One Million Moms Continues Campaign Against J.C. Penney

One Million Moms is once again calling for a boycott of J.C. Penney because of their affiliation with lesbians. In February they called for a boycott after the company announced that Ellen DeGeneres would be their new spokesperson. Now they're upset with the retailer for featuring a lesbian couple in their May catalog. "JC Penney has laid low in the month of April by airing two different commercials that portrayed them as remaining neutral in the cultural war. Even though JCP seemed to have changed their approach, their May catalog shows they are making a strong effort otherwise," the organization writes on their website. "On pages ten and eleven, under the title "Freedom of Expression," you'll find "Wendi and her partner Maggie and daughters" and again "Wendi, daughters Raven and Clover, and partner Maggie" in text. In the picture both women are wearing wedding bands."

The organization is asking for their members to contact local store managers to ask them "to tell corporate that they should remain neutral in the cultural war."

This isn't the only catalog that's gotten the group upset recently either. The April catalog from Urban Outfitters featured two women kissing.

"The April 2012 catalog from Urban Outfitters has begun arriving in home mailboxes the last couple of days," OMM wrote. "On page two of this catalog is a picture of two women kissing in a face holding embrace! The ad and catalog are clearly geared toward teenagers. The content is offensive and inappropriate for a teen who is the company's target customer."

Earlier this year when DeGeneres was named J.C. Penney's spokesperson OMM wrote:

"By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these year... The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer show there."

In response DeGeneres thanked J.C. Penney on her show for sticking behind her.

"This organization doesn't think I should be the spokesperson because I'm gay. For those of you just tuning in I'm gay," she joked on television. "First of all being gay or being pro gay is not a band wagon. You don't get a free ride anywhere. There's no music."

She continued: "For a group that calls themselves 'Million Moms' they only have 40,000 members on their [Facebook] page...so they're rounding to the nearest million and I get that. She continued more seriously saying, "Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, compassion. To me those are traditional values and that's what I stand for."

The group's Facebook page now has 46,000 "likes." In comparison, fans of DeGeneres created their own page "1 Million people who support Ellen for JC Penney" which so far has garnered 204,691 "likes." During the controversy DeGeneres even received support from some unlikely people including Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

OMM admits the boycott over DeGeneres was a failure.

"OMM has so many issues to cover we had no choice but to move on earlier in the year but have decided to revisit this issue and speak out again. It is obvious that JCP would rather take sides than remain neutral. JCP will hear from the other side so they need to hear from us as well," the organization wrote. "Last time OMM contacted JC Penney store managers, we were brushed off. Some even experienced in person the store manager saying, "thank you," and walking off while their customer and our concerned members were in mid-sentence. OMM has been told that JCP corporate office told store managers to say "thank you" and then walk away. If they want our business, then we will not be ignored!"

Apparently J.C. Penney doesn't care what OMM has to say. OMM writes that J.C. Penney has blocked emails from its servers.

OMM is a project of the American Family Association, a group well known for its anti-gay views and rhetoric.