Tell Starbucks that homophobia, transphobia and anti-Semitism are bad business

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson

Starbucks just did it again.

On the heels of the coffee chain's racist treatment of two African-American customers, Starbucks is now embracing homophobia, transphobia and anti-Semitism.

Please sign the petition on this page and demand that Starbucks stop coddling homophobic, transphobic and anti-Semitic bigots.

As you know, in response to a racist incident in one of its stores, Starbucks plans to shut down its stores on May 29th for mandatory anti-bias training. One of the groups assisting with that training was the lead civil rights group, ADL, which focusing on anti-Semitism, but has also been a longtime leader, going back decades, in the battle for LGBT rights, among others. The ADL, and America's Jewish community, were speaking out on behalf of LGBT rights back when a lot of progressive allies were still squeamish.

Starbucks has now kicked the ADL out of the anti-bias training, in response to complaints from acolytes of transphobic, homophobic, and anti-Semitic bigot Louis Farrakhan. Yes, to prove that it isn't a bigoted company, Starbucks just took a swipe at gays, transgender people, and Jews.

Starbucks took the move in response to a demand from Farrakhan allies, and controversial Women's March leaders, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour. Both women demanded that Starbucks drop the ADL. Why? Because the ADL took a stand against Farrakhan's homophobic, transphobic and anti-Semitic bigotry. And that was a step too far for Mallory and Sarsour.

Specifically, the ADL recently criticized Mallory's attendance at a Farrakhan speech where he praised her by name, and then went on to launch a vile attack on gays, trans people and Jews. Afterwards, Mallory refused to condemn Farrakhan's homophobic and anti-Semitic bigotry, and the ADL rightfully took her on.

Mallory and Sarsour have now gotten their revenge, by convincing Starbucks to embrace their homophobia, transphobia, and anti-Semitism by dropping the ADL from the training, and sending a message to other corporate leaders that anti-gay, anti-trans, and anti-Semitic bigotry are acceptable.

Yeah, they're really not.

To fully appreciate just how badly Starbucks stumbled, here are the recent Farrakhan comments that Mallory & Sarsour (and now Starbucks) are embracing:

Farrakhan attacks Jews, gays and trans people in one fell swoop:

The Jews, he proclaimed, are "responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men."

On "white folks" and the "Satanic Jew":

"White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God's grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I'm here to say your time is up, your world is through."

Evil Jews control the world

"After insisting that he’s not an anti-Semite but a 'truth teller,' Farrakhan suggested, among other things, that Jews are part of 'the Synagogue of Satan;' that the white people running Mexico are Mexican-Jews; that Jews control various countries including Ukraine, France, Poland and Germany where they take advantage of the money, the culture and the business; that Jesus called Jews 'the children of the devil'; and 'when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.'"

Of course, Farrakhan's history of spouting bigotry and idiocy isn't new. Here are a few more of his other "best hits" of years recent years:

Farrakhan on President Obama embracing marriage equality (zoom ahead to 2 minutes):

And here's Farrakhan bashing gays and advocating for sodomy laws:

Farrakhan on Hitler, the "great man":

"The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man."

On AIDS being used as a weapon against black people:

"Another method (of depopulation) is disease infection through bio-weapons such as Ebola and AIDS, which are race targeting weapons. There is a weapon that can be put in a room where there are Black and White people, and it will kill only the Black and spare the White, because it is a genotype weapon that is designed for your genes, for your race, for your kind."

And for added measure, Farrakhan thinks 9/11 was a "false flag" operation:

“Osama Bin Laden didn’t destroy the Twin Towers. that was a false flag operation to take the world’s attention away from the great disunity in America after George W. Bush stole the election.”

Who does Farrakhan really think was behind 9/11? Take a guess:

“It is now becoming apparent that there were many Israelis and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attacks.  Israelis had foreknowledge of the attacks...  We know that many Jews received a text message not to come to work on September 11.”

You can read more about the Women's March's embrace of Farrakhan's bigotry in this Advocate op ed.

Louis Farrakhan is a virulent bigot. And Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour are bigots for not only supporting Louis Farrakhan and refusing to repudiate his incessant attacks on gays, trans people and Jews; but for using their status in the Women's March to attack a longtime and legitimate civil rights movement like the ADL.

As for Starbucks, shame on you for pandering to homophobia, transphobia and anti-Semitism. You clearly haven't learned your lesson that bigotry is bad business.

Please sign the petition on this page, and make sure Starbucks learns a lesson about bigotry that it will never forget.

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Washington, District of Columbia
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To: Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson
From: [Your Name]

Homophobia, transphobia and anti-Semitism are bad business. Invite the ADL back to your anti-bias training, and stop scapegoating the rest of the civil rights community in an effort to make up for your own racism.