Facebook’s $10,000 donation to antigay Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes pales in comparison to the donation AT&T made to the gubernatorial campaign of Greg Abbott, the antigay Republican of Texas currently running against Wendy Davis.
The telecommunications giant recently shelled out $75,000 to help elect Abbott the next Governor of Texas. That’s in addition to a $50,000 donation made to his campaign for Attorney General last year, when it was expected he would enter the gubernatorial race. In total, AT&T has handed over $125,000 to the guy who claims gay people aren’t discriminated against, that they do have the freedom to marry… members of the opposite sex.
“All persons in Texas — regardless of sexual orientation — are subject to the same definition of marriage, and the plaintiffs are as free to marry an opposite-sex spouse as anyone else in the State,” Abbott said while arguing in favor of upholding Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year.
In an e-mail to Long Star Q, AT&T spokesman Marty Richter insisted that, despite the company’s $125,000 in donations to a politician who is actively working against the equal rights of LGBT people, AT&T loves the gays.
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“Diversity and inclusion are part of AT&T’s culture and operations, and we’re proud to be recognized as a leader in this area,” he stated. “Every year since 2004 we’ve received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for our fair treatment of our LGBTQ employees, including protection against discrimination, parity of health care benefits for domestic partners and other criteria.”
But AT&T isn’t the only one proclaiming their love for Abbott. It is joined by none other than Sarah Palin, who endorsed the candidate earlier this year by saying, “If he is good enough for Ted Nugent, he is good enough for me!”
1EqualityUSA
Do I need another reason to drop AT&T?
DarkZephyr
Guess I am sticking with Verizon.
“Diversity and inclusion are part of AT&T’s culture and operations, and we’re proud to be recognized as a leader in this area,” he said. “[E]very year since 2004 we’ve received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for our fair treatment of our LGBTQ employees, including protection against discrimination, parity of health care benefits for domestic partners and other criteria.”
Gee dumbf*ck, apparently you don’t grasp the fact that its not how you treat your LGBT employees that appalls us but the fact that you are actively *helping to fight equality for LGBT people* by donating money to homophobes. The Human Rights Campaign better reassess AT&T.
DarkZephyr
BTW I would assume that its “The Lone Star Q” and not “Long Star” because one of Texas’ nick names is “the lone star state”.
barkomatic
This is disappointing to hear. AT&T had a float in the last NYC pride parade I believe. I’m hoping the reason for these donations is that someone at the company didn’t realize the anti-gay stance these politicians have. They sometimes get myopic if the person in some way promises to benefit their business or industry.
This makes me want to drop them but are the other carriers any better at LGBTQ rights?
DomitoJo
this is disappointing new, however I must say I’ve worked for at&t for 15 Yeats and I’ve been very pleased with how the company treats it’s lgtbq employees. so much in fact that I joined at&t’s group for lgtbq employees a few months ago. we even represented at&t at my city’s pride parade last month.
Saint Law
Sarah ‘eatshit’ Palin: “If he’s good enough for Ted Nugent he’s good enough for me.”
Moron approves cretin – who’d have thunk it?
Goforit
The only diversity that AT&T is displaying, is talking out of both sides of their mouth at the same time. They overcharge their customers so that they can donate (buy influence) with this bigot who actively works to deny us equality. He rewards them with tax breaks at the publics expense. They can then afford to put a float in our pride parades to show us just how much they love LGBTQ’s. Gee, that seems fair to me. Welcome to the American political / corporate / free market way of life.
1EqualityUSA
We can blame the Catholic-5 on the Supreme Court for making it easier for big corporations to bankroll their chosen candidates to the hilt. Citizens United was so blatantly pro-Republican that it has me losing faith in our system.
Desert Boy
I dumped AT&T long ago when it was disclosed to the media they helped the FBI develop its ‘Carnivore’ snooping software. AT&T is shit.
Cam
If the candidate was pushing for laws to outlaw women owning property, or blacks getting married AT&T would never have even considered donating.
It is only because they do not consider gay rights at all, therefore it’s fine to donate to a raging bigot and simply excuse it as a business decision.
EGO
Ah…. money, money, money. Such is the way of big business. Perhaps if AT&T started to lose a lot of money from LGBT/and supporting customers cancelling their accounts, they would change their ways.
transiteer
The final reason you’d need to drop AT&T. They put their money on “him”, not you. I don’t think anyone here is that dumb. Money talks, and they’re talking to the Texas Fascist who’s probably hung like Mickey Mouse.