The Salvation Army Looks Nice But Inside its Always Been Anti-Gay-What is a Giving Person to Do?
BY JACOB TOBIA
Growing up in suburban North Carolina, the sound of a tinkling bell and the subsequent call for donations became ubiquitous with the holiday season. Each time I went to the grocery store or Wal-Mart, I’d see someone ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, and if I was lucky, they might even be wearing a Santa suit or dressed up like an elf. As a kid, I had fond memories of running up to the person ringing the bell, slipping a dollar into the bucket, and feeling like I’d done my part.
Increasingly, those memories have become clouded, fogged up with knowledge about the Salvation Army’s complicated history with the LGBTQ+ community. These days, it’s hard for a queen like me to scroll through her newsfeed around the holiday season without seeing a post from someone reminding me not to give to the Salvation Army because they are homophobic, transphobic, fundamentalist, or worse.
For my own rainbow edification, I decided to do some digging, and the results were, well, confusing. What I can say, with absolute certainty, is that the Salvation Army has a pretty sketchy history of bigotry, close-mindedness, hostility, and general weirdness towards LGBTQ+ folks around the world. They’re like that ex-boyfriend who cheated on you in ninth grade but swore that he changed this summer and tenth grade is going to be different. Sure, you could keep dating him, but you deserve better.
The problem with the Salvation Army is that they’ve layered the good in with the bad: the frosting is nice, but the cake is dry. In their mission statement, they say that their goal is “to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in his name without discrimination,” and the without discrimination part is what gets me.
Not discriminating against LGBTQ+ people isn’t a crowning achievement: it’s the bare minimum necessary to be a decent organization. To be an organization worthy of donations and financial support from people who care about LGBTQ+ folks and about equality, you have to do a whole lot more than simply not discriminating in order to pass go.
What's a girl to do if she's feeling philanthropic around the holidays? If you’re feeling extra generous this holiday season, and you care at all about the fact that an estimated 40 percent of homeless youth in the United States identify as LGBTQ+ or about the fact that transgender people in America are four times more likely to live in abject poverty, here are eight organizations that are a helluva lot more deserving of your donation:
The Ali Forney Center: Headquartered in New York City, the Ali Forney Center works “to protect LGBTQ+ youth from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently.”
TGI Justice Project: Located in the Bay Area, the TGI Justice Project works with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated trans and gender nonconforming people to create a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom.
The Hetrick-Martin Institute: With locations in both New York City and Newark, NJ, the Hetrick-Martin Institute provides a range of support services -- from community programming, art workshops, and GED programs, to crisis intervention, health counseling, and housing support -- for economically marginalized LGBTQ+ young people.
Casa Ruby: Open six days a week, