TO
PARAPHRASE
AN
adage,
you
can’t
have
your
mug
of
beer
and
drink
it,
too.
But
that’s
exactly
what
members
of
the
Coors
family,
namesakes
of
the
Coors
Brewing
Company
in
Golden,
Colo.,
are
trying
to
get
away
with
among
gay
customers
of
their
company.
Pete
Coors,
a
former
chair
of
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.,
is
now
a
Republican
candidate
for
the
United
States
Senate
from
the
state
of
Colorado.
Pete
Coors
has
also
become
an
outspoken
supporter
of
a
federal
constitutional
amendment
to
ban
same-sex
marriage.
Political
analysts
who
have
been
watching
the
U.S.
Senate
race
in
Colorado
say
Pete
Coors
took
the
strong
stand
that
he
did
—
not
just
against
same-sex
marriage,
but
fully
in
favor
of
an
amendment
to
enshrine
the
ban
in
the
Constitution
—
to
appeal
to
conservatives
who
make
up
a
substantial
base
of
his
candidacy.
Pete
Coors’
anti-gay
stance
on
the
Federal
Marriage
Amendment
has
re-ignited
calls
from
many
gay
leaders
for
us
to
stop
buying
Coors
beer
at
gay
bars.
Furthermore,
a
large
number
of
Coors
family
members
—
who
profit
directly
from
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
—
are
board
members
of
a
private
institution,
the
Castle
Rock
Foundation,
which
gives
away
millions
of
dollars
to
conservative,
anti-gay
organizations.
This
fact,
and
its
consequences,
is
even
more
important
for
us
to
consider
than
Pete
Coors’
anti-gay
position
on
the
Federal
Marriage
Amendment.
The
Castle
Rock
Foundation
was
founded
in
1993
with
a
$36.5
million
endowment
from
the
Adolph
Coors
Foundation.
Since
then,
it
has
given
away
millions
of
dollars
of
grants
to
often
conservative,
right-wing,
anti-gay
groups.
According
to
the
group’s
Web
site,
four
out
of
five
of
the
board
members
of
the
Castle
Rock
Foundation
are
members
of
the
Coors
family.
Pete
Coors
is
the
vice
president.
Where
did
Pete
Coors
and
the
other
Coors
family
members
on
the
board
of
the
Castle
Rock
Foundation
get
their
money
and
power?
Through
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
AND
YET,
THE
Coors
Brewing
Co.
and
the
Coors
family
have
gone
on
a
public
relations
blitz
to
distance
themselves
from
each
other.
In
a
nutshell,
they
each
claim
to
be
independent
of
one
another,
and
thus
not
responsible
for
the
others’
actions
or
stands
on
gay
rights.
In
fact,
in
early
June,
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
issued
a
letter
stating
that
Pete
Coors’
position
on
the
Federal
Marriage
Amendment
does
not
reflect
the
corporate
values
of
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
The
letter
stated
that
the
company
does
not
endorse
discrimination
against
gay,
lesbian,
bisexual
or
transgender
people.
In
addition,
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
has
started
running
full-page
ads
in
gay
newspapers
and
magazines
around
the
country.
In
the
ads,
humorously
headlined
“Straight
talk
from
Coors,”
the
company
goes
to
some
length
to
describe
the
positive
changes
within
the
company
in
the
past
couple
of
decades
with
respect
to
how
it
treats
gay
employees.
Most
notably,
the
change
is
reflected
in
the
company’s
nondiscrimination
policy,
as
well
as
the
fact
that
the
company
offers
health
benefits
to
partners
of
gay
employees.
The
Coors
Brewing
Co.
has
had
a
long
and
tortured
history
on
gay
issues,
dating
back
to
the
early
1970s,
when
it
used
to
require
prospective
employees
to
submit
to
a
lie
detector
test.
One
of
the
questions
on
the
test
was
whether
or
not
the
hopeful
employee
was
a
homosexual.
Outrage
over
that
practice
prompted
former
San
Francisco
supervisor
Harvey
Milk
to
kick-off
a
boycott
of
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
in
1974.
In
1995,
much
of
the
steam
of
the
boycott
evaporated
when
the
beer
maker
instituted
its
much-friendlier
policies
toward
gay
employees.
The
company
even
hired
Mary
Cheney,
Dick
Cheney’s
famously
lesbian
daughter,
to
handle
gay
outreach.
IRONICALLY,
AS
FORMER
chair
of
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.,
Pete
Coors
has
taken
much
of
the
credit
for
advancing
the
company’s
positions
on
gay
employees.
He
even
claims
to
have
gone
out
personally
to
gay
bars
to
promote
his
beer
and
his
company’s
more
enlightened
outlook.
Pete
Coors’
opponent
in
the
senate
race
is
making
much
of
that
history,
in
an
attempt
to
tarnish
Pete
Coors
with
the
state’s
much-coveted
right-wing
voters.
So
Pete
Coors
is
trying
to
live
down
his
past,
thus
embracing
the
Federal
Marriage
Amendment
with
such
gusto.
So
on
the
one
hand
we
have
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
chatting
up
gays
and
extolling
the
virtues
of
its
corporate
policies
toward
us.
Hey,
that
Pete
Coors
guy,
he
can
do
whatever
he
wants
as
a
private
citizen,
the
company
seems
to
be
saying;
you
have
to
evaluate
us
independently,
on
our
own
policies.
On
the
other
hand,
you
have
Pete
Coors,
courting
conservative
voters,
saying
he
doesn’t
want
homos
to
get
married.
And
all
that
stuff
about
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
being
gay-friendly?
Well,
he’s
his
own
candidate,
he
seems
to
be
saying
to
the
right-wingers.
You
can’t
judge
me
based
on
a
company
policy.
I’m
an
independent
entity.
The
doubletalk
by
both
Pete
Coors
and
the
Coors
Brewing
Co.
on
this
issue
would
make
even
old-time
Soviet
politburo
members
proud.
Before
you
buy
another
Coors
beer,
you
may
want
to
ask
yourself:
Which
side
of
his
mouth
would
Pete
Coors
drink
this
out
of?
