Shortly after voters in Maine repealed a law that granting marriage equality rights to gays and lesbians, Larry Grard, a reporter from The Morning Sentinel in Waterville, Maine fired off an email to the Human Rights Campaign declaring “you hateful people have been spreading nothing but vitriol since this campaign began. Good riddance!”
Shortly thereafter Grard lost his job with the paper and he became, for a short while, a right-wing cause célèbre, at least until everyone moved on to other issues. Everyone, that is, except Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission who has continued to flog the issue for months, recently culminating in a demand that Grard be reinstated in his job and that local businesses stop advertising in any outlet owned by the paper’s parent company, MaineToday Media, until some sort of acceptable settlement was reached.
Not surprisingly, everyone in Maine pretty much ignore Cass’s threat and so now he has kicked it up a notch and announced a wholesale boycott against a long list of local companies which continue to advertise with the “anti-marriage and anti-Christian” MaineToday Media:
In our letter to their advertisers we specifically asked that they stop advertising in any MaineToday Media publication until this matter with Larry is equitably resolved. We informed them that our plan was to communicate with people across the state of Maine who supported the “Yes on 1” campaign and urge them not to patronize businesses that advertise in MaineToday Media publications.
In addition, we followed up the letter with a phone call to the advertisers to give them another opportunity to be taken off of the boycott list by pledging not to advertise. As of now, CADC is calling for a boycott of thirty-three businesses who have decided to continue to advertise with MaineToday. More may be added.
With your active support of this boycott we are hoping that soon MaineToday Media would feel the error of their way and immediately make it right with Larry. We are determined to get justice for Larry who stood with the majority of the citizens of Maine to defend marriage. We can’t sit back and allow a Christian to be fired simply for standing up for biblical values.
Please, help us fight for justice for Larry. It might be your job next!
The CADC is a tiny, fringe right-wing group headquartered in Vista, CA which has almost no money and even less influence or reach.
But apparently Cass thinks that he’s got enough clout to get residents on the other side of the country in Maine to boycott dozens of local establishments like Rebecca’s Place in Augusta and Fred’s Coffee in Oakland and Damon’s Quick Stop in Skowhegan and Andre’s Barrels & Buckets in Starks.
Best of luck with that.
