Jar Berrios Out Of GLADD sold Out to ATT/Tmobile for 50G's
Following the resignation of Jarrett Barrios as president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on Saturday, gay activists are calling for reassessment of the group’s policies and for more heads to roll over its backing of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile.
GLAAD’s board of directors will discuss by telephone on Sunday night whether to formally accept Barrios’s resignation.
Continue ReadingBarrios offered his letter of resignation Saturday amid a growing backlash in the gay blogosphere over GLAAD’s letter of support to the FCC for AT&T’s proposed $39 billion purchase of wireless rival T-Mobile. The letter was signed by Barrios, on behalf of GLAAD, and also by Justin Nelson, president of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
An article in POLITICO earlier this month pointed out that GLAAD was one of several liberal-leaning groups supporting AT&T’s bid that had received donations from the telecom giant — in GLAAD’s case $50,000.
GLAAD and Barrios did not respond to requests for comment regarding his offer of resignation.
Influential members of the gay community say they believe Barrios’s resignation is a positive for GLAAD, but that the organization may need to further clean house and revisit its advocacy for causes unrelated to gay rights.
“GLAAD certainly has an AT&T problem that isn’t going to go away when Jarrett leaves,” John Aravosis, editor of AMERICAblog and a leading gay rights advocate, told POLITICO.
Aravosis called for the resignation of another GLAAD board member, Troup Coronado, a former AT&T official and lobbyist. Coronado’s bio on GLAAD’s website said that from 2008 to 2010 Coronado worked as AT&T’s vice president for external affairs in Los Angeles. AT&T had identified Coronado as a lobbyist for the company as recently as 2006, but the company said in its 2008 filing that he was no longer representing AT&T as a lobbyist.
Coronado is “going to have to pack his bags and get on the same train Jarrett is taking,” Aravosis said.
Coronado could not be reached Sunday.
But when former GLAAD board co-chairwoman Laurie Perper appeared on Michelangelo Signorile’s Sirius XM radio show earlier this month, she alleged that Barrios had traded favors with Coronado for his support and then backed the AT&T/T-Mobile deal in return.
GLAAD immediately condemned Perper’s comments during the show, calling them “factually inaccurate, uninformed and misleading.”
“We are saddened and shocked that Laurie Perper would distort the truth to this degree,” the organization said in a statement.
Many gay activists say that the wireless mega-deal wasn’t an issue that GLAAD and other organizations should have been supporting and that the resignation of Barrios is a step in the right direction following the public outcry.
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