Hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, and boycotts — and no rainbows. Minnesota for Marriage has become a bitter Betty Crocker and is not cuckoo for General Mills’ opposition to the marriage inequality amendment.

In an email to supporters today, the group has pledged to hold “Dump General Mills rallies” across from the company’s headquarters for four days next week. Participants are invited to bring their General Mills products from home to “dump” in a trailer — presumably without emptying the containers, because they plan to donate the food to local food banks. Jeremy Hooper notes that the National Organization for Marriage is likely behind the effort, both because the group recently acquired DumpGeneralMills.com and because the campaign mirrors dismal “Dump Starbucks” campaign that NOM still clings to.

It’s unclear how the anti-gay coalition thinks this will help them. NOM regularly plays the victim by complaining that businesses are targeted and harassed for opposing marriage equality, but now they are intentionally targeting and harassing businesses who support marriage equality. Their disingenuous plea for “neutrality” read more like an ultimatum than any kind of civil discourse.

In addition, alienating locally-based businesses will not entice voters to their anti-equality cause. Research shows that states benefit financially from marriage equality, and businesses are more lucrative when inclusive policies allow them to attract more competitive job candidates. An outside influence is attempting to pass a bad, unpopular law and is attacking local businesses in the process — that isn’t exactly a vote-enticing strategy.

General Mills is a company committed to families’ health and well-being, so its support of same-sex families makes perfect sense. Research consistently shows that marriage equality is kid-tested, mother-approved. Silly NOM, your boycott is about anything but the kids.

As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) now says that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is settled and won’t be revisited, even if Republicans win over the White House and Senate in the November elections:

MCKEON: We fought that fight. [My goal is to] get the things that our warfighters need. That’s not something that I would personally bring up. [In 1994,] they expected us to pull off miracles. That’s not how things work. I’d rather focus on money for defense.

But that’s not to say McKeon won’t allow Defense bills to impede LGBT equality. When he assumed control of the committee in 2010, he vowed to pass clean defense bills “not weighed down” by social issues. Since then, he has allowed numerous anti-gay amendments to be added to defense spending bills. These measures, like prohibiting chaplains from performing same-sex marriages or offering a “license to bully” for troops, would have the same cultural effect of imposing invisibility upon gay and lesbian troops as DADT did.

No doubt, if Republicans insist on further imposing on the LGBT community, they will find ways to do so that McKeon can support.

Maine is the first state that is inviting its residents to vote affirmatively for marriage equality — as opposed to defending against a negative measure. At stake currently is how exactly that question will be asked. Last week, Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers proposed the following language:

“Do you want to allow same-sex couples to marry?”

Neither side is satisfied with this wording. Opponents of marriage equality unsurprisingly want to spin the language as “redefining marriage,” implying that same-sex marriage will somehow impact everyone else’s marriage. But those who put forth the measure feel the question is not descriptive enough, because it does not include any context about the protections for church and clergy that are included in the law. Matt McTighe of Mainers United for Marriage explains:

MCTIGHE: Opponents of marriage are already trying to scare voters into thinking their church could be forced to perform or recognize same-sex marriages or that their tax exempt status would somehow be put at risk. Nothing could be further from the truth.

At a press conference, Methodist Pastor Michael Gray further clarified the religious freedoms guaranteed by the marriage bill: