UnAmerican Family Association

You wanna hear something scary? Awhile back, in my Yahoo inbox, I got this "update" from the American Family Association. For those of you out there that are unaware of this insidious organization and its activities, humor me and read the following from Wikipedia

The AFA defines itself as "a Christian organization promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on TV and other media" It pursues its views and other issues through a number of activism efforts, including boycotts, "action alert" e-mails, publications on the AFA's web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying. The legal efforts previously promoted by the AFA Center for Law and Policy were eliminated in 2007. Chief among its efforts were the recognition of Christmas in seasonal print advertisements; the criminalization of homosexuality; lobbying against same-sex marriage, and in opposition of equal-rights and hate-crime legislation that would include sexual orientation and gender identity under categories already protected and advocating censorship of print and electronic media.


The organization has an annual budget of roughly US$14 million and owns 180 American Family Radio stations in 28 states.

The AFA has boycotted multiple organizations for various reasons, most often relating to Christmas controversies, pornography, support of pro-choice activism, and support of LGBT activism, including same-sex partner employee benefits. These organizations include: 7-Eleven, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Airlines, American Girl, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Carl's Jr., Clorox, Crest, Ford, Kmart, Kraft Foods, S. C. Johnson & Son, Movie Gallery, Microsoft, MTV, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, IKEA, Sears, Pampers, Procter & Gamble, Target, Tide, and Walt Disney Company.




The reason I was getting updates is because a small-minded acquaintance, whom I can't remember at the moment, sent me their "call-to-action" as it were back some time ago, assuming that I was as small-minded as they were and would act accordingly. Since I was basically unfamiliar with the organization, I did a little research and found that they essentially hate gay people. No other words for it -- plain ol hate. Lets not sugar coat it and call a spade a spade. The call-to-action was to use their site to email some company and tell them how disgusted I was that they supported same-sex benefits. Naturally, this pissed me off royally. So I did exactly what they asked me too. I pulled up, on the AFA site mind you, the link to email and proceeded to tell the company how PROUD I was of them for offering same-sex benefits and how I was NOT going to boycott them and that I do not support the AFA and its hate-filled values. I hope they actually read the email and didn't delete it when they saw it came from the AFA site. I certainly wouldn't blame them if they did, but I can't do anything about that. So I got to thinking, what better way to undermine these idiots than to use their website against them? I continue to get updates, they continue piss me off, but they also make me realize that I can do something, even on the smallest of levels - like sending an email of support - to make a change for the better.