Gays Boycott the Red Kettle Menace

Those jangling Salvation Army bells get on my nerves sometimes, but that’s nothing compared to their effect on the LGBT community. A widely urged boycott of the Red Kettle campaign has probably had some effect already.

Bil Browning made the case on his website a few days before Thanksgiving: “Why you shouldn’t donate to the Salvation Army bell ringers.” According to Browning, the organization has a dark history of refusing services for people of a different sexual orientation. He himself experienced this years ago when he and a former boyfriend were out on the street: “The Salvation Army insisted we break up before they’d offer assistance.” But even worse is the Salvation Army’s “record of actively lobbying governments worldwide for anti-gay policies—including an attempt to make consensual gay sex illegal.”