WHO TO BOYCOTT

November 14, 2008 – 6:31 pm

BOYCOTT RADIO STATION ADVERTISERS

Bonneville International Corporation, managed by Deseret Management Corporation, is a broadcasting company wholly owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the LDS Church).

Bonneville International Corporation owns about 30 radio stations and one NBC affiliate television station. Additionally, the Bonneville Communications division provides broadcast distribution services and PSA production services to non-profit organizations, notably the LDS Church during its semi-annual General Conferences.

If you live in the broadcast areas of these Bonneville International Corporation radio and one television station, boycotting them effectively will be a little different and will require some organizing with like-minded individuals and organizations. The more people, politicians, churches, and community organizations that sign on with your efforts and participate, the better.

The Bonneville station needs to be monitored to determine its advertisers. Then these advertisers need to be approached. Letters can be sent, but also local folks can and should organize to ask for a meeting with the advertisers to express their concerns and to ask that advertising on these stations cease. Let them know that you will publicize the results of your meeting with them. You may find some of these advertisers have LGBT-friendly policies already and do not even know about Bonneville’s LDS connections.

Remember: Be polite but firm in letters and in meetings with the advertisers asking them to stop purchasing advertising at Bonneville stations because their purchase supports discrimination and hate. There are other radio stations for them to choose from. Tell them you want a written response assuring that they will stop advertising at Bonneville stations. Be sure to tell them you cannot and will not purchase their products anymore until the company notifies you in writing that they have ceased advertising at Bonneville stations. Sometimes, their advertising buys entail contracts over a period of weeks, so expecting an immediate cessation is not entirely realistic. Last of all, really don’t purchase their products until they do what you have asked. Tell your friends about the boycott and the reasons for it.

The more visible you and your allies are, the better. Sitting at home and complaining won’t help. Be active! Always be non-violent, don’t lose your temper, and prepare in advance for designated spokeperson(s) to interact with the press. But expect sniping remarks in retaliation. (Like the community isn’t used to that…)

Expect a variety of PR tactics in response, even assurances that the boycott is helping their business. The boycott really won’t help them. Their allies might have to spend money to help them, but that keeps them from spending it in other ways that harm the community. And you won’t be listening to these stations anyway, so their advertising dollars will be wasted that way.

The Bonneville stations and their cities:

Los Angeles

• KSWD 100.3 FM

Chicago

• WDRV 97.1 FM & WWDV 96.9 FM
• WILV 100.3 FM
• WTMX 101.9 FM

Washington, D.C.

• WFED 1050 AM
• WTOP 103.5 FM & 103.9 FM
• WWWT 107.7 FM & 1500 AM

Seattle

• KIRO News Talk 710 AM & 97.3 FM
• KTTH 770 The Truth

Phoenix

• KPKX 98.7 FM
• KTAR 620 AM
• KTAR 92.3 FM

St. Louis

• WARH 106.5 FM
• WIL 92.3 FM
• WMVN 101.1 FM

Cincinnati

• WKRQ 101.9 FM
• WSWD 97.3 FM
• WUBE 105.1 FM
• WYGY 94.9 FM

Salt Lake City

• Bonneville Communications
• Bonneville Satellite
• KRSP 103.5 FM
• KSFI 100.3 FM
• KSL 102.7 FM & 1160 AM
• KSL 5 Television
• KUTR AM 820

By Equilibrium | Posted in Background on Boycott | Comments (0)

HOW TO BOYCOTT

November 14, 2008 – 6:26 pm

Some of this is easy: “NO on BENEFICIAL (TO MORMONS)”

Don’t use Beneficial Financial Group for your investments, life insurance, annuities, disability insurance, or anything.

Don’t use Zions Bancorporation or any of its 500 banks in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington. If you bank there now, change to a different bank. Ask friends, family, and allies to do the same. Next, research where your local government has its accounts, and if the accounts are in Zions Bancorporation and its affiliates, demand divestment.

Among its subsidiaries are NSB Public Finance, Amegy Bank of Texas, California Bank & Trust, National Bank of Arizona, Nevada State Bank, the Commerce Bank of Oregon, the Commerce Bank of Washington, Vectra Bank of Colorado, Zions First National Bank, Zions Agricultural Finance, Zions Bank Capital Markets, Zions Credit Corporation, Zions Direct, Zions Management Services Company, Zions Public Finance, Zions Small Business Finance, NetDeposit, and Contango Capital Advisors. As of June 30, 2008, it had $54.6 billion in assets and approximately 11,000 employees. NetDeposit and Contango Capital Advisors do not appear to be banks, but you might ask your bank if it uses NetDeposit’s technology.

