In this situation, it seems to me that the homophobes where able to become more sympathetic because of the crusade that was launched against them. Simply look at the original message they sent, and then look at the venemous response against them. Had the original customers simply found a new gardener, Garden Guy would have been down 1 customer instead of rolling in new business. Because of the rediculous response, Garden Guy got an outrageous amount of free advertising. Just having a homophobic policy would not have been a shrewd business move. Ironically, the very people who most wanted their business to suffer are the ones responsible for it's great success.
^ There is a saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity and think this proves it. That said I would be curious into knowing why all these new customers are coming to the Garden Guy.
It's highly likely the same thing would have happened if they'd refused service to blacks not too many years ago. Would you recommend the same course of action to blacks that had been denied service? To shut up and politely seek someone who would serve them? And if they hadn't would you chide those audacious, whiney blacks for complaining because racism continued to exist such that it improved the racist business to be racist?
If there was one business that choose not to serve blacks (or whites, or whatever other group you feel like inserting here), then I would suggest that group go to one of the many other vendors that would be happy to take their money. This isn't like situations decades ago when there was widespread refusal to serve a particular group, this was one business owned by a couple of nuts. I never even said that the person who was initially refused service should shut up. Would a possible solution be to file a complaint with the BBB and then go check out ANY OTHER GARDENER IN HOUSTON. You are acting like it is a real challenge to find a landscaper that will work for gay people.
I would bet money that Sabrina Farmer is lying. Does anyone really think there was an army of homophobes out there who heard about this story and just decided to ditch their current gardening companies and move to this one?
It doesn't matter how widespread it is. The way to combat racism (or in this case homophobia) is to shine a huge bright light on it. If I was a customer of a racist or a homophobe, I would want to know that. More information is never a bad thing.
