Wells Fargo, GLAAD, and Dobson

WARNING: pensive post alert!

I heard something on the Frank Pastore Show Thursday night that I can't quite shake. I think I have to do something about what I heard, but am not quite sure if it's exactly the right move.

In July, Focus on the Family had heard that their bank, Wells Fargo Bank, had established a matching grant to GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Here's the text from GLAAD's website:

“Incredible news: Wells Fargo has offered to help support GLAAD’s fight for equality against the Anti-Gay industry by matching your tax-deductible contribution dollar for dollar.”

I guess Focus on the Family may have taken issue at being labeled as an anti-gay group, being that their primary focus is on the family. News sources indicate that Wells Fargo has never donated to FOTF, despite the fact that they had over $100 million in their accounts. When FOTF went to the bank to ask about the donation, one of their VPs responded:

"We simply made a grant to one of many non-profits Wells Fargo supports in the San Francisco Bay Area," and "Wells Fargo contributes to multiple charities including non-profit agencies Focus on the Family believes in." The bank says "we direct our giving to areas that we believe are important to the future of our nation's vitality and success: community development, education and human services."

Stating that the response was not satisfactory, FOTF decided to pull their accounts from Wells Fargo. In their press release they said:

We at Focus on the Family respect the worth and dignity of every human being. We are not attacking the gay individual, nor are we singling out Wells Fargo employees for censure. We had the opportunity to work with many Wells Fargo staff while in relationship with the bank, and we know firsthand the good job they do. However, we feel that the aggressive agenda of the homosexual movement and its activists is harmful to families, and we believe it is time to stand up and fight that. Our decision is not personal, but principled, and we trust our constituents and others will respect it.

To which GLAAD responded on their website:

"Thankfully, corporate America knows that discriminating against a group of people based on who they love is not only bad for business, it's just plain wrong. More than 80% of Fortune 500 companies have sexual orientation non-discrimination policies. Let's just call this what it is — another attempt by an anti-gay group to try and intimidate companies into not supporting or doing business with gays and lesbians."

So here's my quandry. I've been banking at Wells Fargo for about 8 years. No particular reason for choosing them expect for the fact that the ATM is halfway between my office and the cafeteria, which I frequent about twice a week. Simply put...I'm lazy. Last month, I had been thinking about switching banks. Ian banks at Bank of America and we've been talking about combining accounts somehow. Plus, I had been getting annoyed with my monthly fees. There's the fee I pay to have an interest-bearing savings account. I pay $3 a month to earn roughly 42 cents in interest. And there's the $6.95 monthly fee to pay bills on line to avoid the nine 37 cent stamps I would otherwise have to buy. But now this.

I'm not really big into boycotts. And it doesn't seem as if FOTF has called for one, altough Frank Pastore did. Most boycotts by Christian groups in the past seemed rather juvenile to me. Or they weren't that big of a deal. You know. The Southern Baptist boycott of Disney. How many times a year do you go? Or the boycott of Target because of the Salvation Army thing. OK, I don't go that often anyway. But I pay a lot of useless fees to Wells Fargo. Is this the time to pull my account? What do you think?

Clarice