When boycotts backfire.

I just read your article "The Breakdown of Boycotts" [July 18] and was happy to hear that many of the boycotting efforts of hatemongering so-called Christian organizations like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family have not only failed but perhaps have backfired. Just today I took this a step further by going to their Web sites to learn which companies are on their hit lists and took note of this information. Because of their informative sites, I now know where I will go to shop today and who will get my business this year with larger purchases. Oh, and I also left them e-mail and thanked them for this information. I encourage other readers to do likewise and show these groups how much this information is helping the gay community!

RANDALL ADKINS Waterford, Mich.

"The Breakdown of Boycotts" does not delve far enough into the reasons for failure. Another is the "chicken little" syndrome. Religious zealots have used the same old refrain for so long that it is now reaching deaf ears. Despite the fact that Christians have the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and the preachings of Jesus, they are focused entirely on the issue of homosexuality. Their credibility would be strengthened if they also confronted such issues as child and spousal abuse, divorce, adultery, drug and alcohol addiction, ad infinitum. Of course, these are issues that affect their flock. Mum's the word--or should I say hypocrisy is the word?

JOSEPH KRAATZ Oceanside, Calif.

In his July 18 piece, "The Breakdown of Boycotts," Todd Henneman had generally good news for gays. Right-wing corporate boycotts have been largely unsuccessful. Even Wal-Mart, ever unreceptive to any challenge to its corporate right to rule, refused to buckle to demands that it not sell Brokeback Mountain DVDs.

But in highlighting a Wal-Mart flack's proclaiming that "the customer votes at the cash register," you reflect unwarranted praise on a corporation now notorious not only for its antiunion, immigrant-exploiting attacks but also for its destruction of the economies and character of entire towns.

Remember, gays are mostly not stockbrokers or otherwise wealthy people. We are largely people with incomes that have benefited greatly from union representation's upward push on income and benefits across the board, for union members and nonmembers alike. Many of us are immigrants or children of immigrants. Destruction of small-town life wrought by big-box retailers affects gays along with other residents. Gay taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart's miserly wages by providing Medicaid to thousands of workers unable to afford the company's medical plan.

Wal-Mart deserves condemnation, not praise, for dragging gay workers along on its race to the bottom.

BOB SCHWARTZ Chicago, Ill.