[1316] in peace2
Salvation Army Boycott - MIT angle
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Thu Dec 13 23:17:30 2001
Message-Id: <200112140417.XAA02119@gold.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
cc: gamit@MIT.EDU, djcohen@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 12 Dec 2001 23:11:32 EST."
<200112130411.XAA10433@emat1.mit.edu>
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Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 23:17:25 -0500
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
Update:
I spoke to David Cohen djcohen@mit.edu
staff associate from the MIT Govt and Community Relations office
who was out collecting for Salvation Army (SA) today. He said that
their office has expressed concern about some of these issues to the
SA. He would be interested in hearing about any info
people have about homophobia and/or discrimination associated with
local Salvation Army branches. I am cc'ing him on this to alert
him about the structural concerns with the national organization.
I have spoken with one homeless man who said the local chapter didn't
tolerate racist comments or harassment, but would tolerate homophobic
harassment. (I never got his name, so I can't ask him to give
this in writing or anything.) If people have heard other info, please
consider cc'ing peace-makers@mit.edu
Some feel that poor people are served via SA, so we should keep
supporting but lobby them to change. Others feel we should have
social welfare rather than corporate welfare so that such band-aids
for cancers could close down out of obsolescence. But do what you
feel is right and feel free to share your thoughts on the trade-offs on
peace-makers@mit.edu
In hope,
Aimee
> Jesus loves the straight male children...
>
> ------- Forwarded Message
> >
> >PFLAG has launched a campaign to boycott the Salvation Army by
> >dropping little notes in their buckets letting them know that
> >they would have gotten 5 bucks, instead of a nasty note, if they
> >weren't such morons. Please visit the PFLAG Web site, where
> >you can download the notes, and get more information on this
> >campaign.
> >Scott Parisi
> >People2People Group
> >617-425-2631
> >
> >
> >http://www.pflag.org/advocacy/action.html
> >
> >PFLAG LAUNCHES BOYCOTT OF SALVATION ARMY
> >You gotta hand it to PFLAG - when they're right, they're
> >right. The organization everyone loves to love has just
> >launched a boycott of the virulently anti-gay Salvation
> >Army. As many of you know, the Salvation Army is actually an
> >evangelical Christian organization and really really really
> >doesn't like gay people. They even explicitly refuse to
> >hire gay people, and a few months ago worked out a behind-
> >the-scenes deal with the Bush Administration to codify that
> >anti-gay hiring ban in the proposed faith-based-initiative.
> >(For more info on that, read my story written at the time:
> >http://uspolitics.about.com/library/weekly/aa071001a.htm )
> >
> >Well, the latest bigoted shoe to drop from the Salvation Army
> >happened a few weeks ago. You see, a number of western state
> >Salvation Armies decided that they in fact like gay people,
> >and wanted to give their gay staff domestic partner benefits
> >(though not clear what gay staff they have, since the
> >national office bans gay hires). Well, America's Taliban got
> >its turban in a tizzy and launched a barrage of protests
> >calls, emails and letters to the Salvation Army headquarters.
> >And what do you think the hq did? They caved, and over-ruled
> >the local Salvation Armies. So now, the Salvation Army
> >nationwide will have domestic partner benefits, but it will
> >exclude gay and lesbian employees from those benefits. And
> >these people think we're going to give them money?
> >
> >Well, that's where PFLAG-the-avenger comes in. PFLAG has
> >launched a campaign to boycott the Salvation Army by dropping
> >little notes in their buckets letting them know that they
> >would have gotten 5 bucks, instead of a nasty note, if they
> >weren't such morons. Please visit the PFLAG Web site, where
> >you can download the notes, and get more information on this
> >campaign. And please tell your friends about this site
> >(links provided below), and about the Salvation Army's
> >bigoted position on gays and lesbians. Most people aren't
> >familiar with how "radical right" and intolerant an
> >organization the Salvation Army really is. Which is really
> >too bad. I always grew up thinking they were the good
> >guys...
> >
> >Finally, don't forget - while you shouldn't give a DIME to
> >the Salvation Army, make sure you do give to another
> >organization. No reason the poor should suffer simply
> >because the Salvation Army wanted to take a slap at
> >minorities at Christmas-time.
> >
> >This is the link to the Salvation Army boycott page:
> >http://www.pflag.org/advocacy/action.html
> >
> >This is the link to the notes you can download to drop in the
> >Salvation Army buckets:
> >http://www.pflag.org/advocacy/salvationarmy.PDF
> >
>
> ------- End of Forwarded Message
>
>
>
