Wal-Mart CEO Has a Problem With Gays
Mike Duke, who has been chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores for just three months, is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere. It's not the kind of attention a new CEO wants.
"Shameful, bigoted and discriminatory" is the headline over one blog post about Duke.
Why? Because, it turns out, Duke signed a petition last year that put an initiative known as Act 1 on the ballot in his home state of Arkansas. The controversial initiative says that only married couples may become adoptive or foster parents in the state, closing the door for same-sex couples. It passed in November with 57 percent of the vote.
Mr, Duke, what on earth were you thinking?
Needless to say, this is unwelcome news for Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, and it's especially hurtful to the company's gay employees. Wal-Mart has struggled in recent years to figure out how to deal with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues. It supported an employee group called Wal-Mart Pride, which triggered a backlash, which subsequently caused the company to pull back its support for national gay-rights group. (See my 2007 FORTUNE.com column headlined Wal-Mart shuns gay groups.) More broadly, Wal-Mart has worked hard and for the most part effectively to position itself as a good corporate citizen as it tries to expand from its rural roots into urban, liberal areas. This will be a setback.
News that Duke had signed the petition caught the company flat-footed. When I asked a Wal-Mart spokesman for a comment, I got this response and no more:
I can confirm that Mr. Duke did sign the petition. Also, Wal-Mart did not take a position on the ballot initiative.
I learned from a source inside Wal-Mart that Duke was going to meet with the Wal-Mart Pride group to talk about the issue. (Note to Wal-Mart employees -- feel free to let me know how that meeting went by email at marc.gunther@gmail.com.) A gay employee told me that he hopes that this incident will be a catalyst for positive change.
The story of how Duke's name came to light -- you can see a photocopy of the petition sheet (PDF) here -- is the latest illustration of how digital media is exposing corporate and individual behavior.
Last week, a gay rights group i called KnowThyNeighbor.org posted online the names of the 83,000 Arkansas citizens who signed the petition, in a searchable database. The petitions are public records.
KnowThyNeighbor.org had previously published names of more than 500,000 people who signed anti-gay petitions in Massachusetts and Florida. In a press release about the Arkansas outing (my word), Tom Lang, the group's director, says:
These petition signers need to stand behind their signatures and be responsible for this dehumanizing attack on the gay community. It's disgraceful that they have chosen to exercise their prejudice at the expense of children who are now being denied access to loving adoptive and foster parents.
Lang urges family members, friends, co-workers and customers of those who signed the petition to confront them:
These conversations can be uncomfortable for both parties but they are desperately needed. The more that gays and lesbians talk about the importance of their relationships and their love for their children, the faster stereotypes break down and both sides begin to realize how much they have in common.
Two days later, a reader identified as Concerned Arkansas Citizen posted a comment:
One VERY prominent person in Arkansas that has signed the petition is Michael Duke of Rogers, AR. He is the new CEO of Walmart Stores, Inc. He should explain himself.
By Monday, gay and liberal bloggers like Queerty and Daily Kos were running with the story and gettings lots of comments. Who says bloggers never dig up news?
For what it's worth, Wal-Mart got a 40% rating in 2008 on the Corporate Equality Index published by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's biggest LGBT advocacy group. Target, a rival, got a 100% rating and Costco got a 93% rating.
Ellen Kahn, Director of the Human Rights Campaign's Family Project, sent me this comment by email:
When Mike Duke voted in favor of ACT 1...he essentially closed the door to a hopeful future for the hundreds of children in Arkansas's foster care system...Duke should think about the real lives of these kids and show some compassion.
Duke's defenders including Jerry Cox, director of the Arkansas Family Council, who called it an invasion of privacy to publicize the names of citizens who are exercising their right to petition the government, according to the Arkansas Times. What's more, he wrote, many voters will sign any petition based upon "one simple principle: that the people, whenever possible, have the right to vote on issues that could directly impact their lives."
I'm not persuaded. Duke chose to sign a petition, which is a public document, so how has his privacy been invaded? What's more, if you believe, as I do, that equality for LGBT people under the law is a civil rights issue, then there's no reason to put it up to a popular vote.
At the very least, Duke's decision to sign the petition reflects poor judgment. As a senior executive of Wal-Mart, he should have known that supporting a controversial measure widely seen as anti-gay could boomerang. (The Arkansas Democrat and Gazette called Act 1 "just another exercise in stirring up bad feelings.") Duke has alienated LGBT customers and their allies, as well many of his own employees.
