JAKARTA — Vocal support for gay rights has landed Starbucks in hot water in Indonesia, with one of the country's loudest Muslim leaders calling for a nationwide boycott of the company.
The hostility stems from CEO Howard Schultz's 2013 comments which positioned Starbucks as an early supporter of marriage equality in the US.
Provincial senator Fahira Idris and her anti-gay brigade claim the company's position on equal rights for gay people is incompatible with Indonesian culture.
And as such, she's lobbying the government to revoke Starbuck's permission to do business in the country and has called on religious organizations to pressure the nation's coffee-lovers to boycott the company.
And she's not without support - the hashtag #BoikotStarbucks or "boycott Starbucks" briefly trended with around 25 thousand mentions in early July but the campaign seems to have already run out of steam.
Frankly, the idea is confused. Any honest boycott would also need to include Facebook and Apple, Disney, DELL, Google and Unilever as these and many other large companies have voiced support for LGBT causes.
Unsurprisingly, many Indonesian commenters—Muslims and otherwise—have called the boycott moronic and another example of religious fanatics and elites trying to tell people how to live.
Still, Starbucks may not be out of hot water yet as the boycott campaign has now spread to neighboring Malaysia.
