gay magazines. AFA has also boycotted Target for replacing the word “Christmas” with the word “Holidays,” and has called for a boycott of Disney for “embracing the homosexual lifestyle.”

Wildmon said that his group would not object if McDonald’s gave money to a group that, for instance, assisted gay HIV/AIDS patients. “You wouldn’t hear from us,” he said. “That would be classified as humanitarian aid.”

The group has launched an assault on McDonald’s on a new Web site, which says:

It is about McDonald’s, as a corporation, refusing to remain neutral in the culture wars. McDonald’s has chosen not to remain neutral but to give the full weight of their corporation to promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.

The Web site also claims what the boycott is not.

* This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals.
* It is not about homosexuals eating at McDonald’s.
* It is not about how homosexual employees are treated.

Wildmon wrote a letter to McDonald’s Pat Harris, global chief of diversity. Harris was kind enough to write back to Wildmon that McDonald’s believes diversity is a core mission of the business. To back this up Harris wrote, in part:

“Our founder Ray Kroc once said, “None of us is as good as all of us.” At McDonald’s we believe that sentiment still holds true today, and is still best reflected in action; specifically our strong and longtime commitment to People through diversity and inclusion. This is a core value of McDonald’s.”

Harris’ letter was dated June 29. The boycott started July 3. Evidently the AFA disagrees with the idea of committing to people.

Photo: Rensenbrink78 at Flickr.com