We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned with the inclusion of the weapons manufacturer Raytheon as a sponsor for the Santa Barbara Pride Festival. Although we are entirely supportive of Pacific Pride and the events its organizers have commendably coordinated for Pride Week, we find Raytheon to be a deeply inappropriate candidate for affiliation with a foundation that is stated to hold equal human rights in the highest regard.

The stated intention of Pride Week, as presented on www.pacificpridefestival.org, is to “…bring together our community and help sew love, peace, and unity in Santa Barbara.” However, Raytheon is the fifth-largest military contractor in the world and is credited as being the largest producer of guided missiles worldwide; their weapons are sold worldwide and are deployed in numerous and controversial conflicts, and in most of these conflicts many civilians die. For instance, Raytheon explosives were deployed in Israel's recent Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths. Raytheon has now developed a product known as the “Silent Guardian,” also dubbed the “Pain Ray” which is marketed as a crowd control device that functions by discharging a beam of high-energy waves which causes the flesh of all living things in its range to feel extremely intense burning. The Silent Guardian has been put to use in Afghanistan and has been tested on both animals and on at least one occasion on prisoners in Castaic, California.

By signing this petition, you and all other contributors will send a collective message to Pacific Pride that accepting funding from a corporation that profits off of the deaths of innocent people does not work towards peace, that love does not look like a bunker bomb and that unity is not fostered through warfare. The Human Rights Campaign has endorsed Raytheon as a company for its employment of LGBTQ individuals, but you will make it known to Pacific Pride that you do not believe the inclusiveness of a company’s employment policies renders it unaccountable for its actions, or that equal rights in the workplace should preclude human rights elsewhere. Most importantly, you will make it known to Pacific Pride that YOU, as a participant in Pride events, do not want to be affiliated with a corporation that aids in the systematic dismantling of healthy, humane relationships between people and within communities.

Thank you for taking the time to read this petition. Together, we can put an end to Raytheon’s unethical integration into the LGBTQA community and, in doing so, facilitate a more wholesome and conscientious movement towards change.