|
‘Gay’ Activists Target Salvation Army Bell Ringers 12/9/2004 Groups launch parody, fake dollars and boycotts.
A legal battle pitting homosexual activists against the Salvation Army has been churning in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area at the same time that Minneapolis-based Target Corporation’s decision to ban Salvation Army bell ringers is making headlines.
When Target announced the end of the Salvation Army’s exception to the store’s non-solicitation policy, it blamed an “increasing number of solicitation inquiries.”
“Gee, could some of those requests be coming from homosexual activists, who have had the Salvation Army in their gun sights since the charity decided to uphold marriage and refuse to fund homosexual relationships?” asked Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America’s Culture & Family Institute. “Perhaps the organizers of a campaign created as a parody of the Salvation Army were among them?”
“Celebration Army,” a proposed fundraising effort, had planned to solicit donations at Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall and other Minnesota locations this Christmas season with kettles and bell ringers. Funds would go to Open Arms of Minnesota to provide meals to those with HIV-AIDS.
Celebration Army was created by Charlie Rounds, president and co-founder of RSVP Productions Inc., a St. Louis Park-based travel agency catering to “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender [GLBT] travelers.”
The Salvation Army filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on October 11, 2001, to stop the parody.
“While Open Arms of Minnesota’s mission is entirely laudable, its assumption of a name so confusingly similar to the Salvation Army was obviously calculated, if not deliberately designed, to deceive,” claimed the Salvation Army in court documents reported in The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.
Open Arms of Minnesota has permission to solicit donations this season at the Nicollet Mall, but will use noisemakers other than bells because of the lawsuit, the Journal reported.
Fake Donation Dollars Return
The Genesee County, Michigan, chapter of the homosexual activist group Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays (PFLAG) will continue its annual protests against the Salvation Army. Since 2001, the Genesee PFLAG chapter has provided fake dollar bills to be stuffed into the collection kettles.
The fake bills read: “I would have donated ______ dollar(s), but the Salvation Army decision to discriminate against gay and lesbian employees prevents my donation now and in the future.”
Other PFLAG chapters have joined the campaign, although it is not endorsed by PFLAG’s national office this year.
“This isn’t a project the national office is sponsoring, but we’re happy to direct people to chapters that are participating,” Ron Schlittler, interim executive director of PFLAG’s national office, told the homosexual paper Southern Voice.
Homosexual Groups Call for Boycotts of Stores Hosting Bell Ringers
The homepage of GayDC, a Washington, D.C.-based homosexual activist Web site, is calling for a boycott of two Washington-area grocery store chains, Giant Food and Safeway, because they welcome the Salvation Army’s bell ringers.
“They are letting Salvation Army ring their bells and collect money in their red kettles and have yet to address the Salvation Army's discriminatory policies towards the GLBT Community. Doesn't [sic] Giant Food ~AND~ Safeway have non-discriminatory workplace policies that this violates the rights of any of their GLBT employees?” notes the Web site.
The site also features a banner for Target Stores and a note saying that until the end of the year, all purchases made online with Target through the GayDC Website would be donated to Food and Friends, a charity providing meals to those with HIV-AIDS.
GayDC and other homosexual groups including Integrity, a group that promotes homosexuality within the Catholic Church, have been sending thank you notes to Target, commending them for kicking the Salvation Army bell ringers off store property, according to a search of their Web sites and various news reports.
“Needy families are not even on the radar screen of these homosexual activist groups, who are more interested in promoting acceptance of sodomy than in the Salvation Army’s ongoing charity efforts to keep poor people fed and clothed,” Knight said.
|
|
|
Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 |
Feedback / Questions? || Problem with this page? || Archives
