Boycott Cinemark

Wow! A huge crowd turned out in the cold to picket a Century Theatre in Evanston, IL on Saturday. It is great to see the LGBT community flex their economic muscles! Go Evanston!

The numbers are in:  More than 300 people joined forces on Saturday night while braving the cold to inform the citizens of Evanston, IL exactly they type of prejudice they are supporting when they patronize the Century Theater on Maple Street.

For two hours the protesters peacefully marched in front of the theater chanting "hey hey ho ho, homophobia has got to go" and "what do we want?  Equal Rights!  When do we want them?  NOW!" but the most powerful of all was when the entire group was chanting "Boycott Cinemark" in unison with the voices bouncing off the walls of the high rises that line the street.

http://www.examiner.com/x-443-Chicago-Gay-Examiner

Here's a great video of the protest:

My best guy friend is a bear. He's a big, hairy lovable gay man named Keith. One of the things I've learned from Keith is that bears are social animals. These guys belong to clubs that go on cruises, RV trips, and the movies. 

So, I was happy to read today that Movie Bears has organized a boycott of Cinemark:

Bears begin boycott of Cinemark

by Dan Aiello
Published 11/20/2008

The co-founders of a gay men's social group will begin a boycott today (Thursday, November 20) of a national movie chain because they learned its CEO donated nearly $10,000 in support of Proposition 8.

The group, Movie Bears, is made up of mostly hirsute men who gather together to watch movies at local theaters. Movie Bears started in San Francisco four years ago and has since grown to include chapters in other cities.

The boycott against theaters owned by Cinemark Holdings Inc., was announced in an e-mail to members after Movie Bears co-founders Dave Hayes and Drew Galleni learned that its CEO, Alan Stock, a Mormon, donated $9,999 to the campaign supporting Prop 8.

Continue reading...

There are Movie Bears clubs in 10 cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. And, these guys see lots of movies. Then, they tell all of their friends about it. So, Cinemark is losing business and word-of-mouth advertising.

Today, right wing media whore and general sourpuss Michelle Malkin commented on the Cinemark boycott in her column at National Review. The piece is titled "Married to the Mob: Insane same-sex-marriage rage" and is painfully typical of Malkin's hyperbolic swill:

Also targeted: Cinemark Theaters across the country. The company's CEO, Alan Stock, donated just under $10,000 to the traditional marriage measure. Never mind that Cinemark theaters are hosting the new biopic about gay icon Harvey Milk. They must pay for the sins of the company head who dared to exercise his political free speech.

No, Michelle. This isn't about "political free speech" or the civil rights of Alan Stock. Stock made a substantial donation to a campaign that took away the civil rights of hundreds of thousands of Californians.

Stock is the public face of a multi-million dollar organization that provides a service to those same Californians he discriminated against. Why should gay and lesbian people give him their business?

I discovered this great search tool over at Pam's House Blend:

http://grumpybumpers.com/cinemark/

An anybody-but-Cinemark movie search tool -- is this useful?

Earlier, in the Cinemark boycott thread, I had a little bit of confusion trying to figure out which movie theaters in my area were or weren't Cinemark.

So I made a very, very simple Google Maps tool, which searches for "movies" in a certain area and displays the results, replacing any Cinemark or Cinemark-subsidiary theaters with Xes.

Does this work? Is it useful? Is there anything I should fix? Does anyone have any suggestions for alternate hosting arrangements?

Just enter your ZIP Code and this handy little Google search will find theaters in your area that aren't owned by Cinemark. How cool is that? 

This is really happening folks. Please contribute information about local Cinemark boycott efforts.

Evanston's Century Theatre comes under fire for CEO's 'Yes on 8' contribution

by Kevin Wayne

Sun. November 16, 2008  10:16:23 AM

Chicago, IL -- Outrage over the passage of Proposition 8 in California spurred protest rallies in small communities and major cities Saturday, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, where gay-rights advocates targeted local businesses and individuals that contributed to the "Yes on 8" campaign with rally speakers calling for boycotts. 

During the Chicago rally in Federal Plaza yesterday, Cinemark-owned Century Theatre in Evanston, IL became a lightning rod in the local debate over gay rights.  Turns out Alan Stock, CEO of movie chain Cinemark donated almost $10,000 to Yes on 8. 

[...]

Chicago's Gay Liberation Network is calling for a boycott of Century Theatre, 1715 Maple Street in Evanston, and plans a protest on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. 

"Don't support haters with your money," read a flyer circulated about Century Theatre during yesterday's rally.

My husband Karl and I are having a fight discussion about my new blog and my new dedication to creating a nationwide boycott of Cinemark.

