Cosi Fan Tutte
Yesterday on Good As You I read a story about the New Rochelle location of Cosi restaurant who had recently installed a display, a traveling photo album if you will, meant to put a human face on the fight for marriage equality. The exhibit is intended to be taken to Albany in May for a lobby session to show support for gay marriage in the state of New York. The hope is that we may soon catch up to neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut in providing some kind of legal recognition of gay relationships.Sounds good, right? Cosi is so cool, so hip, so urban and progressive, after all they have 16 locations in Manhattan alone! Well, think again. After a "flood of emails" complaining about the display (it is suspected that they were not necessarily from New Rochelle patrons) the corporate powers that be at Cosi ordered the display taken down. (Insert descending tones of muted trombone here.) It was then that the Empire State Pride agenda instituted an email writing campaign (in which I participated) to tell the Cosi big-wigs just how we feel about being eighty-sixed at their New Rochelle location.
Lo and behold, when I logged on to Good As You today there was a follow-up story with a comment from one of their readers which says:
The irony is that I met Scott for lunch in midtown today and we actually considered going to Cosi but decided against it because of yesterday's news. Now it looks like we'll have to drop in for a pannini real soon. In fact, I think I'll be visiting them a lot more often in the future."Great news! Cosi agreed to let the pictures go back up; when I left the restaurant about an hour ago, they were there with hammers, remounting them. Thanks so much to everybody who called and wrote in - we did it!"
If you'd like to express your gratitude to Cosi for coming to their senses and making the right decision you can email them here.
Labels: Corporate America, Gay Politics
posted by Michael @ 3:16 PM
4 Comments:
Hey :)
I think it's great that the display is back up, and I visited Cosi for the first time only a couple weeks ago, but I'm still going to write them a note of thanks for reversing their decision. BUT, it would be great if it didn't take an e-mail campaign to get them to take a stand. Too bad when they originally received the "flood of e-mails" they didn't just say, hey, we're reflecting our community, this is our stance, we support equality. I know that's easy for me to say as a non-corporate Cosi person, but it's just my thought. Take a stand and stick with it vs. bowing to pressure from either side. Know what I mean?
Any excuse for more pannini.
I'll watch for it in May and see how many of "the troops" I can get motivated up here. I just sent an email to a friend of mine who organized a rally in Troy back in October. It may be a small upstate city, but we’re still working hard! I did a quick write-up if you’re interested: http://y-oh-y.blogspot.com/2006/10/rally-for-same-sex-marriage-in-troy_28.html
I went to a rally on the Capitol steps organized by ESPA after the NY Supreme Court decision last year. Grass roots activism, visibility, and changing minds one at a time is how we're gonna win this one.
It's always cool when a "campaign" comes together and causes change for good. Congrats!
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