Oak Lawn Kroger fans defend store against allegations of not being gay-friendly

by John Wright of Dallas Voice

Employees and customers of the Cedar Springs Kroger adamantly defended the supermarket this week in the face of allegations that its parent corporation is not LGBT-friendly.

Their comments came in response to an article in the March 23 edition of Dallas Voice. The article reported that the Human Rights Campaign recommends the LGBT community avoid shopping at stores owned by Kroger and certain other corporations based on the group’s assessment of their employment practices.

In response to the article, the Cedar Springs Kroger temporarily removed the issue of Dallas Voice with the story related to Kroger from its newspaper shelves.

Gary Chevalier, a wine consultant at the Cedar Springs Kroger, called HRC’s findings unfair. Chevalier is a drag queen who recently won a prestigious award from Kroger honoring his fundraising for local LGBT and AIDS-related causes.

Chevalier said he has raised an estimated $3 million in the last 15 years performing as “Precious Memories,” primarily for the United Court of the Lone Star Empire Inc. In honor of his efforts, he received the Barney S. Kroger Community Service Award, named for the corporation’s founder.

“I thought it was a slam to our company, because I’m very proud of the company I work for,” Chevalier said of HRC’s recommendation. “I just don’t feel that they represented Kroger properly.”

Justin Reeve, manager over customer service at the Cedar Springs Kroger, compiled a list of roughly a dozen specific ways in which the corporation has supported the LGBT community locally. For example, the Cedar Springs Kroger has participated in the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade 11 years running; has attended every annual LGBT job expo; makes daily donations to the food pantry at AIDS Services of Dallas; and has participated in annual Easter basket and Christmas wreath auctions benefiting AIDS Services of Dallas.

Reeve said the funds to support such efforts come not from sales at the Cedar Springs Kroger, widely know as the “gay Kroger” due to its location in the heart of Oak Lawn, but from corporate coffers.

“That’s not even complete,” Reeve said of the list. “There’s a ton of other stuff that we do.”

“I think it sent the wrong message,” Reeve said of the Dallas Voice article. “This store does a lot for the community, and I don’t think that was stressed.”

One longtime customer, 48-year-old Hazel Jacobs of Dallas, called the Cedar Springs Kroger “one big happy family” where employees know many customers by name.

“I don’t know why anyone would want us to shop at stores that are cold and uncaring about the consumers,” Jacobs wrote in an e-mail to Dallas Voice. “If there is a problem, they as a team work to resolve the problems. I’ve never seen other stores in this area with floats in the parade every year, just Kroger.

They participate in the community.”

In HRC’s annual publication Buying For Equality, Kroger received a score of 35 out of 100. That ranked the chain 38th or sixth from last, in the food, beverages and groceries category of HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, on which Buying for Equality is based.

Although Kroger has an equal employment opportunity policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, the policy does not include gender identity. Also, Cincinnati-based Kroger, which is ranked 21st in the Fortune 500, does not offer domestic partner benefits and does not support an LGBT employee resource group, according to HRC.

But Reeve and others disputed some of HRC’s findings.

Gary Huddleston, director of consumer affairs for the 212 stores in Kroger’s Southwest Division, said each division of the corporation has a cultural council made up of a cross-section of employees. In the Southwest Division, Huddleston said, about five or six of the 35 cultural council members are from the LGBT community.

As for domestic partner benefits, Reeve said he is unsure whether he would want them because, currently, Kroger pays the full cost of his health insurance.

“That’s a tricky question,” he said.

Huddleston said Kroger’s domestic benefits policy is largely determined by an employee union, which negotiates wages, benefits and pensions.

“It’s more than just the company that would make that decision,” Huddleston said.

Daryl Herrschaft, director of HRC’s Workplace Project, argued Kroger still could implement domestic partner benefits. Other grocery chains with nearby stores, such as Whole Foods and Albertson’s, have done so.

“The company can decide to provide [domestic partner] benefits to its non-union employees, and typically when the company makes that decision, the union will adopt the policy as well,” Herrschaft said.

Herrschaft said Kroger scored a 57 in Buying for Equality from 2002 through 2005, but received the 35 in 2006 due to a change in the criteria for the publication. He also said Kroger deserves credit for its efforts in both Dallas in Cincinnati.

In Cincinnati, he said, the corporation gave money to the LGBT civil rights group Citizens to Restore Fairness.

“They’ve demonstrated as a company there is no bias toward the gay community,” Herrschaft said. “They’ve taken some important first steps in that regard. We encourage the company to go the extra steps to achieve a score of 100 as a further demonstration of their commitment. “

Herrschaft said Buying For Equality is based on corporations’ national policies and not individual regions or stores.

“Not every store is going to be exactly representative,” Herrschaft said, adding that he was appreciative of the Dallas Voice article. “It brings to the forefront what it is we’re trying to do here, which is help corporations that are willing, help lead them toward full equality for their LGBT employees.”

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