Sunday, November 17, 2013

Urban League of Greater Atlanta explains why it gave a trophy to one of America's leading heterosexual supremacists

Mikkel Hyldebrandt and D. David Kinney of Fenuxe.com reported that as part of this year's Equal Opportunity Day Dinner (held yesterday; theme: “Celebrating Champions of Justice and Equality”) the organization's plan to give an award to Chick-fil-A CEO Dan T. Cathy, who has given millions over the years to some of the most relentlessly antigay pressure groups in the country.
     Cathy says he has stopped giving to the most overtly homophobic of his previous beneficiaries, but he is still unremittingly hostile to marriage equality.

     This summer, after the Supreme Court struck down DOMA, (which dictated that one Edie Windsor was socked with a $600,000+ estate tax bill that she wouldn't have owed had the spouse she married in Canada been a male), Dan T. Cathy, was so outraged by the injustice of treating an 80-something lesbian fairly in respect of estate taxes that he tweeted this:
“Sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re: cornerstone of strong societies.”


     The Urban League now has released a statement defending its choice of Dan Cathy as an honoree. Cathy, a billionaire, has supported a number of programs favored by the League; its laundry list includes "Youth Education Programs" and Covenant House, which runs shelters for homeless teens.
     Although though up to 40% of homeless teens identify as LGBT, Cathy evidently has never been caught making a donation to a gay youth homeless shelter like the Trevor Project, Larkin Street Youth Services, Ali Forney Center, etc.
     The board of the Urban League of Atlanta includes such luminaries as Carl A. Tims, of GEICO insurance, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway, Warren Buffett's huge, Omaha-based conglomerate (HRC score: zero,) and Mr. Mark Pitts, of Coca-Cola, sponsor of the 2013 DADT Sochi Olympics.
     At the very bottom of its statement, the Urban League wrote:
Please be assured that the Urban League of Greater Atlanta supports and works for equal rights for all people, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or physical ability. This includes the recent Employment Non-Discrimination Act that was passed out of the US Senate this week.
Tangentially related: Sick of Berkshire-Hathaway subsidiary GEICO's ubiquitous and adolescently stupid insurance ads? Here's some relief from a classier outfit which may be, um, less ethically-challenged than GEICO's corporate siblings.

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