Apr 15, 2005  |  By: VAN GOWE  | COMMENTS     

Shaw’s Supermarkets and Stop & Shop, the two largest supermarket chains in New England, recently banned the Boston-based Bay Windows from distribution inside their stores following customer complaints about the gay newspaper.

The complaints were sparked by an e-mail campaign organized by the anti-gay Article 8 Alliance in Waltham, Mass.

Established in 1983, Bay Windows publishes print and online editions featuring gay-related news, arts, editorials and listings of organizations. But in an e-mail alert, Article 8 called it “a homosexual activist newspaper used to launch vicious and incredibly hateful attacks on religious and pro-family groups and individuals.”

Contacted for this article, a person answering the phone for Article 8 said the group decided to act when it saw that Bay Windows was advertising distribution in the supermarkets. Article 8 claims the ads for distribution points in Stop & Shop stores were designed to mimic official Stop & Shop ads without the chain’s permission.

“It’s the usual kind of thing from homosexual activists, which is dishonesty and deceit,” according to the person, who refused to identify himself.

The newspaper also publishes gay personal ads, which the Article 8 e-mail claims “serves as a way for individual homosexuals to advertise [and participate in] some of the most gross, perverted, and disgusting activities one can imagine.”

Stop & Shop, which operates 360 stores, responded to customer complaints over the personal ads by pulling the paper.

“The issue we had with the paper was with the graphic nature of the descriptions in the personal ads, not the fact that it’s a gay paper,” Robert Keane, a spokesperson for Stop & Shop, said in an e-mail interview. “We are in negotiations to restock the paper without the personal ads in it.”

Shaw’s Supermarkets, which has more than 200 stores, uses a third-party vendor to stock its racks of free publications, Shaw spokesperson Terry Donilon said in an e-mail interview. The unidentified company dropped distribution of the paper, he said.

“In looking into a customer complaint, Shaw’s was informed by its third party vendor that Bay Windows was no longer a client of that vendor,” Donilon said.

ARTICLE 8 DEFINES ITSELF as a political activist group, not a religious group, according to the person who talked with a reporter.

“[But] we found that when you’re fighting the gay movement, it’s so demonic that you’re forced to turn to God more than you normally would for strength on this,” he added.

When told that this articles was for a gay newspaper, the person refused further questions and hung up.

Jeff Coakley and Sue O’Connell, publishers of Bay Windows, declined comment, citing ongoing negotiations with Stop & Shop to return the paper to its stores.

In 2002, Blockbuster stores in six suburban Atlanta locations removed Southern Voice — which is affiliated with the Blade — from their racks in response to complaints that the newspaper was inappropriate for children. After Blockbuster executives reviewed the paper, the company’s corporate headquarters decided that its content did not warrant removal from the stores.