In its continuing effort to avoid offending homophobes, Kroger has banned the playing of what an internal memo calls “gay music” over store loudspeakers.
“It’s goodbye ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,’ ” says a source at the grocery giant’s Cincinnati headquarters. “We’re not going to be playing any Elton John, George Michael, Melissa Etheridge or any other openly gay performers.”
Most stores in the chain pipe in a selection of popular songs interspersed with promotional announcements, and until now there has been no sexual orientation test for the music.
“Before, we only focused on having songs that most people like—kind of a middle-of-the-road approach,” the Kroger source says. “We’ll still do that, just without anybody who’s a known homosexual.”
Apparently performers who are merely rumored to be gay are still OK.
The move by Kroger follows the store’s r ecent ban on giving rack space to Out & About, the local newspaper covering news of interest to gays and lesbians—a move that has been met with approval from social conservatives and derision from others.
The chain justifies its ban by characterizing Out & About as a niche publication, though why it is any more “niche” than, say, Nashville Parent isn’t specified. Critics also note the grocer’s spotty enforcement of its own policy, and that Kroger stores happily display the local gay paper in Atlanta.
“I don’t see what the big deal is about this,” the Kroger source says. “There are a million songs out there. And a lot of performers aren’t going to be missed. It’s not like we were playing a lot of Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Culture Club anyway.”
Asked if this newfound concern for prevailing social norms extended to performers who are known to use illegal drugs, the spokesman backpedals.“We’ll still play songs by those people because we don’t want our stores to go completely silent,” he says. “Performers like Charlie Daniels and Tom Petty may sing about dope, but at least they’re sexually straight. As far as we know.”
Here's the newspaper that featured it...
http://www.nashvillescene.com
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