On Rainbow Spot & Equality

You may be wondering why a dog walking service choses to take a stand on an issue such as marriage equality and LGBT rights. What does it have to do with dogs?

A few weeks ago, on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court announced that everyone in the United States had the right to marry. Ten years ago, in 2005, we added “Rainbow Spot” to our website. It was a move that we knew could cost us potential clients, but we felt in our heart of hearts, was the “right thing to do.” And sometimes, you just have to do what’s right, not what’s (at that time) the most socially acceptable thing to do.

This is the statement we posted on FB on that momentous day a few weeks ago:

While public opinion is swinging rapidly in favor of equality, we’re far from being “there yet.” So when we posted this statement a few hours after the SCOTUS announcement was made, we initially had the same trepidation we did in 2005. We felt it was the “right thing to do,” but didn’t know if we were going to unleash a firestorm of nasty comments and threats to “unlike.” And we worried, what if clients boycotted us after reading that? Could we be affecting our employees’ paychecks by taking a stand? But as the tears of happiness kept coming, we, sided with our hearts again on this and posted. And we are glad we did. The post got over 90 likes and not a single nasty comment or “unlike” to our Facebook page. Times are changing! (And for the record, our employees loved that we posted about our support.)

So now that everyone is guaranteed the right to marry whomever they love, why is “Rainbow Spot” still on our homepage? The one comment we got was asking us NOT to remove him. And we hear that. Workplace rights are not yet secure and discrimination is still very real to LGBT citizens. We want people to know that we area an ALLY until the end. If you want to work for us, if you want us to walk your dog, if you want to be our friends - we support you.

Dogs can teach us so much about love. They love thoroughly and endlessly. And we firmly believe that everyone deserves the right to love. It’s basic human (and canine) nature.

So with that, “Rainbow Spot” stays until there is no reason for him to.

#MinderHeadquarters