Forget what you’ve heard in the very recent past, the Salvation Army wants everyone to know that it does not discriminate against gay people.
The website for the Salvation Army in Central Ohio currently features a video defending the charity’s past treatment of the LGBT community.
Under the headline “Salvation Army Open to All,” the video addresses what the Christian social-welfare organization calls “inaccurate claims.”
“Rumors have been leading some to believe that the Salvation Army does not serve members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community,” it says. “These accusations simply aren’t true.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The only problem? The rumors aren’t rumors. The accusations are true. The Salvation Army has a very long and colorful history of opposing equal rights for LGBT people, and no amount of heart-wrenching YouTube videos are going to make us forget that.
Earlier this year, the organization denied shelter to a trans woman in Texas who was forced to flee her home after receiving death threats. And last winter, it included links to “ex-gay” organizations on its website. Then there was that incident in 2012 when the Andrew Craibe, the Salvation Army’s Media Director in Australia, said gay people should be “put to death.”
But, hey, all that is water under the bridge, right?
“For the past few years during the holiday season, a lot of chatter on social media was saying the Salvation Army was antigay and discriminates against people in the LGBT community,” said national spokesperson Lt. Colonel Ron Busroe. “I felt we needed to be proactive on this.”
He continued: “My concern is that we need to make sure that people aren’t reading things on the Internet or through social media and thinking that must be true.”
Like, for instance, Busroe’s comments.
Related stories:
Don’t Fall For the Salvation Army’s PR Spin! They’re Still Super Antigay
Berkeley Student Council Wants Anti-Gay Salvation Army Booted From Campus
Remember To Ignore The Salvation Army Bell Ringers This Holiday Season
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Cam
Every Single Year, the Salvation Army has tried to claim that they aren’t anti-gay and yet have done nothing to change their policies.
They’re just hoping to trick enough people into putting money into their pots to make it through until next year when they will make the same fake claims again.
Here are just a few things they have done throughout the years, and as late as 2012 were still firing people who were gay and saying they had the right to because it was against their principles.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zinnia-jones/the-salvation-armys-histo_b_4422938.html
Ron Jackson
I still refuse to give them money. They have now resorted to using children as bell ringers (with an adult). Sad but true.
Paul Nadolski
To take off on their advertising campaign this year, I have plenty of #RedKettleReasons for not contributing.
Pitou
The nearest Salvation Army is approximately 3 miles from my house, with a drop-box located about a mile from my house. The nearest Goodwill is over 10 miles from my house, without a drop-box in between (I don’t think they actually have any..).
You bet your ass I make an effort to travel all the way to Goodwill to donate items. The employees who receive the donates items are always very pleasant and grateful for any donation.
As far as the incredibly annoying bell ringers this year, I think I might donate money to the Ali Forney Center and add my $0.02 to the Red Kettle in the form of a Thank you…
“Thank You! A cash donation has been made in your name to the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth. SOMEONE needed to help those you’ve shamefully abandoned!”
onthemark
The bells… oh the horror… they remind me of Edgar Allan Poe:
Hear the loud alarum bells –
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now -now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells –
Of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells –
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
Ladbrook
Not a dime. Never have.
jimontp
The city and county of San Francisco cut the Salvation Army off from any funding specifically because of their anti-LGBT policies, so I never contribute to them. Pass the kettles by, smile, and wish the bell-ringers a Merry And Gay Christmas.
YouGoGurl
Wouldn’t give them the sweat off my bubble butt.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@Ladbrook: Ok, so now we know how a rasist, self centered, narrow minded, asshole would respond to this.
You other gay people reading this need to start understanding that gay isn’t a coverall for us so that we cannot be found to be horrible people ourselves in our own right by virtue of having that label. The idiot I’ve sited here is a perfect example as such. You wind up looking like a serious fool in life by following his idiocy, and just because he says he’s “gay like you”.
A truly better person would in fact distance themselves from idiots like you Fadbrooks at all costs. Your track record is so bad that the way I see it I can’t believe that the Salvation Army is wrong, because you’re one of the douche bag who’s bashing them.
RyanD
@ I’m Black, and HIV-Positive.: …what?
Saint Law
@RyanD: He’s a mentally ill middle aged white guy who is unlikely to be HIV positive; even if there were anyone prepared to sleep with him he won’t find them as he spends so much time on here posting crap under various aliases.
Never interact with him on his own terms – you probably shouldn’t even abuse him – he enjoys it.
I do, but then I’m generous like that.
