I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman at Out On Screen on Friday.

See, Since Prop 8 was passed on Nov 4th I have made a point of avoiding a couple of businesses like the plague. There is no lack of information on where the money towards supporting Prop 8 came from, nor is it possible to keep secret, the support or money given to said cause from a CEO or President of a popular company.

Although Richard Hayne, #262 richest person in the U.S, has done a good job of wiping any or all traces of his financial contributions towards Prop 8, I will not and have not shopped at his Urban Outfitters chain since November 4th. I refuse to turn a blind eye just so I can buy that trendy shirt and watch my money trickle up into Mr. Hayne’s fat pockets.

Since November 4th, I as well have not attended a movie at Tinseltown, having been rightly informed that Mr. Alan Stock, CEO of Cinemark, contributed a whopping $9,999 out of his own pocket towards vote YES on Proposition 8. I refuse to turn a blind eye just so I can see that blockbuster and watch my money trickle up into Mr. Stock’s fat pockets.

I think we get the point.

Well this has been my personal dilemma for the last nine and a half months. Not a crusade of sorts (although anybody who brings up either company within ear shot of me could plead another case). But I’ve known that being a married gay man, and living the life that I do, that there would be no way that I could give money to someone who has gone out of their way to, not only directly contribute to harming the principles of my lifestyle, but on a larger scale, demean the very basics that make up human rights equalities. Because, in this side of the world, the fight for GLBT equality truly is the last big fight of our lifetime, and any other viewpoint that does not align with the equality of gay persons, will, in the not so distant future, be seen as completely archaic.

I joined Facebook groups, I informed my friends and loved ones, and that was all I felt needed doing for the time being. Until, to my surprise, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival this year, after the vote on November 4th, 2008, continued to house their films in Cinemark Tinseltown.

This left me scratching my head. So I phoned Out On Screen.

The response I got was that, although they obviously do not support Mr. Stock’s decision to contribute $9,999 towards Proposition 8, Cinemark has been their biggest supporter for years.

That’s it.

When I told them that my friends and I, although supporters of the Film Festival, had problems attending Tinseltown on principal, he said he understood, and hoped we could enjoy the films at the other locations provided this year. I told him we had and thanked him. I mean really, what else was he supposed to say? I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe a little heat and passion? Maybe I was just waiting for him to suddenly go off the record and level with me, and sympathize. To fully understand my conflict? Maybe he had the same conflict! But alas, I get it, he was at work, and he was doing his job. This however does not solve my dilemma.
“Cinemark has an LGBT liaison for community outreach; Cinemark provides domestic partner benefits for California team members; Cinemark hosts the annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival; and Cinemark works with the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce as well as the Collin County Gay & Lesbian Alliance to arrange advance screenings for movies of interest to the LGBT community”,  Bob Shimmin, a vice president of Cinemark, directly hired by Alan Stock, writes in his November 11th, 2008 (one week after the vote) article on 365gay.com. He continues to explain that Mr. Stock’s mormon beliefs against gay marriage have never come into the workplace, and that Mr. Stock’s contribution was completely independent of Cinemark.

“According to Cinemark’s Chairman, Lee Roy Mitchell, “it would be inappropriate to influence our employees’ position on personal issues outside the work environment especially on political, social or religious activities. Individual political actions, especially those outside of work are independent, individual acts of personal expression.””

Would this still be the case if Mr. Stock was a public financial contributor to the KKK? Because as far as I’m concerned, the disgusting commercials that his money was directly funding, such as the “Storm is Coming” advertisement are no less spiteful bigotry than a white hood.

I understand ALL of these facts and can differentiate between a business and a single human being. But unfortunately, making a beautiful cake with one rotten egg is truly going to spoil the whole eating-of-the-cake experience for me. That’s just the way it works.

In the end, my money is still going to someone whose beliefs are contradictory to advancing tolerance and educating the masses. Truly, any opinion that tells me that my lifestyle is less than, is by default perpetuating intolerance, and in turn hate. And if you happen to be running a business, then don’t expect to have MY money in YOUR hands.

The Queer Film Festival is not ready to take a stand in this, and I understand their prerogative, truly I do, for it’s not Cinemark, the company, the company letting them show their movies in their theatre, that is telling them that they don’t support same sex legal unions. But turning a blind eye on the trickle up the ladder to where that money is going, and the opinions that it’s fueling, is unjustifiable to me anymore.

As far as human rights go, I have never been more sure in my life, despite my sexuality, that I am on the good side of the fight between good and miseducated evil, because there is a clear difference between keeping someone down by taking away their rights, and gay people, just trying to achieve legal equality. I have just wanted the option that every other straight person on the face of the planet has, to dedicate themselves legally in marriage, without being told that my love means less than theirs. 

“The days of settling for a fraction of equality are over.” Cleve Jones said at an inspired speech given at Sunset Beach this past pride. This coming from the man who must have felt a sense of accomplishment and pride standing up for his beliefs and helping the 1970’s boycott of Coors in all gay establishments across San Francisco’s Castro Street neighborhood. Is this the sort of “misguided boycotting” that Bob Shimmin hopes we don’t participate in at the end of his article? Then call me misguided. Because even though I’m sure I’m spending money at companies that aren’t as public about their beliefs, for the moment, my conscience is clean knowing that at the end of the day, every cent of my hard earned dollars in my 40 hour work week is, to the best of my knowledge, not going to people outrightly and publicly boasting of their misinformed perpetuations of hate across the world.

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Submitted By: Nic O.

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