UK: Backlash against One Million Moms

PJ: The attack from the rightwing group called One Million Moms against JC Penney's decision to use Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson is taking place at the same time that the GOP is at war against the Obama administration's decision to require all employer's to include covering women's health, specifically contraception, in their health policies. The GOP seem be claiming that all issues around gay rights and women's health issues are a war against the Christian faith. Far fetched you say? Take a look at what republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum had to say about how the contraception issue is like leading Christians to the guillotine: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/09/santorum-obama-leading-christians-to-the-guillotine/ it to the French Revolution

The Guardian

JC Penney reveals customers' show of support for Ellen DeGeneres

Backlash grows against One Million Moms, group that wanted DeGeneres removed as store spokeswoman because she is gay

Poor One Million Moms. All they wanted to do was have JC Penney banish Ellen DeGeneres as company spokeswoman – what with her being gay and all.

Instead, the rightwing activist group has provoked an online backlash in support of both the department store and the chatshow host, with one JC Penney employee saying the company "would prefer not to have" the type of customer who would be offended by DeGeneres's appointment.

A "shop-in" is now being planned at JC Penney stores on Sunday, while the company has received calls and emails in support of its refusal to comply with One Million Moms' demand that it replace Ellen DeGeneres.

The fervour began when One Million Moms posted an article under the heading "JC Penney offends traditional families again" after the company announced DeGeneres would be its new spokeswoman.

"Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families," the article said.

"More sales will be lost than gained unless they replace their spokesperson quickly. Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful."

One Million Moms, which said DeGeneres, who married Arrested Development actor Portia de Rossi in California in 2008, "is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store".

It warned: "The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there."

The activist group advised concerned readers to take action by calling JC Penney's customer service department.

When the Guardian did just that at 11am ET on Thursday, a customer service employee admitted they had handled a lot of calls on the issue earlier in the week.

"Earlier on in the week, and last week, we were bombarded with thousands of calls," said the JC Penney employee, who asked not to be named. He said the negative calls had outweighed the positive, but the company had also received many supportive emails.

"She's going to remain as our spokeswoman. We hate to lose customers, but the customers who feel the way that they feel about the situation, we would prefer not to have those people anyway, to be honest with you.

"But we have gotten a lot of customers calling and sending letters saying they were not regular JC Penney shoppers, but at this time they will make it their business to visit our store more often and have their friends and family to come in as well.

"So I think it's gonna be beneficial."

That was underlined by a company spokesman who told the Guardian in a statement: "As we focus on being in sync with the rhythm of our customers' lives and operating in a fair and square manner that is rooted in integrity, simplicity and respect, we couldn't think of a better partner than Ellen DeGeneres. We are extremely proud to have her on our team."

DeGeneres herself addressed the controversy on The Ellen Show, posting a clip to her nine million Twitter followers.

"There's a group called One Million Moms, that is not happy about me being a JC Penny spokeswoman]" she said.

"Normally I try not to pay attention to my haters, but this time I'd like to talk about it, because my haters are my motivators. This organisation doesn't think that I should be the spokesperson because I'm gay."

"So they wanted to get me fired, and I am proud and happy to say that JC Penney stuck by their decision to make me spokesperson."

DeGeneres then read out comments in support of her and JC Penney posted to One Million Moms' Facebook page adding: "Not that there's anyone counting, but for a group that calls itself the One Million Moms, they only have 40,000 members on their page. They're rounding to the nearest million, and I get that."

A Facebook event has since been set up in support of JC Penney and DeGeneres, with dozens pledging to photograph themselves shopping at JC Penney on Sunday and then upload the results to Twitter and Facebook. Doug French, who spawned the event, wrote in the description: "We're very proud of JCPenney for standing up to One Million Moms and retaining Ellen Degeneres as its spokesperson. And we're going to put our money where our mouths are by organizing a shop-in on Sunday, February 12."

One Million Moms, which describes itself as "strictly an online campaign", has 1,014 Twitter followers and 41,155 Facebook likes at the time of writing.

It lists its successes as having the word "hell" removed from the children's film Little Manhattan and getting Toys 'R' Us to stop advertising during Two and a Half Men.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/feb/09/jc-penney-support-ellen-degeneres