1EqualityUSA
The Starvation Army IS anti-gay. Just because the tide has turned for us on the hate-o-meter scale doesn’t erase their anti-gay past.
buffnightwing
@I’m Black, and HIV-Positive.: PLEASE STOP attacking other readers. As far as I can tell, you are the one with the problem and the racism. Change your meds, or get a therapist and stoop attacking your fellow gay friend.
QUEERTY??? Whya re you allowing these vicious personal attacks in here? For readership??
Tiffany Hamilton
@Ron Jackson:
Outside of Walmart the other night my family saw a 12 year old girl who was alone. No adult. We asked her why she was doing it. It’s been outlawed in Illinois for any child under a certain age to volunteer without an adult, yet they still do it anyways. They switch shifts with no adult supervision. That’s a kidnapping waiting to happen.
tricky ricky
@I’m Black, and HIV-Positive.: are you always an off point moronic *sshole troll? do you ever have anything to add but bashing people for whatever your demented little warped mind has decided to accuse them of?
tricky ricky
the salvation army did what they called a valentines day party at the residential home I worked at some years ago. it was instead an over the top religious revival style meeting using the myth of the gory demise of st. valentine. it upset our residents greatly. they were told they were never to come back unless it was a non religious service christmas event. there are some public service things the group does well, but when they involve religion in it always turns into a nightmare of right wing religious bullying.
transiteer
More crap from “Christian” organizations that don’t even come close to practicing what they say they preach. They are hateful, heartless homophobes – save your money or burn it – better than giving it to these leaches.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@RyanD: I’m sorry you had to see that Ryan, I do apologize, but then razists assholes like the internet hacks that exist here on Queerty (Ladbrook, Saint Law, Stache99, and crew) need to know that they won’t be bullying anyone around here anytime soon. Apparently they’re angry, because BJ got chosen to be a voice of the community in a recent article Queerty posted.
They’re a painfully jealous lot left to vent their hate and envy through rash expressions of razist angst, smear campaigns, and bully tactics. Projection is there favorite tactic. Meaning they like to accuse everyone who stands up to them of having mentally dysfunctions, when it’s really them! For example: Right now their current argument is that everyone who hates them simply must be the exact same person posting under different profile names. They say that I am really BJ, and so is Jason Smeds apparently. For further proof notice how Saint Law actually just tried to call me a heterosexual white man who isn’t even HIV positive in a post he directed to you. And if that isn’t an example of paranoid mental instability then I don’t know what is.
He says he generous, but it’s more like he’s two faced. The only thing that he got right is that I’m middle aged.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@buffnightwing: Bitch, shut the everloving fuck up, because I’m more than getting sick & tired of seeing your bitch ass stepping in, and trying to say your own little slick shit like you ain’t just here to attack, and enjoy the fighting your damn self. Me and this asshole here would be having an argument, but you would only seem to be reveling in the joy of the fighting itself. That’s called “A” & “B” bitch! Now “C” yo ass up the street, or something!
You’re the innocent bystander turned mediator? Uh huh. But then how come this is already the second time I’ve had to speak to your bitch ass about this same topic now, and I ain’t otherwise never had spoke to your bitch ass directly about anything ever before? Nobody ever asked you for your bitch ass perspectives on any goddamn situation ho, so you might just want to lead by example, and shut the fuck up, because the way I see it you might be an even bigger problem than these bigots here you instigating bitch.
Now get the picture & shut the fuck up, because I won’t be talked down to, or patronized by your bitch ass neither. Or I highly suggest that you find another website to start bullying people around on bitch, because I stands up for mines. Now. Eat it!
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@tricky ricky: “are you always an off point moronic *sshole troll? do you ever have anything to add but bashing people for whatever your demented little warped mind has decided to accuse them of?”
And I suppose you think you’ve illustrated somewhere that you’re so much a better person than a “moronic asshole troll” to make such an accusation. Funny how the mind plays tricks on oneself, eh tricky?
And do you ever have anything to add, but bashing people for whatever your demented little warped mind has decided to accuse them of yourself bitch? That’s a question bitch. Answer it! Because you got awfully familiar there considering I don’t even know who you’re bitch ass is, and have never had anything to say to your bitch ass directly before. Feeling overly defensive, because there’s someone’s dick around here you’re proverbially sucking on that I intentionally defrauded? Well then. You can eat shit too then dullard.
And Q: Why do you ask so many questions anyway bitch? A: Practicing your own two face skills? Like double standards aren’t patently razist while you’re trying to spin doctor that calling out you, and your ostensible bitch ass friends’ two face, double standard bullshit here is somehow irrelevant. Maybe you just need to mind your own fucking business since you’re taking the time to be asking so many irrevelant, hypocritical questions in the first place yourself bitch as it is.
