An article in People magazine featuring the coming-out story of ’N Sync member Lance Bass prompted a memo to be sent to all 17 of The Kroger Company’s supermarket chains stating if customers complained, store managers could remove the magazine from the sales floor.

The article, published on July 26, featured a front-page headline that read, in all capital letters, “I’M GAY.”

The memo was sent by Kroger Co. General Merchandise marketing manager Matt Sander and was distributed to all Kroger Company drug/general merchandise division merchandisers, assistant merchandisers and category managers on July 26. San Diego area Kroger Co. chains include Ralphs and Food 4 Less.

The memo stated, “While it is our policy that we do not censor the editorial content of mainstream magazine publications within our stores, if our stores should have customer complaints on this particular issue, the store can remove the issue from the sales floor.”

A Kroger-chain employee brought the memo to the Gay & Lesbian Times’ attention. The employee, who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect her employment, said she has not once been sent a memo like this before in the many years the she has been working for Kroger.

“This seems like discrimination to me,” she said. “They are going against their own policy.”

Meghan Glynn, director of media relations for Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger Co., said the memo was sent to their chains as a precautionary measure to inform the store that if it did receive customer complaints about the Lance Bass People issue, it could be taken off the shelves, but would still be available for sale upon customer request. Glynn said no customer complaints were documented and the issue remained on the sales floor within the magazine shelves.

“Periodically, we do receive complaints about content in magazine publications sold in our stores,” Glynn said. “As a matter of policy, Kroger encourages each of our retail divisions to make its own decisions about what merchandise to carry, including magazines, based on consumer preference in each market. Kroger always strives to be a store for the entire community.”

The employee questioned why some magazines Kroger Co. chains sell, such as Lowrider, sit on the shelves unquestioned, without a letter being sent to warn managers about its content. The employee provided the Gay & Lesbian Times with a photo of Lowrider within a Kroger Co. store that featured the headline “Girls of Lowrider After Dark.” The magazine displayed a busty woman in a short skirt standing in a car straddling a steering wheel.

Glynn said she was not aware of that edition of Lowrider, but said there are some magazines Kroger Co. sells that are placed behind black screens on the shelves so that the front covers are masked but the magazine titles are visible. Cosmopolitan is an example of a magazine that Kroger Co. received complaints about in the past due to its content, and the magazine was subsequently put behind the screens on the magazine stands, Glynn said.

“Certain magazines are asked to be put behind screens. This [People] did not fall into that category,” she said. “… If an adult wishes to take it a step further and remove it from that screen to purchase it, that’s their choice.”

The Gay & Lesbian Times inspected the magazine racks of a local Ralphs store, located at 1090 University Ave. in Hillcrest, and found that not all magazines with questionably offensive content were put behind a black screen.

Among those magazines with questionable content that were not placed behind black screens was an issue of Maxim featuring Elsa Pataky on the front cover, sitting in a bathing suit with a snake between her legs. A black screen also was not present for an issue of Harper’s Bazaar featuring a photo of a pregnant Britney Spears posing naked on the cover. Both magazines appeared on the front shelves of the magazine section at the front of the store.

Glynn said the screens are available to all stores, and it is up to individual stores how to utilize them based on the feedback they receive from their customers.

“That explains why on any given day you might see some or you might not see any,” she said.