Episode 49 – Interview with Peter
The world of podcasting is an amazing thing and being able to interact with people through this medium has really touched my life. I had the pleasure of being on the Lucky Bitch Radio which has allowed me to meet some of the great listeners of her show and they came over to check mine out. This time it was from a guy named Peter who is 24 and lives in Atlanta Georgia. We quickly became friends and I was able to convince him to be on my show. He is really a great guy and I wish him all of the best.
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May 1st, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Heeee!
After my initial “Is that… My voice” for about 5 minutes… I had fun listening to myself talk and not sounding too much like that reactionary ass you met on the Lucky Bitch Radio forums.
Otherwise, I came up with a solidification of my take on corporations and their responsibility: I personally don’t think that a companies “goodness” really transcends degrees of separation beyond the product they make.
Let’s take the Ford example. If Ford chooses to pull ads in gay publications, then they will probably lose some sales to gay people because gay people didn’t get to see Ford advertizing and never got an impetus to consider them as an option. I think that is punishment enough to Ford’s bottom line. Then again, if many gay people weren’t responding well to Ford’s ads, then more power to them. I don’t think that gay people should further try to punish Ford, even if it was Pressure from the American Family Association that caused the ad-pull… because really, big picture, Ford is making cars, and sexuality has nothing to do with cars beyond specious perceptions generated by ad agencies. I mean, I could understand Ford Dealers refusing to sell minivans to same sex parents being a call to outrage… But selling off your Explorer that you already bought and admittedly adore as some sort of protest is about as silly as going into the dealership and throwing a tantrum that you didn’t find an ad for the Focus in the latest issue of Out
Another example: Yahoo/Google/That-internet-company in China. Yes, China is a massive market, and they are getting internet. Thus, the Chinese government is putting regulations on the networks and regulating sales and services over said networks, as governments are wont to do. So, when Yahoo or Google “turns over that draft email” or “censors certain results” by government decree, they aren’t caving… they are operating by the laws of the country they are operating in. I really think companies going into China and piously refusing to follow Chinese laws is much more dangerous and despicable. In the meantime, the Chinese people get the benefit of Yahoo and Google, and their domestic services (which will still have the same regulations placed upon them) will bolster themselves in the face of American Competition.
I usually disagree with the logic behind these “punitive” actions, but I deteste fad for people try and convince me I should come along because I’m Gay/White/Middle-Class/Democrat/Freedom-Loving/etc. And when I refuse because I don’t feel that gasoline has a “gay-friendliness” quotient… I get called a bad gay man or otherwise yelled at.
I really don’t feel that such things as gay-friendliness are ever more than straws to add to the scales. It seems to be mostly for the employees of Ford whether Ford is nice to gay people… but I’ll only really consider that if there is a Ford or some other car I really like and I’m having trouble choosing.
Otherwise, loved being on this show and catching up with your previous shows in the meantime.
May 4th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
While I enjoyed the interview, I have to take issue with Peter’s analysis of the Ford issue.
LOSING SALES BECAUSE OF ADS: It’s pretty obvious that Ford is a well enough known brand that their sales will not be hurt because of a lack of exposure in gay publications. It’s not as though it is some obscure product that gays find out about through “Out” or “Advocate” advertising.
FORD IS MAKING CARS AND SEXUALITY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CARS: This is almost akin to saying “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” – it comes across as a willful disregard of the realities of how business/the real world operates.
CALLED A BAD GAY MAN: I wouldn’t say this. It seems that your opinion is a rose-colored view is all.
MY BOTTOM LINE: One has only so much money and I want to spend my money with those people who do not back down when an outside force wants to bully the business into a position which marginalizes who I am.
It’s why I don’t buy Coors, Dominoe’s Pizza, or patronize Cracker Barrel restaurants.
I guess it boils down to: why wouldn’t I want to support those who support me? If I know a business is anti-gay or (in the Ford example) knuckle’s under to anti-gay sentiment then they will need to get their money from the bigot breeders.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
I guess it boils down to: why wouldn’t I want to support those who support me? If I know a business is anti-gay or (in the Ford example) knuckle’s under to anti-gay sentiment then they will need to get their money from the bigot breeders.
Yes, but businesses, especially businesses like car manufacturers and oil companies, are not people. They are massive faceless (or mascot-faced) conglomerations of thousands of people trying to be everything to everyone… so unless the company is actually supporting you by paying you or manufacturing your undergarments… this notion that you need to react based on rationalized slights towards the LGBT community is ludicrous.
Ford is a great, great, great place to work if you are gay. It always has been and I imagine it always will be. If you are gay and have a hunk of cash to drop on a car… then you should buy the car you like best that the hunk-of-cash can afford. Trying to pick a car, or gas, or mega-mart based on whether a special interest group thinks that corporations is pandering enough to their special interest is silly, even if their special interest matches your own.
The end fallout of making “judgements” on corporations based on what special interest groups say about them is this: You run out of more and more places to shop. Here’s a couple of timelines…
Ford Ford decides to shake up it’s GLBT advertizing about the same time they meet with the AFA. The AFA announces it is ending it’s boycott and it got Ford to cave to it’s demands the same time Ford decides to say it’s pulling Land Rover and Jaguar ads. This upsets the LGBT community greatly and they set up their OWN boycott. Ford comes out saying that they were pulling the LR and Jag ads so they could put ads in for all their brands, and that they think the AFA is a bunch of douchebags for trying to claim credit for anything. The AFA resumes their boycott, and now Ford has pretty much lost the support of the LGBT community too because LGBT are convinced Ford doesn’t really ‘like’ them despite a long history for being one of the friendlier companies. So, effectively, the AFA won. Ford is now suffering the loss of sales because of the AFA’s dirty marketing terrorism tactics… and the LGBT organizations’ marketing terrorism counter-tactics only made things worse. If the LGBT community only cared about how Ford treated it’s employees rather then whether they felt they were being pandered-to… Everyone except the AFA would be happy. If you think that Ford “knuckled under” then you were bamboozled. This is why the AFA is probably laughing it’s ass off at all the gay people who have since sold their Ford products and agreed to NEVER GO BACK.
Cracker Barrel Has since added homosexuality to it’s anti-discrimination policy. But many LGBT people insist they can NEVER GO BACK.
Coors I have no idea what Coors did. I don’t really drink so I don’t have an interest in their product. But I’m sure lots of LGBT people can NEVER GO BACK.
I mean, There are some cases where “gay friendliness” could arguably be swaing me… I think I would never buy a BMW because they advertized in Out and Advocate while being an impressively non-gay-friendly company and I think that’s tacky… but at the same time I think BMW’s are tacky. I shop at Target over Walmart, but that’s because I think Walmarts are tacky. I guess it’s just fortuitous that all the places I consider rather tacky also happen to be the least-gay-friendly… so why can’t we just rely on that and drop all the ultimatums and posturing and AFA-tactics?
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 am
I buy what I like, I eat what I like. I don’t eat at Cracker Barrel, not because of their stance on African Americans and homos, but because their food tastes like ass on wheat (as do most other chain restaurants). I don’t drink Coors, because I’m not into drinking piss. Sure, I MIGHT not by something if I’ve heard they have an overly aggressive stance against a particular something something, but where is the queer car maker?
Interesting interview, Tom. Some of it was more palatable than others.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
Oh, one last thing…I don’t watch gay-themed movies, not because I don’t support my community, but because MOST of them suck. Just because I AM gay doesn’t mean I have to have gay thrown in my face 24/7. “Gay” just represents a very small part of what I am…and that in no way means I’m hung like a flea.