If you own stock in this Zions Bancorporation, divest. It is listed on the NASDAQ as ZION. Ask friends, family, and allies to do the same. Again, research where your local government has its investments, and if they are in Zions Bancorporation, demand divestment.

Don’t purchase from Deseret Farms.

Don’t purchase walnuts from the Berberian Nut Company, 6100 Wilson Landing Road, Chico, CA 95973-8902

Consumers may not be immediately familiar with Berberian walnuts, but chances are you’ve eaten them if you’ve ever had a candy made by See’s, a baked good from Hostess or Baker’s Inn, or a dessert topping produced by Smucker’s. Those are just some of Berberian’s national customers.

So write a polite but firm letter to the companies asking them to stop purchasing walnuts from the Berberian Nut Company because their purchase supports discrimination and hate. There are other walnut companies for them to choose from. Tell them you want a written response assuring that they will stop purchasing walnuts from Berberian Nut Company. Be sure to tell them you cannot and will not purchase their products anymore until the company notifies you in writing that they have ceased purchasing from Berberian Nut Company. Last of all, really don’t purchase their products until they do what you have asked.

Tell your friends about the boycott and the reasons for it.

See’s Candy Shops, Inc.
20600 South Alameda Street
Carson, CA 90810

Interstate Bakeries Corporation (Interstate Bakeries Corporation owns Hostess and Baker’s Inn)
Attn: Consumer Affairs
12 East Armour Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64111

The J.M. Smucker Co.
1 Strawberry Lane
Orrville, Ohio 44667-0280

If you are vacationing in Hawaii (lucky you), don’t spend your tourism dollars at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which claims to be Hawaii’s most popular paid attraction. Also skip Hukilau Beach Park. Ironically, it advertises itself as a place to get married…

And don’t shop at the Laie Shopping Center in Laie (on the north shore of Oahu). Remember that the tenants in the Laie Shopping Center probably have no idea about what their landlord is or has done, and are not to be held responsible.

By Equilibrium | Posted in Background on Boycott | Comments (0)

ABOUT THE MORMONS AND ONE MAN/ONE WOMAN MARRIAGE

November 14, 2008 – 6:22 pm

Isn’t it curious that the Mormon Church would be so concerned about the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman that it would expend resources on ballot initiatives to that effect, and/or direct its congregations to do so? After all, when the polygamous history of the Mormon Church is examined, along with the fact that the practice continues even now, the Mormons don’t seem the best front for the one man/one woman marriage argument. Recently deceased Mormon leader Gordon Hinckley admitted on Larry King Live a few years ago that a small percentage of Mormons still continue polygamy. Even a cursory review of Mormon doctrine will show the belief in polygamy in church doctrine.

And having been personally involved in exposing the polygamous cartel/activities in Colorado City, Arizona and Hillside, Utah, of the Fundamentalist LDS, I can only wonder where the Mormon Church’s moral outrage was for all these years while very young girls were married off to much older men who built harems, and even ordered these girls to change husbands when some of the men fell into disfavor with the church “leadership.” These girls were removed from public education and forced in their early teens to submit. Further, I learned from meeting and interviewing some young men and boys who had been forced out of these same communities that they too had been sexually abused. These lost boys often found their way to Salt Lake City and other parts of Utah. What happened to them is not a secret.

By Equilibrium | Posted in Background on Boycott | Comments (0)

WHY AN “EQUALITY BOYCOTT?

November 14, 2008 – 6:12 pm

An economic boycott should focus on harming the opponent’s assets, hence the belief that the focus should be on the Mormon (LDS) Church and its investments rather than the entire state of Utah. There are richer churches than the one based in Salt Lake City: Roman Catholic holdings dwarf Mormon wealth. But the Catholic Church has 45 times as many members. There is no major church in the U.S. as active as the Latter-Day Saints in economic life, nor, per capita, as successful at it. Remember that they took it upon themselves to start the issue. We’re just taking the issue back to them.

In many ways, we can draw the parallel between this boycott and one that freed South Africa. Both involve people who are being denied basic human rights and equality, people being treated institutionally through their government as inferior to others. It took more than the efforts of affected South Africans to change public opinion; it took caring people from all over the world to unite and challenge the way things were accepted to be and to demand justice and equality. It isn’t our business to tell someone they can’t marry who they want to marry any more than it is our business to regulate what they do in the bedroom. There are some religions that still believe and preach that sex is only for procreation. Lucky for the rest of us, they have not succeeded in making that the law of the land. But within recent history, there were laws prohibiting blacks and whites from marrying and religions that preached against it. The Supreme Court ruled these laws were unconstitutional in the 1960s. If we want to get Biblical about this, let’s simply go with Leviticus 25:17 “Ye shall not therefore oppress one another,” and leave it at that.

By Equilibrium | Posted in Background on Boycott | Comments (0)