LO Calls, OutsidePride CEO Changes Number---Then Lies!

To put the capper on a rather remarkable story of 21st Century Telecommunications Reverse Luddism, wherein the beleaugered OutsidePride garden products company has apparently divested itself of telephones and chosen to receive all communications via email form--including for its president Troy Hake, the Gaybaiting Gardener of Independence, Ore--a new call to retreat has been sounded.

I told you yesterday that I'd found a publicly available number for a Mr. Troy Allen Hake, and left a very polite message identifying myself and who I write for, asking for a brief moment so that we could discuss his plans to sponsor the Independence Gay Pride Parade aversion to homosexuals on TV. I left my telephone number and waited by the phone like a schoolgirl.

That was at about 2pm yesterday. Today at around 8AM, I tried the number again. Either some of you went all resourceful on me and ALSO found the number (which was 503-315-5872), or the thought of being reachable by noted Oregon muckrakers Torrid and Carla was too much for our homo-hating hoeseller to contemplate. The number has been changed and is now unlisted.

I fear that Troy Hake, the Gaybaiting Gardener of Independence, Ore. is erecting himself a Garbo-like privacy screen to hide behind until this all eventually blows over. And you know who's helping him out? Oregon media. Has there been a story in the Statesman-Journal on the furor? Not that I've seen. A blurb in The Oregonian about potential violations of privacy promises made by OutsidePride before sending a gaybashing screed to its entire customer base? Nope. The blogosphere and the city tabloid papers (well, so far just The Merc) have given the story its due; at the risk of sounding like a broken record, where are the traditional media?

Will you help? Margaret Haberman is the regional news team leader for The O, and in addition to email they still appear to use phones over there: (503) 221-8375. For the Salem Statesman-Journal, this is a local story, and you can tell them they should be covering it: (503) 399-6773. We don't get paid to hold people like Troy Hake, the Gaybaiting Gardener of Independence, Ore. accountable, but the regular media do, and they can do a much more thorough job--like waiting at his house with a camera team (hint hint).

Update, 8/16 8AM--
Oh, now they ARE running scared. Despite confirming to me on the day the story broke that their president did indeed write the email, and sending a form letter making no denial or apology for the letter, now they're telling emailers this:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: orders
Date: Aug 11, 2006 7:49 PM
Subject: RE: Outsidepride.com, Inc.: User filled in Contact Us form!
To: [redacted]

Oula, I would like to say that Troy did not send this email. We had someone use Troy's name for his purposes and he has been dealt with.

Outsidepride.com, Inc
orders@outsidepride.com
PH 877-255-8470
FAX 877-255-8471

The more they wriggle, the deeper they go...