Blogs Aug 30, 2010 at 3:00 pm

Comments

1
I can't type for weeping......
2
I truly hope there is a similar type of retail shop that can step in and offer its services and gain from this situation. It would be the perfect opportunity for a competitor to step up and say, "we welcome everybody." Then watch the bigot store fail and have to close their doors.
3
They don't want to sell high-end kitchen accessories to gay men? That can't be a workable business model.
4
Aw, that's my backwards little town.

Although I will say that this is the exception rather than the rule among businesses here. Individuals...well, that's another story.

I'll pass this little tidbit on to folks I know. I don't know that any of them are in the market for granite (most are apartment dwellers), but if they are, they can take their business elsewhere.
5
Oh, but on the other hand, Google One Baton Rouge sometime. Basically, a couple city council members introduced a resolution (not a law - a resolution) saying basically that everybody was welcome in Baton Rouge, and gee, wouldn't be great if we all made an effort not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, nationality, disability, or sexual orientation?

The council memebers who introduced it bowed to the pressures they were getting from fundamentalist pastors, who took out a full page ad in the local paper against the resolution and withdrew it. It was a cowardly action on their part, and I for one let them know that.

I've linked the story about One Baton Rouge being pulled below, but be warned that the Advocate's website sometimes crashes browsers - too many poorly coded ads.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/9949948…
6
The fuck?

Who do they think designs their countertops?
7
Oh shit--when the gasoline-fueled hurricane hits Baton Rogue, SSG (being presumably made of granite) will probably be the only building left standing. That'll make the "God's on our side--told you so" speeches insufferable.
8
@7 is right.

After the "rally" in DC it's heading full steam for them ...
9
I'm surprised that such blatant homophobes choose to operate in a place named "Baton Rouge." Now that's a gay friendly double entendre if ever I heard one.
10
If they won't sell to people different from them, how will they get their rocks off*?

*(of the warehouse shelves)
11
Oh, they will know we are queers- hell hath no fury like a gay couple denied swanky granite counter-tops!
12
What are gay guys doing shopping for granite counter tops? Such mid-90s, street-of-dreams tackiness. Did they also get thrown out of a brass-chandelier shop?
13
Granite counters are not tacky when done right. Just why in the world would you purchase Granite there? Buy it from my homestate- New Hampshire. They're the fucking Grantite State for god sakes! And NH has gay marriage!
14
Thank you, free lunch, for bringing some perspective to the conversation. Discrimination is always wrong, of course, but at least they were saved from their own bad taste.

Seriously, granite countertops? Yuck. I'd rather have avocado Formica. At least that's campy and cheerful.
15
This is absolutely appalling. Customers are customers and no one should be turned away for any reason especially a reason like this that simply makes Louisiana look ridiculous and full of biggots
16
and just look at the wonderful reactions from the intelligentsia of Baton Rouge: "The next time I'm in the market for granite I will make sure I go to SSG." http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/messa… - what an awful, awful, awful place. Viva Nueva Orleans!
17
Once upon a time in SF (early 70's) there was an ordinance to deny housing based on sexual orientation. It was popular until gays started buying up buildings and denying apartments to straight. Harvey Milk got that one reversed.

When gays start denying business to straights they won't think it's so funny anymore. Just saying, two can play that game.
18
I went to a pool party this past weekend. As I swam over by two girls, their conversation and giggling halted. I was informed that they were having "girl talk" and so I politely excused myself.
(Now, let's blow this out of proportion like most of you are doing!)
Who are they to turn me away?!? Was it because I was straight and they weren't? Was it because I have a pecker and it's a no-pecker two-person affair? The audacity of them! Humph! How can they not like me? I feel so discriminated against! I should go form a group and whine about it to the whole country!
But I digress...
Welcome to America. Not everyone is going to like you. You don't have a right to not be offended. Someone is going to discriminate based on sex or skin color or age or sexual orientation or whatever.
But do you want to know the best part of it all? You have a choice here. If someone doesn't want to sell "your kind" granite, then to hell with him. Go buy it elsewhere and get better service. If you think you should be promoted at work and you feel discriminated against, go start your own company and if you're as good as you think you are, then it won't be long until you put the other guy out of business.
But to whine about it and demand acceptance?
Now THAT'S audacious!
If you really cared, if you really wanted to reach out to this guy, you would have thought of some innovative way to show him that you could have potentially been a wonderful customer. But you didn't. No, you wanted you name in the lights so what did you do instead? You ranted on here and contacted any media outlet that would listen to you.
And the result?
He shut down his facebook page.
He likes gays even less now.
And you've labeled him an asshole for everyone to see.

