Boycott Sochi Sponsors: Life without McDonald's and Coke

You know, it's been hard for me to NOT eat at McDonald's and continuously stream Coke Zero through my digestive tract.  I have been on the road for the past 2 months and what comes as automatic, like a reflex, I had to adapt.

I refuse to support the sponsors of the Sochi Russia homophobic olympic games in 2014.  Russian legislature has imposed genocide on it's LGBTQ citizens.  Violence on LGBTQ reigns terror over that community that has been erased through a legal process.  Clearly a human rights violation.

On our website, you can see the video of what happened during the Olympics in Nazi Germany and how it is very similar in setting to today.  The International Olympic Committee is turning a blind eye to their own charter to move forward with these games in the hateful country.  Russia no longer qualifies to host these games under the charter.

Olympic sponsors: McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Procter and Gamble, VISA are a few who are going along with the ridiculous, money driven IOC.  Their open acknowledgement of the IOC's decision to comply with and continue on this disastrous course, is CONDONING the same "gay propaganda" laws are acceptable to their corporate charter.

While most of these sponsors are stating their corporate accolade on LGBTQ support about equality and diversity, it is all lip service.  You are a hypocrite when you say one thing and do something completely different to pad your pocket like the IOC.

Any one who lives on the road knows that McDonald's is a pretty safe place to avoid food poisoning.  They have healthy food despite their bad reputation for fat poisoning everyone.  They have salads, oatmeal and I was LOVIN' the egg white products they just started to offer.  Too bad for them that I have found alternatives to stopping by for a berry smoothie on my 3 hour drive to Madison.  It is called a gas station.  I now stop for Kashi bars and smoothies readily available.

Have I lost weight?  No.  I am still maintaining my slim, trim figure (pipe dream) finding may new places to eat.  Meeting new people and discovering new foods in the adventure.  Overall, positive experience dumping homophobic sponsor, McDonalds!

Next homocaust supporter, Coca-Cola.  Coke Zero was like water to me on the road.  I would grab two or three on long drives.  Water and tea are my preferred choices now.  Mountain Dew is now pretty much only when I need the caffeine jolt.  Soda intake has dropped significantly.

One note of caution.  Look at the label and see who bottled this stuff.  I got burned a couple times.  Here are some major Coca Cola Products in USA: Dasani water, Fanta, Powerade, Sprite, Flavored Cokes such as Cherry, Vanilla and many more, Barq’s Root Beer, Fresca, Mr. Pibb, Nestea, Minute Maid, Bacardi Mixers Fruitopia, TaB, Tahiti Treat, Mello Yello, Splice, & Mexican Coke.  Also Dasani water and Vitamin Water are products of this sponsor of Russian bloodshed.

Another solution is to by a friendly bottled water and buy flavoring.  Target and some truck stops have Mio flavors in a variety of flavors.  I'm sure overall, my body is appreciating the soda reduction.

Samsung is probably the biggest vendor that we have walked away from in our household.  TV's, cellphones and tablets have all been on our purchase list.  We won't even look at their products.  My partner had his Galaxy 4 for less than 48 hours and took it back in support of the boycott.  HTC makes great phones for Android.  Apple is still LGBT friendly.

Procter and Gamble can bite the big one too.  We have switched from Tide to Caldrea.  A bit more expensive and harder to find, but the quality is much better.  Both on clothes and on fabric.  Scent free options are All.  Never had an issue with this product.

Buyer beware.  Read the label, not only for the ingredients but who is manufacturing these things.  You don't want your money supporting hate groups or companies that are filtering your money to LGBTQ hate crimes like in Russia.

YOU DO HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD>>>>>IT STARTS WITH YOUR WALLET AND WHAT YOU PURCHASE!!!  Look at Barilla if you want to see how you can impact and devastate a company.

