Stories have been circulating for some time about Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz supposedly telling shareholders at their annual meeting, “If you support traditional marriage over gay marriage, Starbucks doesn’t want your business.”
Well, that isn’t exactly the case. According to Forbes, in response to a question from a shareholder whom the Huffington Post identified as the founder of the Corporate Morality Action Center, which supports traditional marriage, Schultz did say the company’s decision to support gay marriage “was not an economic decision to me. The lens in which we are making that decision is through the lens of our people. We employ over 200,000 people in this company, and we want to embrace diversity. Of all kinds.”
To the shareholder Schultz concluded, “If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much.”
Fair enough. It is a free country. I don’t have to invest in a company I don’t believe in, and I’m free to never buy an overpriced cup of joe from them again either.
But let me get this one straight. A private mom and pop shop goes through hell for not wanting to bake a darn cake for a gay wedding, but this publicly-held corporation is applauded for saying we don’t want your money to everyone who doesn’t think like them?