The Idaho Values
Alliance has urged the owner of seven Hallmark stores
not to carry a set of four greeting cards that celebrate
same-sex marriage... and the owner
complied. Instead, he offered customers the
option to special-order the cards. However, when The
Advocate attempted to do just that, an employee
was unable to place the order and suggested the best
solution was to contact corporate headquarters in
Kansas City.
The Idaho Values
Alliance has urged the owner of seven Hallmark stores
not to carry a set of four greeting cards created
to celebrate same-sex marriage. By Hallmark's
acknowledging gay marriage, the company "is doing what
48 states and the federal government have refused to
do, and that is to recognize homosexual marriage," Bryan
Fischer, IVA's executive director, said in a
statement.
Three of the
cards feature gender-neutral illustrations, with either
hearts or flowers. A fourth shows the torsos of two men in
tuxedos holding hands.
The IVA
specifically asked Philip Jordan, owner of seven Hallmark
stores in Nampa, Idaho, not to carry the cards. An
associate manager at one of the stores told PrideDepot.com, an
LGBT news website based in Idaho, that his store
was not planning on selling the cards as part of
its inventory, though interested customers could purchase
the cards upon request.
However, when
The Advocate attempted to order the cards
through Jordan's Hallmark in the Karcher Mall on Thursday,
an employee was unable to do so and suggested the
best solution was to contact corporate headquarters in
Kansas City.
Hallmark
spokesperson Sarah Kolell says the company does not have
policies that would mandate independent Hallmark retailers
to sell all available cards.
"We really feel
like they know their markets, they know their
consumers, and they know what would best sell in their
stores," she said.
Sixty-three
percent of Idaho residents voted to ban same-sex marriage in
a 2006 referendum. (Michelle Garcia, The
Advocate)
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