Our first newsletter, The Pink Flag.  Find out what we have been up to and articles on who we are and what we are about.
Enjoy!
http://stonewallagainpinkflag.blogspot.com/2013/09/stonewallagain-newsletter-pink-flag-1.html

McHomocaust: Russia the Fourth Reich

September 15, 1935
Nuremberg, Germany
Persecution Begins

• On April 1, 1933, the Nazis instigated their first action against German Jews by announcing a boycott of all Jewish-run businesses.
• The Nuremberg Laws, issued on September 15, 1935, began to exclude Jews from public life. The Nuremberg Laws included a law that stripped German Jews of their citizenship and a law that prohibited marriages and extramarital sex between Jews and Germans. The Nuremberg Laws set the legal precedent for further anti-Jewish legislation.
• Nazis then issued additional anti-Jews laws over the next several years. For example, some of these laws excluded Jews from places like parks, fired them from civil service jobs (i.e. government jobs), made Jews register their property, and prevented Jewish doctors from working on anyone other than Jewish patients.

Honestly, how can anyone not see what is happening here?

Are corporations like McDonald's who are sponsoring the Sochi Winter Olympic games that stupid to see that the gains that they are making for this one event could potentially and forever scar their business?

Tragedies at Olympic events are forever recorded in history.  What is to prevent a Munich Massacre?  Those where the murdering terrorist games.  What about the Atlanta Games?  No one remembers a damned thing about those games except there was a bomb!

With people running through the streets smashing faces in if you are even suspected of being LGBT, you want to kill ALL your business when you have the opportunity to do the right thing now?  Be the HERO and not the VILLAIN!  Ask your marketing people which is better.

LGBT has already started to actively avoid your products.  We are a tight community and will not tolerate this.  In your press release you use the key words such as diversity.  When you use the words and they have no action behind them, it's called lip service.  You are essentially lying to avoid dealing with the problem head on. 

We call bullshit on your response.  McDonald's is quite capable of saying that these actions taken by the Russian government do not comply with the image that McDonald's represents and will withhold any further funding of these Olympics under breach of contract.  Breach of contract due to they no longer qualify.

Olympic Charter #4:(takes time to load)

The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of

practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which

requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

So, we ask again, DO YOU WANT TO RUIN YOUR BUSINESS OR BE A HERO?

Walk away and set up another venue in a location for all to participate "WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION OF ANY KIND" as the charter states.  Bring the other sponsors with you.  It will be a WIN WIN scenario.

Reference:
About.com Holocaust timeline
Olympics.org Bidding for HOST CITY
Olympic Charter apparently NO ONE HAS READ THIS.  BECAUSE IF YOU DID, YOU WOULD NOT CONTINUE THE GAMES IN RUSSIA! (This document takes time to load.  It is worth reading.)

We the People: Move the 2014 Winter Olympic Games from Russia

We the People will NOT acknowledge, listen to or view the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

We the People will NOT purchase products or services from corporations or organizations that SPONSOR these games.  Giving money to said sponsors is condoning and accepting the slaughter of the LGBT community through legislative genocide.  Sponsors are going to be forever associated with the Second Holocaust.

We the People will NOT buy, view or acknowledge any products with the Olympic symbol attached on the product or its packaging.

We the People WILL hold Olympic Committee and ALL Sponsor responsible for anything that happens to ANY citizen during your Holocaust Olympics.

We the People WILL continue to have our voices heard through worldwide demonstration that HUMAN RIGHTS are more important than CORPORATE GREED.

We the People WILL NOT LET THIS GO.  THIS WILL NOT DISAPPEAR.  MOVE THE GAMES AND SEND A MESSAGE THAT HUMAN LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HOMOPHOBIC POWER DOMINATION.

WE THE PEOPLE SAY IT'S TIME FOR EVERYONE TO DO THE RIGHT THING THIS TIME AND STOP THIS HOLOCAUST!

Russia is the new Nazi Germany: HOLOCAUST Part 2

History repeats.  Isn't it ironic that only the bad history repeats.  That is because it is easier to do hateful things to each other than to fight against greed, power and religious fanatics and repeat the good things that happened in our world.

