hoppzor.com

greaterthanlapsed:

Since 1986 the Salvation Army has engaged in five major assaults on the LGBT community’s civil rights and attempted to carve out exemptions that would allow them to deny gays and lesbians needed services as well as employment.

• 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 The law has since been repealed, but it led many schools and colleges to close LGBT student organizations out of fear they’d lose their government funding.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.

I hate the Salvation Army for this. Unfortunately, the Salvation Army is the only way low-income families in my hometown can get food, toys, school supplies, utilities, and emergency housing. Sure, you can donate your money directly to assistance center in my hometown, but if you donate that same money to Salvation Army they double it. That’s double the number of kids that get a good Christmas, mentally ill veterans that get their rent paid, and elderly folks who get heating.

Don’t tell me that there are plenty of other good organizations to donate money to because I’m sorry, my hometown of 2,000 isn’t going to get money from them. ~3% of the population under the poverty line; double poverty line can get aid. Goodwill doesn’t cut checks to support these people even if it is a great organization. The Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, and Habitat for Humanity aren’t going to help these people out. 

It’s great for people that are privileged enough to live in the big city to donate to another organization, but for most of the country, Salvation Army is their best hope for a semi-normal existence. I’ve gritted my teeth and rung the bell in my hometown since I was 12. I’m disgusted by their hateful policies and have told them so, but I’ve also seen grown men cry because their kid could have some Christmas presents because of Salvation Army’s donations.

(via robot-heart-politics)