Political Causes
In 2008, CEO Alan Stock donated $9,999 toward the successful passage of California's Proposition 8, an initiative restricting the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples and overturning the California Supreme Court's ruling that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. An ensuing campaign, launched by opponents to the Prop 8 passage, encouraged patrons to see the Gus Van Sant film Milk, starring Sean Penn in the title role of gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, at a competing theater in protest. Others called for a more general boycott.
Cinemark was the largest contributor to Richard Mourdock's 2012 Indiana Senatorial campaign. During a live debate, Mourdock was asked if abortion should be legal in the case of rape and incest. Mourodck replied: "And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.". In the ensuing brouhaha, Cinemark did not ask its campaign contribution be returned or disassociate itself with Mourdock or his views.
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Famous quotes containing the word political:
“As to your kind wishes for myself, allow me to say I can not enter the ring on the money basis—first, because, in the main, it is wrong; and secondly, I have not, and can not get, the money. I say, in the main, the use of money is wrong; but for certain objects, in a political contest, the use of some, is both right, and indispensable.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“What are all political and social institutions, but always a religion, which in realizing itself, becomes incarnate in the world?”
—Edgar Quinet (1803–1875)