Who's the asshole here, really?

p.s. - kill them with kindness. I assure you, it's the best way..

19
Someone should let SSG's suppliers know. They may not want to do business with bigots.
20
@18,

You'd have been a hoot during the Alabama bus boycott. "We've been walking to work for two days, and they still haven't given Ms. Parks a seat at the front of the bus! This boycott is only making the bus company like us less, so let's just accept the fact that they're always going to discriminate against us."
21
I am from Baton Rouge, and there will be support of their sexist behaviour here. I’m getting emails from my wingnut family to patronize them because they stood up for some “morality.”

Instead of promoting SGG, show that you do not support businesses that associate with sexist and homophobic people. One of the biggest suppliers of the granite shop is Kohler sinks and faucets. Get in touch with Kohler that you will not use their products if they continue their association with SGG.

http://www.kohler.com/corp/about/contact…

For contact information related to a specific Kohler business, choose one of the groups below.

Interiors Group
Global Power Group
Destination/Hospitality Group
KOHLER Plumbing
444 Highland Drive
Kohler, WI 53044
Phone: 1.800.456.4537

Web site: KOHLER Plumbing Contact Us
KOHLER Industrial Castings
444 Highland Drive
Mailstop 055
Kohler, WI 53044
Phone: 1.920.457.4441, extension 77839
Fax: 1.920.459.1826
Web site: http://www.kohler.com/corp/castings/
Sanijura – United States

Rue Stephen Pichon
Mailstop 055
Kohler, WI 53044
Phone: 1.920.457.4441, extension 77839
Fax: 1.920.459.1826
Web site: http://www.sanijura.com/
Robern Mirrored Cabinets
701 N. Wilson Avenue
Bristol, PA 19007
Phone: 1.215.826.9800
Web site: Robern Mirrored Bath Cabinets Contact Us
Ann Sacks
8120 NE 33rd Drive
Portland, OR 97211
Phone: 1.800.278.8453
Web site: Ann Sacks Contact Us
Hytec Plumbing Products (Division of Kohler® Canada Co.)
4150 Spallumcheen Drive
Armstrong, BC VOE 1B6
Phone: 250.546.3067
For customer service, call 1.800.871.8377 (Western Canada only)
Fax: 250.546.317
Web site: http://www.hytec.ca
Email: hytec.customer.service@kohler.com
Jacob Delafon
60 Rue De Turenne
75003 Paris, France
Phone: 33.1.4027.5300
Fax: 33.1.4271.7692
Web site: http://www.jacobdelafon.com/
Sterling Plumbing
444 Highland Drive
Kohler, WI 53044
Phone: 1.888.STERLING
Web site: Sterling Plumbing Contact Us
22
For those of you who don't read unregistered comments, @21 has a list of this company's suppliers.

And yeah, he is right that there are some wingnuts here who will try to get them more business. Despite being in the heart of the Bible belt, and despite cowardly politicians bending to the will of the religious right, it isn't the majority. While no one is introducing legislation to allow for same sex marriage (which would most certainly fail, both in the legislature and as a ballot measure), most folks here have a live-and-let-live attitude.
23
@18:

Who's the asshole here, really?


I think you've demonstrated the answer to that question yourself.

Please wait...

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