Most Americans will have been aware in recent days of protests against and support for the restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A after it’s COO came out against gay marriage. Well, today the controversy has spread to Amway, after gay rights activist Fred Karger of Rights Equal Rights discovered that Amway President Doug DeVos has donated $500,000 to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an organisation which has organised boycotts of companies that have indicated their support for gay marriage. He has now launched a movement to boycott Amway.
Now, some outlets are currently reporting that Amway made the donation. To be clear, it was not Amway, it was the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation, which has no direct connection with Amway Corporation.
What’s my thoughts on this? Well, regularly followers would know that by American standards I’d be considered a “liberal”. I fully support equal rights for gay couples. I’m a former scientist and the science on homosexuality is clear. For the vast majority of people their sexuality is not a “lifestyle choice” and is not something that can be “cured” (or even should be). Homosexuality occurs throughout nature, not just in humans, it’s perfectly “natural”. I used to believe the battle over “gay marriage” was one of semantics that wasn’t worth fighting, let those who believe it has religious connotations have it, and set up equal rights through other arrangements. As I researched further I learned the long history of marriage, and it has very little to do with religion at all. It primarily originated with regard property rights, starting with who owned the females. It’s thankfully evolved a long way since then, but there are still many legal ramifications around property, and unmarried couples – whether gay or not – are discriminated against in many situations. I can see no logical reason why marriage should not be extended to gay couples and to not do so is clearly discrimination.
That’s my personal view, but I also understand other’s perspective on this. I support people’s right to their own opinion, and I support their right to express it. I also support people’s right to protest against companies or individuals who they believe are acting immorally, illegally, or in a discriminatory manner.
Where I think it gets difficult is where individuals support causes they believe in, but companies they are involved with, and others associated with them, take the brunt. Take Chick-Fil-A. Boycotting them doesn’t just damage the owners or COO, but also the individual restaurant owners along with, if a boycott is successful, staff, many of whom may not agree with the COO’s personal views.
I’m an Amway IBO, I absolutely disagree with Doug DeVos’s support for NOM. As an independent Amway business owner a boycott of Amway would mean a boycott of my business.
I can’t speak for Chick-Fil-A, but with Amway the vast majority of the money, indeed profit, from the sale of individual Amway products does not go to Amway, nor the DeVos family, it goes to Amway independent business owners, including people who support gay rights like myself.
So if you like Amway products (and they’re some of the best in the world) and are considering this boycott, ask your Amway rep if they support gay rights. If they don’t, then boycott them and find an Amway business owner that does support gay rights.
All right, so what I suspected is now a certainty. When I started Amway in 1994 I believed it was an opportunity for all people not just because everyone could make money with Amway. I believed instead that Amway’s values were applicable to all people, including gay people like me. A man now 48, strong, masculine, bold, people loves me, very well known inside Amway after 20 years passed in the business, and now there comes this terrible news (De Vos financing antigay marriage) that completely contrasts with the values that everyone had told me about Amway. How can I present the Amway business plan, teach my IBOs and talk about values if the family that owns the business does not respect me for what I am and my freedom to get married?
How will I talk more completely about Amway to new people if the first one that is not fully convinced is now ME?
My Amway business is no longer working now, unfortunately I cannot feel it like ‘MINE’ anymore.
It seems like ‘these’ (De Vos) people which are so theologically conservative have no intention of giving freedom to gay couples to get married.
We are in 2018 now and it is late, even in Italy there is the possibility of getting married among people of the same sex. But what happens if ‘inside my house’, in Amway this makes me feel not accepted?
I do not hide to be VERY disappointed with the behavior of the De Vos family, my business is now stuck because there is a conflict in me that is among my moral principles (freedom for all, including gays) and the values that Amway has taught to everyone of us.
My business is Amway since 20 years and I do not know if I believe in it anymore.
I would never do another similar business, to me, Amway is the only capable.
A have big disappointment and delusion. I also feel ashamed to talk about this matter with other people. Only you would understand me, maybe.
And it makes me feel very, very bad.
Thanks.
Rich DeVos made it very clear he was not anti-gay or even anti-“civil partnerships”. His objection was based on the misguided belief that “marriage” was some historically “Christian” thing between men and woman. That’s simply contrary to the facts, but a very common misbelief. He was all for gay people getting married, as long as they just called it something else. Pretty silly if you ask me, but then, I think all religions are pretty silly!
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I can never understand the concept of “….To be clear, it was not Amway, it was the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation, which has no direct connection with Amway Corporation”
If Amway is privately held company with DeVos family and the above Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation is also part of the same family, can you elaborate “no direct connection…”? I do not know much about the boycott Amway stories though
IBOFightBack is refuting the claim that Amway, the consumer products company, made the donation. Amway and the Foundation are separate entities for sure, and Amway had nothing to do with the donation. True, one can draw out the relationship between Amway and the Foundation, with Doug DeVos being common to both.
You have been an IBO. You have a connection to Amway. If you donate to a neo-Nazi party, would it be fair to claim Amway supports neo-Nazi parties?
Obviously that’s a weaker connection that DeVos has, but it’s still a connection. A direct connection would be if Amway itself, or an Amway supported organisation, made the donation.
Amway is a company with tens of thousands of employees and millions of Independent reps. Doug DeVos is one of a number of owners of the company. He is not the company.
I am an Amway IBO and I also support equal rights, we have people of different sexual orientations and religions on our team and everyone is always treated equally , this whole thing is ridiculous, Devos is entitled to his opinion and can do what he wishes with his hard earned money.
Your post reminds me of when, here in Chicago, the gay and lesbian community called for a boycott of Oberweis ice cream shops and their products in the local gorcery stores because of the owner’s similar beliefs and contributions as Cathy’s.
No one seemed to take in to consideration the gay men and lesbians and all their supporters who were franchise owners or who worked at the shops or who worked in the manufacturing plants.
A multi-billion dollar company is a heck of a lot more complex (and diverse) than the beliefs, values, and lives of its owner(s).
Reading his site again, his boycott call sounds uncomfortably like blackmail. He points out he’s dropped boycott calls after equivalent donations are made to LGBT organisations. Amway is suddenly OK again if someone who isn’t Amway pays up? I’d prefer things like explicit company policies on equality and such things.
I read an interesting perspective on this from a gay blogger earlier today –
The Chick Fellatio: stuck in the craw
Worth a read.