You have to feel just a mite sorry for Ford Motor Co., which is trying to assert that it just happened to decide to pull ads for its Jaguars and Land Rovers from the gay press after meeting "several times" with the anti-gay American Family Association (which was threatening a boycott over the company's "support for the homosexual agenda"). The AFA wanted Ford to go a lot farther and, for instance, stop sponsoring gay pride events. So you can see how the company sort of said, "We won't do that, but we'll give you something." The fact that its Volvo brand will continue to advertise in the gay press shows just how finely they were trying to split hairs.
Now, the Human Rights Campaign and its allies are threatening counter-moves against Ford. That's fine. But the fact is that the AFA claims "3 million supporters" and the HRC claims "600,000 members," and both figures are wildly inflated. However the AFA managed to get to Ford dealers in the South and scare them a bit, which is why Ford (which is about to eliminate some 30,000 jobs to stave off bankruptcy) felt the need to capitulate just a little.
But if you're a company whose founder urged Hitler to find a final solution to the problem of world Jewry, you might take a bit more care about even symbolic acquiescence to organized bigotry.
Update: I may have let Ford off too easy. WardsAuto.com (as cited by the Washington Blade) reports that as part of the agreement between the AFA and Ford, Volvo ads will no longer be tailored to gay consumers and Ford agreed not to sponsor any future gay events. The worst thing about such cave-ins is that they embolded the bigots to go further and up the ante next time.
Update: Ford
relents, at least on the ads.