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Home Depot petitions delivered - see their response

June 6, 2011

On Thursday, June 3, American Family Association delivered 474,161 petition signatures to Home Depot chairman Frank Blake. AFA also addressed the board of directors and shareholders during their annual meeting.

AFA Vice-president Buddy Smith appealed to Chairman Blake to review Home Depot's extensive support for homosexual activism and direct the company toward neutrality in the culture war.

Chairman Blake quickly discounted the petitions by reaffirming Home Depot's commitment to dedicating corporate resources to groups who advocate gay marriage and the advancement of homosexuality and transgenderism.

In part, Chairman Blake said, "I hope all of our shareholders understand that we're a company that respects the diversity of our associates, our customers, and the communities where we do business." Listen to his full reply here.

Home Depot is sponsoring "Southern Maine Pride" in Portland, Maine next weekend. Last year, Home Depot set up a Kid's Workshop booth at the event. Children were exposed to "drag queens," nudity, and other homosexual activities.

AFA is promoting a boycott of Home Depot until it agrees to remain neutral in the homosexual culture war.

Take Action

1. Print the AFA Pass Along Sheet for friends, neighbors and Sunday School members. This is a quick and easy way to share our concerns with others.
2. Post this alert to your Facebook page and encourage others to sign the pledge.
3. Call your local store manager and politely let him know you are boycotting Home Depot. You can find your local store number here (click "store finder").
4. Forward this alert to all your family and friends.

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Arthur Blank founded Home Depot in 1978, with the vision “to create a company that would keep alive the values that were important to us. Values like respect among all people, excellent customer service and giving back to communities and society.”  His Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has a mission to promote positive change in people’s lives and to build and enhance the communities in which they live, with a focus on low-income youth and families. 

Today, Home Depot employs 322,000 people, with revenue that exceeded $66 Billion in 2010.  Blank’s core values that were so prominent during the early years apparently have been skewed to help advance the alternative lifestyles of the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender (GLBT) audience.

With the American Family Association (AFA) leading the way, over ½ million people have now committed to boycott Home Depot.  Scoring 85 out of 100 on the most recent Human Rights Campaign (HRC)* publication, Home Depot has most recently shown disdain for traditional marriage and family values by:

• Helping gather support for a marriage equality bill in Maryland
• Sponsoring Marriage Equality Day in Albany, New York
• Pushing for final passage of the Hawaii civil union bill
• Fighting a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex couples from marrying in Wyoming
• Setting up kid’s workshops at Gay Pride events around the country

Being an active supporter of all of these activities, Home Depot seems to be very proud of their accomplishments in the GLBT community.  Oddly, they seem to go out of their way to hide where their contributions go, as they recently filed their objection with the SEC to a shareholder proposal that would require them to disclose charitable contributions of $5,000 and over on their web site (details here).

If you invest in mutual funds, chances are you may be unknowingly helping advance this anti-traditional family cause.  Interestingly, one very popular family of funds holds seven of the top ten spots for funds that own stock in Home Depot – approximately $7.5 Billion worth (details here). 

All of us make choices when we spend or invest our hard earned dollars.  Boycotting a company because of their position on a certain agenda is similar to sending a vote to the board of directors.  Remember, your investment dollars can also be considered a vote and should be treated as such.

The homesexual community is aware and grateful for the support as evidenced in this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr4vMkXvHOw

* The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the United States' largest GLBT advocacy group and claims more than 750,000 members and supporters.   According to its mission statement, "HRC envisions an America where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are ensured equality and embraced as full members of the American family at home, at work and in every community”.