I really feel like some of these protests and boycotts are a little ridiculous. Everyone is preaching “I was a victim of H8!”…well when you are protesting saying how much you “hate” the Mormon church, isn’t that just fighting ignorance with more ignorance? This shouldn’t be an instance of, an eye for an eye, because where is that going to get us?

People say they want to damage the image of the church, but when we go out an protest and look like a bunch of radicals….doesn’t that damage our image as well? I think the best thing to do is just wait it out. Gov. Schwarzenegger has already said the courts will probably overturn it. I think then we can see what our next avenue is, but not before we’ve tried other roads that can actually get us what we want.

I think you have the right criteria for identifying a Mormon organization. Of course, there are not that many organizations that fit those criteria and none of them are businesses, which are the organizations typically targeted by boycott. So activists hoping to put pressure on the LDS church will have a hard time finding effective boycott targets. They could, of course, support an academic boycott of BYU but given that BYU already has a specific behavioral policy that prohibits gays or lesbians from attending, that also would be ineffective.

So why boycott Marriott? Well, because in some ways Marriott is an ideal target. They are highly visible, large and with a strong reputation. They have made a public commitment to diversity in the past. Shareholders would obviously be upset if the organization were boycotted and might put pressure on the CEO to do something about it. But boycotting Marriott is a bad idea for activists for a number of reasons too. The CEO of Marriott has already publicly proclaimed his lack of support for Prop 8 and has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to diversity. Further, it’s not clear what response the boycott of Marriott would hope to accomplish. Would they expect Bill Marriott to renounce his religion? Would they expect Bill Marriott to stop paying his tithes until the church stops its support of gay marriage bans? If this is what they expect, they’re likely to fail and by failing could do some damage to the image of the gay and lesbian movement, potentially losing some credibility and reputational capital themselves. The boycott would also require an action that is unreasonable from a corporate governance perspective. The board of directors can’t put pressure on Bill Marriott to alter his relationship with his religious organization. Doing this would have some serious legal ramifications.

So perhaps a boycott is the wrong tactic for this situation. That said, I think nonviolent protests outside Mormon buildings are probably a very effective means to damage the image of the church, while enhancing the perceived effectiveness/political capital of the G&L movement.