At their annual convention the nation’s Southern Baptists have voted to end their eight-year boycott of Disney.
"We believe for the boycott to be effective, it had to have a beginning and an ending," said Gene Mims, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention committee that put the Disney resolution before some 12,000 members at the meeting.
"We felt like it was time to end it. We’re hopeful Disney will do what the resolution calls for," Mims added.
"We have cost them (Disney) hundreds of millions of dollars," said Wiley Gray, an SBC member from Florida, who spoke in favor of lifting the boycott because Disney had made corporate changes, including the March announcement that longtime Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner would leave the company in October.
On the other hand:
A spokesman for The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay rights advocacy group, said Disney continues to be one of more than 8,200 companies that offer domestic partner benefits to gay employees.
(CHT: Southern Appeal.)
Personally, I’m rather ambivalent about this announcement.
There is potentially wisdom, even if you don’t get all of what you want, to waiting until the enemy does something for which you can claim victory (like booting Michael Eisner over low corporate earnings) and then end the boycott. That way you show (a) that you are capable of costing them large amounts of money (as should become more obvious to them once people who were participating in the boycott start throwing business their way again), (b) that you are capable of being reasonable, and (c) that you are capable of hurting them again the same way in the future–thus strengthening your hand to go after more of what you want (like getting rid of "gay days" at Disneyland).
I don’t know if these were their motives. I’d like to see more of what the Baptist leadership had to say on the matter (rather than just what the AP reported).
I also don’t know how many folks will give up the boycott in the absence of unconditional surrender on the part of Disney. Boycotts can take on a life of their own, and the Southern Baptists could even take a P.R. hit if they are perceived as calling off the boycott in the absence of real progress.
Maybe the Donatists will even go into schism over it.
This is an example of giving up devoting energy to the futile. Boycotting companies because they are giving benefits to people is just not going to work in the US. Even among Southern Baptists.
Disney has tons of gay employees. Tons. Many of them operating the family-friendly amusements at the parks.
I think they did accomplish something. Make that, we accomplished something, since we boycotted them too with six kids in prime Disney-market years. Eisner HAD to go, and with him his whole vision of what’s good for America. That said, Disney has always had a problem with families (as opposed to kids) and I see little evidence (little, not none) that they are going to change that.
Resolution On Moral Stewardship And The Disney Company – June 1997
http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/amResolution.asp?ID=436
Please! They just wanted to be able to go see “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” without accusations of hypocrisy!
The other half of the same equation is how many Southern Baptists were actually following the Boycott. I suspect it was far fewer than they thought.
Good point, Chris. If I’d been boycotting Disney, it would end with the release of that film.
And depending on how the film turns out, Adam, the boycott might begin again the next day.
I think Chris made an excellent point… like Adam said, if I was boycotting Disney, I would stop just to see the film. Personally I have very high expectations of it, the trailer, at least, seems really promising… but who knows.
Our family has been boycotting Disney for eight years, and we don’t intend to quit now. Even if our dollars (or lack thereof) won’t be noticed by Disney, we will still not contribute to this company. I haven’t met many people who are still boycotting Disney–are there many of us left? And I agree, the release of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” will make the boycott more difficult.