Genocide of our LGBT brothers and sisters in Russia has started.  Laws to eradicate the LGBT community from the public eye through legislation are exactly like those implemented September 15, 1935 in Nuremberg  Germany.  Laws that essentially erased Jews from Germany.

The anti "gay propaganda" laws that Russia is imposing on it's people are now moving to the second phase.  Raiding homes of its LGBT citizens.  Instilling fear to push people back into the closet.  Forcing loved ones to be separated by intimidation that they could be violently attacked or imprisoned because they are who they are.

Corporations like McDonald's and Coca-Cola are using words that they believe in diversity and welcome the LGBT community into their organizations.  However talk is cheap.  They are using words with no spirit or true meaning behind them to support their use.  For if they truly RESPECTED the essential meaning of what diversity embodies, they would not continue to support the winter Olympics in Sochi Russia.  They are only funding this hatred through turning a blind eye to what the world is out-crying.

Bars across the globe are pouring Stoli in the streets.  In America, we should be doing the same with Coca-Cola.  Massive demonstrations with smashing Big Macs and dumping Coke Zero in front of NBC. 

Burning Olympic flags would completely be appropriate.  They have the opportunity to make things right, RIGHT NOW.  It should be clear to EVERYONE that Russia no longer qualifies as an appropriate venue for these games.  This is why we do not hold these games in places like Iran or Uganda.  It's time to wake up and really look at what the Olympics have become.  They have clearly drifted away from competition between people to a corporate venue to make volumes of money.  Like a whore, the games go to the highest bidder.

About.com has a great article on the timeline of the holocaust.  Is this an outline for what is about to happen again?  We have the opportunity to stop this now.  To not support corporations that support this through sponsorship.

Below is an excerpt from About.com article.

Persecution Begins

• On April 1, 1933, the Nazis instigated their first action against German Jews by announcing a boycott of all Jewish-run businesses.
• The Nuremberg Laws, issued on September 15, 1935, began to exclude Jews from public life. The Nuremberg Laws included a law that stripped German Jews of their citizenship and a law that prohibited marriages and extramarital sex between Jews and Germans. The Nuremberg Laws set the legal precedent for further anti-Jewish legislation.
• Nazis then issued additional anti-Jews laws over the next several years. For example, some of these laws excluded Jews from places like parks, fired them from civil service jobs (i.e. government jobs), made Jews register their property, and prevented Jewish doctors from working on anyone other than Jewish patients.
• During the night of November 9-10, 1938, Nazis incited a pogrom against Jews in Austria and Germany in what has been termed, "Kristallnacht" ("Night of Broken Glass"). This night of violence included the pillaging and burning of synagogues, breaking the windows of Jewish-owned businesses, the looting of these stores, and many Jews were physically attacked. Also, approximately 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
• After World War II started in 1939, the Nazis began ordering Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing so that Jews could be easily recognized and targeted.

McDonald's and Coca Cola: SPONSORS OF VIOLENCE ON LGBT

The next time you are buying that Big Mac with a large Diet Coke, ask yourself if it's worth it?  When LGBT are being brutally assaulted without punishment for just being themselves, Americans are funneling their money to fuel this behavior.  The YouTube video link below is a sampling of what McDonald's apparently feels is part of "diversity" in their statement with regards to Sochi Winter Games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59WCKaKqjKY
As a gay man that was tortured all through my adolescent years,  this brings back memories I want to forget. Daily ass kickings from homophobes.
Many of the LGBT community have experienced this type of attack.  This is NOT diversity, this is NOT tolerance.  What this is, UNACCEPTABLE HOMOPHOBIC VIOLENCE!
McDonald's, Samsung, Coca Cola, NBC, Dow: message from the LGBT community is simple FUCK YOU if you think we are going to continue to buy your products.  FUCK YOU if you think we would buy ANYTHING associated with these Olympic Games in Sochi.  FUCK YOU if you think we would watch these HOMOPHOBIC DONT ASK DONT TELL Games.  FUCK YOU if you think that we would ever return to you as a customer.
Here is your golden opportunity to make things right.  MOVE THE GAMES.  This is NOT going to go away.  WE WILL NOT FORGET THIS!!!!
There is a Burger King down the street.  Mountain Dew and Pepsi right next to that Coke Zero.  I would watch FOX NEWS over anything on NBC, on principle alone.
What is in this and many more videos of our community publicly genocide is OUTRAGEOUS!
Sochi Olympic Sponsors, wake the fuck up or lose our business!!!!  AND FUCK YOU!!!

