Careers Before Queers

The Collin County Gay and Lesbian Alliance has taken the position that it is not going to endorse the Cinemark demonstration that is set for this coming weekend.  It is unfortunate that the leading Queer organization in Collin County is not supporting the effort to inform the public regarding the contribution made by the CEO of the Plano based movie chain.  Instead, they prefer to have a private sit down meeting with Cinemark executives regarding the bad behavior of their boss.  

In a recent Instant Tea posting Dallas Voice's John Write accurately notes the split that is widening ever so quickly within the LGBT community in the wake of Prop 8.  CCGLA appears to be in line with other LGBT organizations that prefer taking the discussion of our civil rights out of the public arena.  It seems as though some in the leadership of CCGLA also have important positions within the Cinemark corporation.  Protecting their company and bigoted boss from public criticism really embodies the careers before Queers mindset.  

Our goal for the event is to let as many people know about the $9,999 contribution that was made by Cinemark's CEO Alan Stock.  Our message will be that if you support equality and justice then you might not want to help line the pockets of a bigot such as Stock.  

This is how progress is made.  Maybe Cinemark's position on LGBT rights won't change.  Maybe Stock will make another donation to another hateful campaign, but I think that is highly unlikely given the hell he has caught from this issue.  But even if Cinemark doesn't adopt domestic partner benefits, for example, as a direct result of these demonstrations they will be far more likely to in the future when the issue resurfaces.  Other corporations and CEOs are paying very close attention to these goings on and any top executive would have to be pretty hell bent on gay oppression to fund something like Prop 8 in the future.  

So yes, the goal is to get Stock and Cinemark to change their ways but much more so is to subtly convince others to not go down that long and windy road of gay hate because your going to find a bunch of angry queers outside your business talking to the media about how Hate-mongers & Company Inc. oppresses gays.  But some in established gay organizations that have been built up over the past 15 years or so want to have conversations with CEOs and bookstore owners to tell them what they already know.  They read the paper.  They know our opinions, stances and demands.  I think Stock is pretty resolute in his contempt for Gay people given that he dontated $10 k to Prop 8.  Why then do some LGBT folks insist on sitting down and having tea with those that funded our oppression?

My guess would be that like most CEOs money figures pretty high on Stock's priority list.  I would even venture to guess that it takes a higher priority to Gay oppression.  If this is the case, talk to Stock's customers not to the man himself.