A house is not a Home Depot

Anti-gay group lifts boycott on Home Depot, which staff say is still gay-positive


The anti-gay American Family Association (AFA) has lifted its three-year boycott on The Home Depot because it feels there’s been a significant shift in the company’s policies. This is in spite of the fact that Home Depot executives say there has been no change whatsoever in their gay-positive attachments.

Among a number of philanthropic pursuits, Home Depot has sponsored Pride festivals, donated to the Human Rights Campaign and, closer to home, donated $20,000 worth of building supplies to the construction of the Church Street parklets in Toronto. This support led the AFA — a Southern Poverty Law Center–designated hate group famous for their “One Million Moms” campaign to boycott JC Penney’s for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson — to call for the Home Depot boycott. However, “after monitoring the company for several months, AFA is satisfied the company has withdrawn its major financial contributions to gay activist groups and events.”

ThinkProgress reports that Home Depot spokeperson Stephen Holmes has explained, “We haven’t made any changes to our policies for inclusion and respect of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation. We have not directed our associates to discontinue participation in Pride or other community events, and have no intention of doing so.”

I guess it takes a lot of wood to construct so much hypocrisy.

Michael Lyons is a queer-identified, chaotic neutral writer, activist, misanthrope, sapiosexual, and feline enthusiast. He is a columnist, blogger and regular contributor with Xtra and has contributed to Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Crew Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, The Ryersonian, Buddies Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine and more.

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