Wasn’t trying to assert yourself into the argument that way? Aw. But razists always only defend razists I’ve always learned bitch. So, why not make the assumption? You clearly only jumped in with all your hypocritical questions only to contradict-orally assert that you already knew enough information to choose sides bitch, so I suggest you try harder at committing yourself to whatever your supposed “base intentions” were in the first place, and just straight shut the fuck up next time, because I don’t think I like you very much either asshole… The feeling’s mutual. Now. Ta taa little one. Go play.
And I’m pretty certain that anything else your little sour ass has to say after this is gonna be: “Blah, blah, blah”, so I’ve printed that already for you.
buffnightwing
@I’m Black, and HIV-Positive.: If you are truly HIV positive, then you need to go talk to your doctor. If he or she heard you speaking like that in the waiting room at the clinic I go too, they would throw YOU out so fast your precious little black head would be spinning on the pavement outside on the cold icy ground.
1EqualityUSA
Peace on Earth.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@buffnightwing: Right, because a doctor who prescribes HIV meds is also what – a psychologist, or a UFC fighter? Clearly you would be wrong no matter what your pathology you infant minded, rasist bitch, and on that note I strongly suggest that you go get help for that little “hating black people” problem of yours.
Furthermore bitch, allow me to illustrate just narrow-minded your whole thinking sphere has become as a result of all the razist pathology that allow into it instead of truth, knowledge, and common sense: My doctor would be a black woman! Yeah, you stupid bitch! So given that fact, if she ever even saw me speaking “like that” to the likes of you, and “in the waiting room at the clinic” then she would be helping me stomp the fuck out your little rasist, punk bitch ass. Get the message yet punk? Still mad about something whore? Still trying to make a righteous argument out of hate, and bigotry? Good luck with that.
Funny, how you tried to pretend that you were entering a fight in progress only to mediate, but I exposed you as being the main bully, and perpetrator behind all the fights here on Queerty outright in the first place. More like you were making up any excuse you could to start attacking people under the radar in your own right. Now try bullying that you rasist, no sense in your head, hack bitch! And say something else dumb on that note! Whatever happened to your little self righteous, indignant argument bitch? Bitch, you clearly have no argument, have never had an argument, and it’s all right here in (ahem) black & white. How appropriate. You want to pretend you have a righteous argument, but threaten me one more time bitch!
In fact she (the doctor you just dimwittedly referenced) would held me kick your little precious, white, rasist head so hard that it would be spinning itself on the pavement outside on the cold, icy ground. And you might even be surprised to how many righteous gay black men who read this sites’ posts would actually help us in doing it. Afterall, what’s the harm in getting rid of one more rasist, white devil in the world by the name of buffnigtwing?
BeauBoi69
I worked for the Salvation Army here in Charleston SC u til earlier this year. It was never intended to be a career, but I am in my last 2 semesters of college and I wanted to work part-time doing something that I felt would benefit the community. I had heard in the past that the Salvation Army was discriminatory against LGBTQ persons, but I had also read numerous apologies from the company, and I figured that even the worst homophobes could change their ways, so when I was offered the position through other charity work I had done locally I decided to give it a shot.
Everything went really well….for about a year. A co-worker made the fact that I am gay (and “gay-married”) public at work and quickly the company’s treatment of me changed. 3 days later, and I was told that I was no longer allowed to eat my lunch with my co-workers. My manager said that, if I wanted to eat lunch, I had to eat it alone in a building separate from other employees eating their lunch. I was very confused (I didn’t know that I had been “outed”, though I never tried to hide my sexuality, I never thought it was relevant to my job as a cashier). I had just been offered a promotion the week before, but the promotion was rescinded. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, it became obvious that my manager was doing everything in his power to try and get me to quit. I was told that I could no longer shop in the store on my days off, that I would be written up if I arrived to work too early (I usually arrived ~10 minutes early; I was told to never arrive over 3 minutes early). I was written up for working off the clock…because I picked up a piece of trash off the floor and threw it in the trash as I was walking into the store on my way to log in for work. It was all so unbelievable! I went from being told that I was a “valued and dependable employee” who had just been promoted to assistant manager, to being a “problem employee” who was “demoted” back to my original position only 6 days after being promoted!
Finally, after being written up, I just gave them the keys to the building, the safe, and the office back to my manager and walked out. All of my friends told me that I should have made them fire me, but it just wasn’t worth it to me. I graduate in 2 semesters as a non-traditional adult student, having gone back to school after 18 years in the service industry as a restauranteur. I bring in more a month just from my rental properties than my manager at the Salvation Army makes working a 40 hour week. Driving me out of the job was, literally, their loss because they needed me WAY more than I needed them!
~Beau