Editing Coors Brewing Company (section)

=== Minority issues ===
Mexican Americans charged Coors with discriminatory hiring practices following the passage of the Civil Rights Act. They launched a boycott of the company's products beginning in the late 1960s. Labor unions and gay rights activists joined the boycott, which lasted into the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite book |title = Freedom is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace |last = MacLean |first = Nancy |publisher = Harvard University Press |year = 2006 |pages = 177–179 }}</ref>

A federal lawsuit in 1975 by the [[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]]<ref name=coklaid>{{cite news |url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qEdNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4foDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6072%2C7406975 |newspaper = Lakeland Ledger |location = Florida |title = Is it beer or 'Colorado Kool-Aid'? |last = Lichtenstein |first = Grace |agency = (New York Times) |date = December 28, 1975 |page = 7D }}</ref> ended in a settlement with Coors agreeing not to discriminate against blacks, Hispanics, and women.<ref>{{cite web |title = Adolph Coors Company (A) |work = Business Case, [[Tuck School of Business]], [[Dartmouth College]] |url = http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0027.pdf |access-date = April 24, 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060527021956/http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0027.pdf |archive-date = May 27, 2006 |df = mdy-all }}</ref> In 1977, Coors was accused of firing gay and lesbian employees.<ref>{{cite journal |title = The Dynamics of Brand Legitimacy: An Interpretive Study in the Gay Men's Community ([[PDF]]) |journal = Journal of Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press |jstor = 10 |volume = 16 |pages = 670–675 }}</ref> From the late 1970s, Coors agreed not to discriminate against homosexuals; the first major brewery in the United States to make such a commitment.<ref name="Baum2001">{{cite book|author=Dan Baum|title=Citizen Coors: A Grand Family Saga of Business, Politics, and Beer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZRBQ24lXZ8C|date=10 April 2001|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-095946-3|page=205}}</ref>

Coors encouraged the organization of its gay and lesbian employees into the Lesbian and Gay Employee Resource (LAGER) in 1993.<ref>Justin Berton, "The other Coors spokesman", [[Westword]] (Denver) September 2, 1999, p. 28.</ref> In May 1995, Coors became the 21st publicly traded corporation in the United States to extend employee benefits to same-sex partners.<ref>Michael Booth, "Coors adds 'partners' to benefits", ''[[The Denver Post]]'', July 8, 1995, p. 1A.</ref> When company chairman [[Pete Coors]] was criticized for the company's gay-friendly policy during his 2004 Republican primary campaign for a United States Senate seat from Colorado, he defended the policy as a basic good business practice.<ref>John C. Green, Mark J. Rozell, Clyde Wilcox, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3YhlzY3eQIgC&dq=coors+gay+%22good+business%22&pg=PA189 "The Values Campaign?"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502123253/https://books.google.com/books?id=3YhlzY3eQIgC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=coors+gay+%22good+business%22&source=bl&ots=7UL9Rc0pqT&sig=Se8kKJjMdJJ0zGiKGjc_IDpMfVE&hl=en&ei=G-M7S8PZLKimtgeBp-GNCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=coors%20gay%20%22good%20business%22&f=false |date=May 2, 2016 }} Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, p. 185.</ref>