ACTIVISM E*TRADE.

ACTIVISM

E*TRADE, Levinson withstand backlash

When E*TRADE president and chief operating officer Kathy Levinson and her partner, Jennifer Levinson, donated $300000 last August to fight Proposition 22 the prosperous March 7 ballot initiative that bans recognition of same-sex marriage in California, they rely uponed controversy. But Levinson is single now discussing how intense the dispute really was. At work, E-mail and phone calls poured into the online brokerage company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, she told The Wall road Journal. Customers threatened to cancel their accounts and called upon Levinson to resign. At fireside Levinson said she had to hire a security guard, and her family stopped answering the phone

E*TRADE, granting never flinched in its support for Levinson, flat as it required an intensive public relations effort. "E*TRADE is a brand that stands for clan taking control of their lives and being able to make informed decisions," Levinson told the Journal. "This is about individual empowerment. If commonalty like me who are prosperous are not willing to take a stand, to what degree can I expect anybody otherwise to do it?"

BENEFITS

ExxonMobil combustibless controversy

Last year's merger of Exxon and Mobil did more than create undivided of the world's largest oil companies. It caused an uproar among the fresh company's employees. Although Mobil had exhibited benefits to employees' same-sex partners, ExxonMobil does not.

Company officials say the put in motion concerning the benefits is "simply a business decision," yet now the gay corporate activist cluster Equality Project has set not at home to prove it's bad business

Along with the recent York City Employees' Retirement body the group has launched a shareholder proposal to reinstate the benefits. Stockholders will promised on the proposal in May.

"ExxonMobil has a apportionment of rhetoric about support for diversity," says Shelley Alpern of the Equality devise "But it will remain rhetoric until domestic-partner benefits and sexual orientation are in their nondiscrimination statement." --SR

Transitions

DIED: George Fadiga, 46 a Detroit gay activist, of a heart attack, February 25 Fadiga was active in several Day and lesbian clusters including the Human Rights Campaign and the former Detroit Area Gay and Lesbian Council.

ADOPTED: A proposal that adds protections based upon sexual orientation to the Davenport, Iowa, civil rights law, March 1 Three other Iowa cities--Ames, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City--have enacted similar laws.

APPOINTED: Jose Zuniga, as executive director of the Chicago-based International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, Zuniga, who previously serv as the group's factor director, replaces Gordon Nary.

COMMERCE

Putting the Mary in Hamburger Mary's

There's no denying that many gay men and lesbians know their way around the kitchen. yet does that mean they also know in what way to sell burgers? Hamburger Mary's, a Corona del Mar, Calif.-based restaurant chain, is betting just that with a of the present day pitch to include lesbians and gay men in its franchising program.

The operator of the "funky no frills" restaurants, which officials say attract a 50% gay clientele, is now targeting gay and lesbian investors with an ad campaign in magazines, including The Advocate.

"Hamburger Mary's is literally an institution among the traveling gay community," explains president Stan Sax. "And now with our owner's manual, marketing, training schedule, proven menu and sources of funding for start-up capital, we have a undiminished support program for qualified franchisees."

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