{"id":1465,"date":"2013-05-05T14:55:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T20:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1465"},"modified":"2013-05-05T14:56:52","modified_gmt":"2013-05-05T20:56:52","slug":"human-rights-campaign-largest-lgbt-donors-are-drone-manufacturers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/human-rights-campaign-largest-lgbt-donors-are-drone-manufacturers\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Campaign: Largest LGBT Donors Are Drone Manufacturers"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Hannah Kapp-Klote<\/a>, policymic
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 1960s and 1970s, queer liberation (what we now call \u201cLGBT equality\u201d) was seen by its advocates as an all-inclusive movement intrinsically bound to other social justice movements:\u00a0there could be no justice for queer people without justice for people of color, women, workers, those in other nations, etc. Accordingly,\u00a0queer activists<\/a>\u00a0worked hard to build coalitions with all those determined to fight for justice.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, the LGBT movement does more branding than coalition building.<\/p>\n

Steven W. Thrasher, who has been nationally recognized for his LGBT journalism, called out national LGBT nonprofits and advocates, colloquially referred to by some as the glitter industrial complex, in a\u00a0Gawker\u00a0<\/em>article<\/a>, contending that the LGBT\u00a0activists and nonprofits \u201chave been bought, paid-for and sold to the highest bidder.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true: corporate America runs the LGBT\u00a0movement, or at least the part of the LGBT\u00a0movement that gets press time and donors. Their sponsorship keeps the LGBT\u00a0movement from addressing the issues that matter most for the LGBT\u00a0community and beyond.<\/p>\n

Thrasher highlights that many of the biggest donors to the Human Rights Campaign, the multi-million dollar nonprofit that receives the bulk of donations for LGBT issues, are\u00a0drone manufacturers<\/a>. These donors profit off of the United States\u2019 use of drones to kill\u00a0civilians<\/a>,including children<\/a>, with little oversight or accountability. Drone manufacturers are far from the only ethically dark gray to black donors to LGBT advocacy organizations: a brief perusal of any major LGBT organization\u2019s list of donors reveals that\u00a0corporate black hats<\/a>\u00a0like\u00a0Bank of America<\/a>,BP<\/a>,\u00a0Coke<\/a>, and\u00a0Nike<\/a>\u00a0all provide major cash to LGBT nonprofits.<\/p>\n

And it must be acknowledged that these corporate dollars do some good:\u00a0 programs that encourage the leadership development and empowerment of LGBT young people, the election of LGBT public officials, and advocacy for greater research into LGBT issues would be practically impossible in the modern economy without significant corporate donations. Yet there is something antithetical about a movement for equality and justice funded by the forces in the world most responsible for widespread economic and social inequality.<\/p>\n

When the LGBT\u00a0community is not united with social movements that address the issues facing the most marginalized LGBT\u00a0people, with racial justice proponents (proportionally more people of color\u00a0identify as queer<\/a>), with those fighting against systemic poverty, with pacifists, are we really making any progress? Or has the LGBT\u00a0movement been kidnapped by power elites advocating for their own interests?\u00a0 The dilemma is reminiscent of an image circling some corners of the web: a white gay male couple superimposed over the Human Rights Campaign red equality symbol that dominated Facebook during the gay marriage Supreme Court hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just like you: racist, homophobic, and sexist,\u201d reads the caption. All that\u2019s missing is \u201cmarket driven\u201d and \u201cwar profiteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, claiming that the agendas of nonprofit executives and corporate leaders are the agenda for the entire LGBT\u00a0movement is just as misleading claiming that gay marriage is the deciding issue of the LGBT\u00a0movement. Queer activists around the country, from radical groups likeSoutherners on New Ground (SONG),<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Queers for Economic Justice<\/a>, are connecting the dots between queer liberation, pacifism, and economic and racial justice. Countless more groups and activists, with or without 501c3 status, are fighting to make sure that queer liberation \u2014 not LGBT equality \u2014 is tied up with justice for all oppressed groups around the world.<\/p>\n

Progress for queer people means nothing if it comes at the expense of others also marginalized and fighting for justice. Gay advocacy paid for by companies that poison the land, treat their workers unfairly, and assist in the killing of children from other nations is worthless in the long run. If we truly want a world where LGBT\u00a0people are equal, we have to recognize that such equality is contingent upon justice for all people.<\/p>\n

Not when health care is provided to every same-sex couple, but where health care is accessible to all; not when violent homophobia is eliminated, but when violence based on hatred of any group is eliminated. It might sound Utopian, and it might not be achieved through high profile fund raising dinners. But the alternative, inequality and corporate exploitation draped in a pride flag, is neither progressive nor equal.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Hannah Kapp-Klote, policymic click here for original article In the 1960s and 1970s, queer liberation (what we now call \u201cLGBT equality\u201d) was seen by its advocates as an all-inclusive movement intrinsically bound to other social justice movements:\u00a0there could be no justice for queer people without justice for people of color, women, workers, those in other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/1_article_photo.jpg?fit=325%2C205&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1468,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions\/1468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}