McDonald's: Proud Sponsor Of Don't Ask, Don't Tell Winter Olympic Games.

Here is the official press release from StonewallAGAIN about the impending protest:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 15, 2013

For Information:  Mike Lackovich StonewallAGAIN, 312-600-8429, info@StonewallAGAIN.com

LGBT community protests McDonald’s sponsoring the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Winter Olympics in Russia.

LGBT to McDonald’s: We’re Not Lovin’ It!

Oakbrook, IL – Members of the Chicagoland LGBT community will be descending on McDonald’s World Headquarters, 2111 McDonald’s Drive, Oak Brook, at 11 AM, Saturday, August 17 to protest the Corporation's continued sponsorship of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia despite the country's recently instituted homophobic “gay propaganda” laws.  The laws have sparked widespread, increased violence against LGBT persons in the country, as demonstrated by YouTube videos [2] [3] proudly circulated by brutal anti-gay activists there. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stated that no signs of LGBT presence or protest will be tolerated in its venues and has failed to admonish Russia against violence and threats of violence on LGBT Olympians and spectators.  Russian authorities have boldly stated that the repressive new law would be enforced on all who attend the games.

StonewallAGAIN, an LGBT activist group in Chicago that arose out of the May failure of Illinois's marriage equality bill, is the sponsor of Saturday's protest at McDonald's world headquarters  "McDonald’s has a responsibility to disavow sponsorship if local authorities refuse to provide safety to all who participate in the games that they are promoting," said Mike Lackovich, founder of StonewallAGAIN.  "These homophobic laws enacted are similar to those passed at the start of the holocaust in Nazi Germany.  McDonald’s needs to work with the IOC to find a safe venue for all participants to compete without fear of abuse, violence or deportation for being who they are.”

In response to questions concerning the forthcoming protest, the Chicago Phoenix reported Wednesday the following statement from Suzanne Valliere, senior manager of McDonald’s Global External Communications:

“There is no room for discrimination under the Golden Arches.  McDonald’s welcomes, respects and values the diversity, culture and unique differences of our 69 million customers and nearly two million employees around the world every day.  McDonald’s supports the spirit of the Olympic Games and its ability to unite the world in a positive and inspirational way.  We’ve been a proud sponsor of the Games for 37 years.  Regarding the recent Russian legislation, we support the International Olympic Committee’s belief that sport is a human right and the Olympic Games should be open to all, free of discrimination, and that applies to spectator, officials, media and athletes.” 

"Valliere’s press release is full of fluffy words that are contrary to what is actually occurring," said Lackovich.  "The Russian government and the IOC are imposing a state of 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,' with tolerance for violence and threats of violence thrown in for good measure.  As experience in the U.S. has shown, the policy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is discriminatory in and of itself, and in direct contradiction to the claimed 'spirit of the games.'" 

“As for the ‘diversity’ Valliere speaks to,” Lackovich said, “nearly all gay people have to go through a difficult 'coming out' phase in their lives.  To ask people to go back into the closet so they can compete in something they have aggressively trained for regardless of sexual orientation is utterly absurd.  Clearly, Valliere has no idea how painfully difficult this phase of LGBT life is.  Most in the LGBT community would find this demand offensive and unacceptable.”

The protest will begin at 11AM and have speakers including StonewallAGAIN Founder, Bisexual Queer Alliance Chicago Founder Mike Oboza and Gay Liberation Network’s Co-Founder Andy Thayer.  More information about the protest is posted on the group’s website, StonewallAGAIN.com or their Facebook page.

For further information, contact StonewallAGAIN at 312-600-8429 or email info@StonewallAGAIN.com

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