American Family Association Under Impression That Home Depot Has Stopped Supporting LGBT Causes

At least that seems to be the notorious hate group’s latest delusion, in this release announcing that they are declaring victory and suspending their boycott of Home Depot:

After three years, a high-profile pro-family organization is suspending its boycott of The Home Depot because of the retailer’s support of homosexual activist groups and events.
“We’re glad to report that we are suspending the boycott of The Home Depot,” says Randy Sharp, director of special projects for American Family Association. “After monitoring the company for several months, we’re satisfied that the company has withdrawn its major financial contributions to gay activist groups and to their activities.”
In a message to supporters on Thursday, AFA president Tim Wildmon acknowledges knowing the boycott was a “huge task” to undertake, but “I knew we had a lot of friends who would stand with us.” AFA reports more than 750,000 people signed an online pledge that they would not shop at The Home Depot.
“We truly believe that this is a direct result of people’s willingness to get involved in the culture war,” Sharp states. “[Those who signed the pledge] may be a small percentage of the American population, but it does represent a large majority of people who would or would not shop at The Home Depot.”
The AFA spokesman expects the retailer to publicly deny having made changes. “We certainly do expect The Home Depot to deny that they have turned back their contributions to gay activist groups,” Sharp offers, “but AFA has monitored the company – and actions speak louder than words.”

Translation: We need our followers to believe that we’re doing something, that our organization still accomplishes things, and to keep sending us money, so don’t listen to the statements from the company itself. And what are those statements? Zack Ford at Think Progress followed up with Home Depot:

Sharp did not offer any specifics about what actions the group had, in fact, monitored. Indeed, Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes offered a response to ThinkProgress indicating that nothing at the company had changed:
“We haven’t made any changes to our policies for inclusion and respect of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation. We have not directed our associates to discontinue participation in Pride or other community events, and have no intention of doing so.”
Executives at the Home Depot have regularly rebuffed the AFA at shareholder meetings, ignoring the boycott entirely. In the past, AFA claimed that Home Depot was doing less to warrant a boycott, but continued the boycott anyway. It thus makes no sense that the boycott has ended now — when little else has changed — except that AFA has given up on the ineffective campaign.
Home Depot continues to offer a multitude of services to support diversity within its workforce, including a Pride Network Associate Resource Group. It also maintains an official partnership with numerous community organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, to support its diversity initiatives.

Well, I wouldn’t expect a supremacist hate group to say, “we failed and now we’re going home to shut up about things.” It would be nice, but the American Family Association isn’t known for its honesty.