Karl is concerned that a boycott will harm many innocent employees of Cinemark. They could have their work hours cut back. They could get laid off. He doesn't think that boycotts are fair to the people who didn't have anything to do with CEO Alan Stock's donation to anti-gay bigots. He asked, "What about Cinemark's gay and lesbian employees?"

This is something that Karl and I are never going to agree on. I think that Alan Stock will be the one to blame if his employees suffer due to his actions. Stock is the one who didn't consider the consequences of his bigotry.

Sadly, many people are going to suffer because of Prop. 8. It is easy to find another job. It isn't as easy to be a second-class citizen.

My gay and lesbian friends who got married in California are now faced with the possibility of having their marriage revoked. I can't imagine how difficult that could be. They experienced the joy of getting married only to be told that their love doesn't count.

During the 1960s, civil rights activists organized boycotts of segregated businesses and public bus services. I'm sure that their was serious discussion about the impact those actions would have on employees -- many of whom were African American. Yet, they moved ahead and used their economic power to bring about change. We have to do the same thing.

Here's how Cinemark repsonded to an email about CEO Alan Stock's donation to Yes on 8:

Cinemark Responds on CEO $10,000 Donation to Prop 8
by: PghLesbian
Mon Nov 17, 2008 at 12:57:20 PM PST

Bzzzt. FAIL.

I received this from Cinemark corporate:

Dear Sue,

We received your correspondence regarding your concerns about the Proposition 8 vote in California. Please know that Cinemark made no financial contribution to either side on this issue. The company does not take a formal position on political issues that do not directly affect our business. It would be inappropriate to influence our employees' position on personal issues outside the work environment, especially on political, social or religious activities. Cinemark is dedicated to providing high quality entertainment for all of our customers.

As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate based on race, creed, religion or sexual preference. We appreciate the importance of this matter to you. We hope that you equally appreciate that any individual act or contribution is just that, individual acts of personal expression and do not reflect company positions or policy.

Kindest regards,

James Meredith
Vice President, Marketing & Communications
Cinemark USA, Inc.
3900 Dallas Parkway, Ste 500
Plano, TX 75093
972.665.1060 (office)
jmeredith@cinemark.com

Continue reading...

There are many great comments about this letter over at Pam's House Blend. 

This community blog has been established to assist LGBTQ communities across the U.S. in organizing a nationwide boycott of Cinemark. Here's why:

Boycott: Cinemark's CEO Supported Prop 8, Won't Be Getting My 'Milk' Money

Posted by Teddy Partridge, Firedoglake at 7:45 AM on November 17, 2008.

Cinemark CEO Alan Stock donated $9,999 to the YES on Prop 8 campaign that stripped marriage equality from the California constitution.

Cinemark CEO Alan Stock, a Utah Mormon, donated $9,999 to the YES on Prop 8 campaign that stripped marriage equality from the California constitution.  Cinemark operates the Century, CineArts, and Tinseltown theatres throughout America.  Many of these theatres will screen Gus Van Sant's biopic "MILK" about our legendary San Francisco supervisor, a martyr of the gay rights movement, Harvey Milk.

You can tell Mr Alan Stock you won't see "MILK" at one of his theatres:

astock@cinemark.com
Alan Stock
Chief Executive Officer
Cinemark
3900 Dallas Parkway
Suite 500
Plano, TX 75093-7869
USA

(972) 665-1000 

You can join the Facebook No-"MILK"-for-Cinemark boycott right here. As I write this in mid-afternoon, there are more than 800 members; they are hoping for 1,000. That would deny Cinemark $10,000 at $10 per ticket. I bet we can get the Facebook membership way over 1,000 -- please invite all your Facebook friends to join.  

Cities everywhere are noticing the Cinemark boycott: Orlando; Chicago; Albuquerque; MovieBears in San Francisco, Seattle, London, Cincinnati, Fort Lauderdale, Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Phoenix and Chicago; Sacramento; and Los Angeles. If your local media has noticed the boycott, please put a link in the comments!

Find out what theatres to *avoid* by entering your ZIP code at the Cinemark website.

While this boycott is specifically organized around the "MILK" biopic, I can tell you that none of my household's going-to-the-movies money will ever be spent at Cinemark theatres again. There are too many movie-going options in my community to ever spend any money enriching someone who donated to a campaign that tore away my civil rights.

I don't begrudge Mr Stock his right to donate thousands of dollars to an out-of-state campaign that has no effect on him as a Utah resident -- he just needs to understand that there may be economic consequences for his actions. 

Use the "No MILK for Cinemark" boycott website to find an alternative theatre in your area right here.

So, sign up and sign in. Use this blog to crosspost your Cinemark-related articles and information.