We're Here! We're Queer! We Spend Money!

Note: This feature contains links to sites with sexual content. Please do not follow those links if they will offend you or you are not of legal age in the location from where you are viewing same.

Apparently Discover Card has decided that they don't want GLBT dollars.

It all started when one of the more popular Gay sites on the net, Badpuppy, a membership service that has amongst its features over 700,000 gifs of gasp naked men, was told that their members could no longer use Discover Card to make purchases on, or subscribe to, the site.

Badpuppy also has news items, health information, resources and all manner of additional information, primarily geared to the gay male community.

Badpuppy was sufficiently incensed that it started a Discoversux site.

Wired Magazine was sufficiently interested that it broke the story net wide.

As noted in the Wired article, while Badpuppy may no longer take Discover Card, other sites with sexual content are not having the dollars of their customers turned down. You can order a subscription to Playboy using your Discover Card. Wired also found that You can also get your sex toys at Good Vibrations using your Discover Card.

A cursory review of sites with sexual content on the web (it had to be cursory, I didn't have 4 months to write this article) established a couple other places one may use their Discover Card for sexual pursuits:

Join Sex Cinema
Order Condoms from Condomania

I suspect there are more, but I can only look at so many naked pictures at a time.

Discover considers itself a "family-oriented" business, and that's the basis of its policy.

Allegedly the policy regarding stores/merchandise with sexual content has been in place since 1986, but I would think that Discover would have noticed that the models in Playboy tend to be undressed. It seems to me that they're picking and choosing, and that's called discrimination.

There is only one reasonable conclusion to be drawn.... Discover doesn't mind sex, so long as it's between one man and one woman. Good clean fun, where men look at naked women and women look at naked men. Good, wholesome, family-oriented entertainment.

Dad: Okay kids! It's time for family hour!
Mom: Have you brushed your teeth?
Son: I sure have!
Daughter: Me too!
Dad: Great! Let's all watch Playboy Channel together now!

By the way, you can still make your donations to a wide variety of hate groups, using your Discover Card. Groups like AFA and Focus on the Family. Apparently, so far as Discover is concerned, hatred is a family value.

My proposed solution is simple - if you're a GLBT company and you take Discover, STOP taking the card, and tell Discover why. If you're a GLBT person/friend and you use Discover, MOVE that balance somewhere else, and let Discover know why. If Discover doesn't want our money/business, I surely don't know why we should give it to them.

My offer to all GLBT businesses on the Web - If you currently take Discover, and are willing to refuse to do so, letting your customers and Discover know why, send me the URL of your public refusal, and I'll link to your business in a special "Heros" add-on to this feature.

In closing, I wonder how long Paula Poundstone will believe "It Pays to Discover." I know I won't be Discovering again any time soon, will you? Let Discover know and let me know what you think.

In pride,
Deborah

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