And if Duke figured that no one would ever know, well, that wasn't very smart either. Several years ago, the writers Don Tapscott and David Ticoll wrote a book about transparency in business aptly called The Naked Corporation. There are few secrets these days in corporate America. CEOs (and future CEOs) need to pay close attention to how they behave -- on and off the job.
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It seems as though in todays world that we as Americans cannot speak out against things we do not believe in.
Especially! when it comes to the Gay Movement, they (Gay Protester's) think just because we do not go along with their belief and what they want. They begin yelling and screaming about what a bad person is to speak out against the movement.
Well! I believe that American is still a free country and we all have the freedom to speak out against what ever we believe to be , morally wrong, and against God's word.
This country started trying to please this movement and politician's just went along with it, votes are the interest. They are NOT standing up for what this country was founded on, IN GOD WE TRUST. The moral Character is trampled under foot by so many of our Politician's today that the American people which are the Majority are having to live with what the Minority wants so we can all be politically correct and please everyone and it does not or should not work that way.
Someday if American does not turn from all the wicked, Satan acts than we will be brought to our knees.
Yes! I do agree with Mr. Mike Duke, he believes it is wrong and I do too, we still have the right to speak and vote the way we believe. That is why it is called a FREE nation under God for Liberty and Justice for all.
No one anywhere has ever challenged your right to speak out. What are you talking about?
All Americans have the right to speak out, even those who are narrow minded bigots.
I support gay rights but I don't support the attacks that have been going on recently. They are morally wrong and if they continue have a strong prospect of causing backlash.
So what? The man, just because he is CEO, can;t have a personal opinion about something? BTW, 57% of the voters agreed with him....so the majority wins.
64% of the voters agree with him, not 57%.
In a pluralistic society that recognizes that minorities DO need protection majorities should not be allowed to terrorize those they disagree with.
Much ado about nothing.
He creates low paid families,THEY ARE A DISHONEST BUNCH, who ask employees to work of the clock, At one store and this is a fact, not a generalization, the General manager sent off duty police home to save money, the manager was killed going out to his car, made to go back into the store did not open the safe fast enough was shot twice in the back of the head, by a FORMER EMPLOYEE
They also enable poor families to make their shopping dollars go 5-10% farther. They have saved their customers $ billions and billions of dollars.
They did it without government handouts or filing for bankruptcy.
They account for almost 2 million employees (1 1/2% of all US employees). Instead of putting people on the unemployment lines they have them working. We need more of that today.
Yeah employees without adequate health care, cheap products from China, the lowest quality food available, and a lengthy history of various types of discrimination. A real proud American company.
I treat Walmart just like Fox and Fox News...I vote with my attention (dollars).
No self respecting progressive would patronize those corporations. Go to Target and/or Costco. Watch MSNBC or CNN.
Respect yourself.
Tom, Alex and Aaron - I'm so proud of you guys!. You had a huge impact in Massachusetts with your database and I'm glad to see you guys are finally getting some recognition for all your work!!! :-)
I trust Wal-Mart does follow the spending demographics of the gay population, trust me it will make them sit up and pay attention.
Despite their huge footprint, WallMart does have green initiatives and pulls their supplier along by the nose to comply. I hope they would do the same for social rights, etc., but there's only so much you can expect from big business where short term profit rules the roost.
So, is someone expecting something human from WalMart?....Just sayin...
If only the dude would support gay marriage the people at the HuffPO would love him. Ya, right. He will be hated here forever because he saves money for low income families instead of overpaying union employees.
And when everyone is working for pennies an hour we will have all the stuff we want because the prices will be so low, right?
Corperations and businesses are constantly trying to lower wages and increase profit margins, Unions are the force that counteracts that. Reagan successfully broke the unions, and worker wages have been stagnant for the last 25 years.
Because workers were not getting real raises, they started borrowing more to make up the income deficit, the asset they could borrow from most efficiently (lowest interest rate) was their homes.
Now 20% of homeowners are under water.
Good job Reagan, he can take his fair share of the blame for our current problem.
Oh, bob, you are such a pistol I just don't even know how to react to your comment. It's clarity of thought and reason. It's simple "what about the little people" populism. It's dark judgement that the pitchfork mob at huffpo can't be reasoned with by a genius like you. It's spot on analysis with what's wrong with everything in this country (liberals and unions). Your genius is wasted here. I for one will never post my silly progressive nonsense ever again. I have been humbled.
Welcome to the new McCarthy era.
The parallels are amazing.
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