PopGoesTheNews.com >> They are widely available throughout the gay villages of Toronto and Montreal and they’re popular with club-goers seeking a little boost. But few gay consumers are aware that by buying Rockstar Energy Drinks they’re giving a financial boost to an ultra-conservative family company.
“I had no idea,” admits Rick Leyland, 26, of Toronto. “I guess I never thought to look into who’s behind it.”
Rockstar Energy Drink inventor Dr. Michael Weiner is best known as Michael Savage, host of the conservative U.S. syndicated radio show Savage Nation and author of books like Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.
On his popular show, Savage has denounced gay callers as “sodomites” who “should only get AIDS and die” and complained about "degenerates on the left who want to sell Americans on the idea that homosexuality, bisexuality, trans-sexuality, even sex with animals is normal."
On a Feb. 26, 2007 broadcast, Savage reacted to singer’s Melissa Etheridge’s mention of partner Tammy Lynn Michaels during her acceptance speech at the Oscars. "I don't like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke,” he said. “I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it's child abuse."
A month later, Savage called a transgender murder victim a “freak” and asked: “What's this sympathy, constant sympathy for sexually confused people? Why should we have constant sympathy for people who are freaks in every society? You're never going to make me respect the freak. I don't want to respect the freak. The freak ought to be glad that they're allowed to walk around without begging for something."
Savage is unabashedly anti-abortion and is the co-founder of the U.S.-based Paul Revere Society, which protests illegal immigration.
His son Russel Weiner is the CEO of Rockstar Energy Drink and co-founder of the Paul Revere Society, which “stands for the reassertion of our borders, our language, and our culture.” The group advocates for the deportation of all illegal immigrants and mandatory health tests for all new immigrants.
Janet Weiner – Michael’s wife and Russel’s mother – serves as CFO of Rockstar Energy Drink.
Another company with questionable roots – and products favoured by health-conscious gay consumers – is Bolthouse Farms. The California-based company makes a line of all-natural juices and is one of the largest producers of pre-washed baby carrots.
Bolthouse Farms once proudly boasted that the purpose of the company “is to glorify God through our business transactions, our work, and our relationships. It is further our desire to bring honor and glory to the Name of Jesus Christ by following God's Word in all of our dealings with employees, suppliers and customers. God's Work as contained in His Inspired scriptures will be the final authority in all corporate matters concerning direction, decisions, and disputes.”
The company came under fire last year after the founder’s grandson William J. Bolthouse donated $100,000 USD to support the anti-gay Proposition 8 campaign in California. Bolthouse Farms fought back, insisting that Wiliam sold his interest in the company in 2005. Its corporate philosophy was revised and all references to God were removed. “Our philosophical heritage manifests itself in business through the mutual respect, personal dignity and equitable treatment of all of our customers, employees, vendors and associates,” it now reads.
William now runs the Bolthouse Foundation, one of the largest contributors to the Alliance Defense Fund – a conservative Christian group opposed to gay marriage and adoption, gays in the military, abortion, and sex education promoting contraception. According to its website, the foundation “receives neither financial support nor benefits from the profits of Bolthouse Farms.”
Also popular in the gay market is Urban Outfitters, a hip retailer with stores in many major cities, despite its conservative ties. The company pulled “I Support Same Sex Marriage” T-shirts from its shelves less than a week after it hit stores. (Urban Outfitters claims the shirts weren’t big sellers and points out that CEO Glen Senk is openly gay.)
But Urban Outfitters founder and president Richard Haynes has donated thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee of Philadelphia and to the campaigns of right-wing senators Arlen Specter and Richard Santorum. The latter once told the Associated Press: "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality.”
