Be Careful What You Boycott

Or you may wind up doing more good than harm -- at least, if you're a group of "Christian" bigots out to safeguard everyone else's "morals."

You may have run across this story, about American Girl profiling a particular family in the holiday issue of its quarterly magazine:

Five years ago today, a young girl named Amaya was legally adopted by her foster parents.

Two weeks ago, Amaya was featured in American Girl magazine. In her own words she shared the story of coming from the foster care system, becoming part of her permanent family, as well as the charity work she and her parents do in support of other foster kids.

Not long after the magazine was published, right-wing watchdogs One Million Moms called for a boycott of American Girl Doll and their magazine, warning parents against exposing their daughters to such a family.

Here's Amaya and her family:

(L to R) Greyson, Daddy Rob, Makai, Amaya, Dada Reece, Tristan

So, how did that boycott work out? Well, as seems to be the case with these things, Mattel is not hurting. But there's another wrinkle here:

As I mentioned, Amaya and her family are involved in charity work related to foster kids. Amaya’s father, Rob, is also a former foster kid. As a child, he recalls arriving at the home of foster parents with his few earthly belongings in a trash bag. This is not an uncommon occurrence. This is still happening today.

Rob co-founded Comfort Cases with the mission of providing a brand new suitcase, duffel bag, or backpack (along with toiletries, pajamas, stuffed animals, etc.) for every foster child in need. Since the organization’s start in October 2013, Comfort Cases has assembled and donated over 10,000 cases.

The results for Comfort Cases have been rather astonishing:

• Comfort Cases held its annual Holiday Packing Party on November 21, assembling 500 more cases than the previous year, a 70% increase.

• The total number of cases collected and distributed in 2015 topped 10,000 — 4,000 more than 2014, and an increase of 65%.

• With contributions coming in from all over the world, monetary donations to Comfort Cases will triple what they were in 2014. That’s 300%, folks.

It occurs to me that One Millions Moms (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the "American" "Family" Association) and like groups have done more for acceptance of gay people in this country than any other single factor aside from the increased willingness of LGBTs to come out -- their hateful rhetoric has repelled most people, because most people are decent.

Maybe I can get them to boycott me -- I can always use a little extra money.

A Footnote: On the backlash against the "Christian" right's bigotry, I thought this was interesting. It seems an Episcopal school in Texas has made the decision to welcome a trans student during her transition. There was, of course, the expected backlash -- sort of:

Headmaster Thomas McLaughlin told KSAT-TV that three of the school’s 241 families have removed their children in protest of the decision.

“There have been some [pushback] based on this communication and the direction that the school is moving that have concluded that this school may not be the right fit for them and their family,” McLaughlin said, adding that feedback from an overwhelming majority of families has been positive.

Three. Out of 241. Not a good showing.