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Office Depot officials say they hope to create a “braver, kinder school year” for students by partnering with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, but one right-wing organization is less than thrilled by the new collaboration.
As Right Wing Watch reports, the Florida Family Association (FFA) slammed Office Depot’s decision to back the pop star’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth-supporting cause, demanding that the retail outlet rescind its reported $1 million donation because Lady Gaga sends an “irresponsibly message to many teens who would have eventually chosen to be straight.”
“The one million dollar pledge from Office Depot to the Lady Gaga Born This Way Foundation will influence many teens to embrace homosexuality for their lifetime who may have otherwise worked through their crisis with straight results,” FFA officials write on their website before urging readers to send an e-mail to Office Depot authorities expressing their distaste for the project.
They continue: “Thousands of kids who might have otherwise worked through their pubescent sexual identity issues will be inspired to accept the wrong choice based upon this unscientific, emotionally charged propaganda. What’s brave or kind about telling thousands of sexually frustrated teens that they were Born This Way when a high percentage of them would have ended up taking the straight heterosexual path for life?”
Both Lady Gaga and Office Depot officials have yet to respond to the FFA’s claim, but Bob Moore, Chief Marketing Officer for Office Depot, nonetheless praised the Born This Way Foundation as “an inspirational organization that has the power to make a difference in the lives of today’s youth” in a press release.
The Office Depot/Born This Way Foundation collaboration will reportedly include a number of limited edition back-to-school products, including “empowerment gift cards” and unique “Bravery Bracelets” each containing messages like “Be Amazing” and “Be Yourself,” among other items.
The fact that the FFA sees such messages as inspiring teens to be gay is a little ridiculous. None of the items even mention homosexuality or Lady Gaga. These items are merely encouraging youth to embrace their individuality regardless of whether or not they are gay. They are about youth empowerment. The FFA says that Lady Gaga sends “an irresponsible message to many teens who would have eventually chosen to be straight,” but the thing is, you don’t choose to be gay or straight, you were born that way.