Has Salvation Army Truly Renounced Its Homophobia?

Why You Should NOT Donate to Salvation Army

From Bilerco:

• When New Zealand considered passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986, the Salvation Army collected signatures in an attempt to get the legislation killed. The act decriminalized consensual sex between gay men. The measure passed over the charity's objections.
• In the United Kingdom, the Salvation Army actively pushed passage of an amendment to the Local Government Act. The amendment stated that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." The law has since been repealed, but it led many schools and colleges to close LGBT student organizations out of fear they'd lose their government funding.
• In 2001, the organization tried to extract a resolution from the White House that they could ignore local non-discrimination laws that protected LGBT people. While the commitment would have applied to all employees, the group claimed that it needed the resolution so it "did not have to ordain sexually active gay ministers and did not have to provide medical benefits to the same-sex partners of employees." After lawmakers and civil rights activists revealed the Salvation Army's active resistance to non-discrimination laws, the White House admitted the charity was seeking the exemptions.
• Also in 2001, the evangelical charity actively lobbied to change how the Bush administration would distribute over $24 billion in grants and tax deductions by urging the White House deny funding to any cities or states that included LGBT non-discrimination laws. Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary, issued a statement saying the administration was denying a "regulation sought by the church to protect the right of taxpayer-funded religious organizations to discriminate against homosexuals."
• In 2004, the Salvation Army threatened to close all their soup kitchens in New York City to protest the city's decision to require all vendors and charities doing business with the city to adhere to all civil rights laws. The organization balked at having to treat gay employees equal to straight employees.

Lowlights & Highlights: December 1, 2012

 An Alabama woman was beaten by her girlfriend's brother literally to a bloody pulp on Thanksgiving in what was an apparent hate crime. This is not the first time the man had assaulted her. If that were not bad enough, the Alabama official who was on the case said there was no reason to treat this as a hate crime. Seriously?

What makes this even sadder is that I am sure no one was surprised to hear this from an Alabama official. It is, after all, Alabama. The state at large (or for that matter the South in general) is not known for being LGBT-friendly. The state does not cover gender identification of sexual orientation in its hate crimes law (it actually DOES cover race, which is an honest shock to me).

The attacker is out on bond, which is galling. He has a history of beating this woman TWICE, and he gets let out. Nothing about this case makes sense. It is almost as if the "justice" system is going out of its way to act as though what happened here did not matter. My guess is that when he goes to trial, if he ends up convicted, he will end with a light sentence (think Dharun Ravi). I seriously hope that guess ends up wrong, but if I end up being correct, I will not be surprised in the least. Justice for LGBT people in places like this is illusive at best.

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If you have been on the Facebook page for this blog, you will have noticed I changed the avatar to an anti Salvation Army picture. I did the same thing on my personal page. A couple of people asked me why I am against the Salvation Army including one of my oldest friends. When they asked me this, I simply gave them a link to a blog post from earlier this week which gives an overview of the organizations homophobic stances and history. When my friend found out about this, she told me that she donates to them every year but she no longer would. Despite this friend of mine being a practicing Catholic, she still is very much for LGBT equality. She has lived primarily in New York City and was thrilled when the state legalized marriage equality.

I'm not setting out to tell people what to do. I am merely disseminating information of which some people may not be aware. In so doing, every once in a while, some tells me that this (whether explicitly or implicitly) that I am making at least some positive difference. That is pretty much the point of this whole blogging endeavor. When my friend let me know that she would no longer support this anti-gay organization, it let me know that getting the word out about such things is well worth the work and the effort. I could not help but smile.

Salvation Army's Discriminatory Policies

From Huffington Post:

America Blog is asking LGBT shoppers and allies to give downloadable "vouchers" to Salvation Army bell ringers in lieu of cash in an effort to let the organization know that "bigotry is not a Christmas value," according to blogger John Aravosis.

"The Salvation Army discriminates against gay people, and discriminating donors should find another charity this Christmas than evangelical bigots who advocate against our civil rights," Aravosis writes. "And not just that –- they’ve actively lobbied against pro-gay policies in a number of countries as well."

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Of course, it isn't the first time the Salvation Army's conservative view of homosexuality has been brought to attention. "The Salvation Army has a history of active discrimination against gays and lesbians. While you might think you're helping the hungry and homeless by dropping a few dollars in the bright red buckets, not everyone can share in the donations," Bil Browning noted on The Bilerico Project last year. "The organization also has a record of actively lobbying governments worldwide for anti-gay policies -- including an attempt to make consensual gay sex illegal."

Indeed, as Browning pointed out, the group's position statements reveal a somewhat rigid outlook on LGBT lifestyles. "Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex," one statement reads. "The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage."