TESCO this week dismissed calls from within Ross-shire for a boycott of its superstores over claims it had dropped its support of a cancer charity in favour of a gay pride event.
Wester Ross resident Andrew Allan is calling for a boycott of the nation's leading supermarket chain over its support of Pride London, which next year hosts WorldPride 2012, an event that that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues on an international stage.
Tesco has come in for flack from some quarters since announcing its £30,000 sponsorship of the July 2012 event.
In a letter in this week's Journal, Mr Allan, of Pier Road, Aultbea, said he was "alarmed" to hear Tesco had "transferred their allegiance" from Cancer Research UK to support Pride London.
He writes, "It would seem it is more important to Tesco to further the aims and practices of a tiny minority of the population in preference to supporting a charity, whose sterling work all ages and sections of society benefit from."
Urging readers to write to complain to Tesco and to "boycott their supermarkets until this decision is reversed",
Mr Allan concludes, "Would you like to help an organisation that is seeking to find a cure for cancer or would you rather support an event dedicated to perversion?"
A spokesman for Tesco told the Journal, "We are incredibly proud to have worked with Cancer Research UK on Race for Life for more than a decade and we will continue to support it in the future by helping our staff to take part.
"It is not connected to our £30,000 sponsorship for Pride which is one of hundreds of community and charitable events that we will be supporting next year.
"Last year we donated over £64 million to charities and good causes across the world."
Tesco is the UK's largest retailer with over 2,700 stores and operations in 14 countries, employing over 492,000 people. As part of the deal, Tesco will operate a family area which will provide families attending the event with "a safe, relaxed and chilled out space featuring family-friendly entertainment and activities to keep our younger guests amused".
Announciong backing, Andrew Higginson, CEO of retailing services at Tesco said, "Tesco is the UK's largest private employer and a very diverse international organisation where everybody is welcome."
Emma Gilbert, head of Race for Life, said, "After ten successful years working together, the partnership between Tesco and Cancer Research UK's Race for Life came to a natural end.
"Tesco supported the growth of the event which is now the UK's largest women-only fundraising series.
"We're very grateful to the many Tesco employees who have taken part in events across the UK raising over £7 million for our life-saving research and we hope they will continue to take part in the events.
"It was after much discussion that both organisations took the decision to end the sponsorship for Race for Life and we're now looking for a new partner to help us make the event even more successful in the future."
l Letters P10.
Picture from last year's Pride London 2011 parade courtesy of Truthmonkey
