Shop for Pride! 7% of your purchase at goes to the Pride Center!

Buffalo, NY, December 6, 2004 - - In an effort to bring to light discriminatory policies and practices by one of the nation’s largest Evangelical Christian groups, the Pride Center of Western New York is joining with other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations across the country in the “Zero Dollar Campaign.”

Long known for its charitable work, the Salvation Army has a darker side. In an interview with The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the organization’s National Commissioner, W. Todd Bassett responding to the question as to whether the Army would hire gay employees said, “I’m very sorry, but you cannot be in a position where you represent the Salvation Army organizationally and practice a lifestyle that conflicts with who we are.” In the same interview he went on to say, “I can’t tell you how many times people have said to me, ‘I’m not sure what the Salvation Army does, but if you need help, they’re the ones you go to.’ If people know that, what else do you need to know about us?”

The Pride Center believes you need to know a lot more. Not the least of which is that the Salvation Army threatened to close all its soup kitchens for tens of thousands of New Yorkers if New York City enacted legislation that would guarantee health benefits to same-sex partners.

“It’s unfortunate that an organization with the potential to do as much good as the Salvation Army, has instead chosen to make its charitable giving conditional upon adherence to its religious code,” said Pride Center of Western New York Executive Director, Jim Ver Steeg.

Locally, Major George Polarek stated in an interview with the Buffalo News that customers who put money in holiday collection buckets aren’t necessarily supporting the Salvation Army. “They’re supporting all the people who the Salvation Army helps,” he said. What he didn’t mention was that the Salvation Army would rather use New York’s homeless as a bargaining chip than allow our nation’s largest city to enact laws designed to protect the families of their employees and contractors.

As part of the Zero Dollar Campaign, the Pride Center is providing faux dollars, both in its newsletter and on its website, for supporters to print or clip out and use in place of real money for collection bucket contributions. To help drive the message home to the Salvation Army, the faux dollar has in place of a president’s face the statement, “This could have been a donation if you didn’t discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.” Supporters are instead encouraged to give to organizations with inclusive policies.

“We’re not calling into question the need for important services like soup kitchens and charitable giving,” said Ver Steeg. “We just need to make people aware that everything is not always as it seems. Everyone giving money to the Salvation Army deserves to know more about the policies of the organization receiving those donations.”

For more information on the Zero Dollar Campaign, please call the Pride Center of Western New York at .

# # #
   

Last updated: 07/29/05