The Salvation Army

Quote by alex284

This is worth a bump for the season.

I used to work at an LGBT publication where the publisher was really big on this. He didn't write often enough but he'd always have a column in December on the Salvation Army.

There are lots of charities for the homeless out there that aren't homophobic (LA lgbt center and the Ali Forney Center in NYC, just for some examples). And even if the Salvation Army were totally OK with gay and trans people, I'd still have a problem with them attaching proselytizing to community service; listening to sermon should not be the price we attach to helping the homeless. They need food and shelter and health care and water and so many other things, not a Bible.

Anyway, the queer charities will never be allowed to put bell-ringers outside every supermarket in Nebraska, so it's worth us going out of our way to support them if we have the means.

Exactly my point, and in our modern world, it is a better option to go online via phone and donate to a queer-friendly (for lack of a better term) charity helping folks more like us than those that fight for us to be viewed as little more than animals or worse.

Personally I don't give to charities at all. There's a little old lady down the street struggling financially, I buy her an occasional bag of groceries or invite her to dinner every so often.

Sooooo many of these "charities" keep a large portion of donations for administrative costs. Some are really bad with most of the money never even getting to the needy, I read some keep more than half of donated money to pay executives. Even gay charities aren't immune to this trend.

Moral of the story is to not only check for anti-gay stances but also to where your donation might be going BEFORE you give anything. Giving that neighbor down the street direct help can sometimes be much easier than giving to a place like the Salvation Army.

Lastly, remember that many of the volunteers or bell ringers are people who honestly only want to help people and don't necessarily like the Army's stance on gays. Don't be an ass, treat them with some measure of respect.