Queer group “GAG” claims victory as FedEx ends NRA discount program

by DCG

As a life member of the NRA, I’ve never used any discount offered by a company associated with the NRA discount program. That’s not the reason I joined the NRA.

It’s a rather shallow victory to claim this is somehow a “takedown of the NRA.”

From NBC News: Two weeks after the June 2016 shooting at Orlando gay nightclub Pulse, a group of activists stood at the front of the New York Pride March and unfurled one of the last rainbow banners stitched by Gilbert Baker,the creator of the iconic pride flag. Fueled by the death of 49 Pulse patrons, the newly formed group called itself Gays Against Guns, or GAG.

Since its inception, Gays Against Guns — which counts several alumni of storied AIDS activist group ACT UP! among its members — set its sights on a big target: the National Rifle Association. The group even coined a campy catchphrase for the mission: “NRA, Sashay Away!”

GAG’s long-term strategy to take down the NRA started with a decision to “follow the money,” in particular, the gun lobby’s corporate partners, like Wyndham, Hertz and FedEx.

“We typically have two tiers of action, there’s typically an art component that expresses our sensibilities and the second tier is direct action,” John Grauwiler, a GAG leader, told NBC News.

GAG staged monthly direct actions by protesting and distributing fliers outside FedEx stores across the country, and also staged a 26-hour, nonstop protest outside the company’s corporate offices in Manhattan in the spring of 2017.

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“It was a lot of effort, but we were there,” Grauwiler said.

So when FedEx announced Monday that it was ending its business partnerships with many organizations — including the NRA — GAG claimed victory.

“GRASSROOTS ACTIVISM WERKS!!!” the group wrote on its Instagram page. “EVERY NATIONAL CHAPTER of Gays Against Guns has been protesting FedEx EVERY SINGLE MONTH, and calling for a boycott, because they were the ONLY major corporation that hadn’t severed its ties with the National Rifle Association after the Parkland shooting. But now, in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre, they have FINALLY MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE!”

For its part, FedEx denied that the GAG protests had anything to do with their change in policy, saying more than 100 organizations had their discount programs terminated. FedEx had offered a 26 percent discount to card-carrying NRA members who shipped guns with the parcel carrier.

“The alliances involved in this transition don’t have the shipping volumes to sustain a dedicated program,” FedEx spokesman Jim McCluskey said in a statement provided to NBC News.

Read the whole story here.

DCG

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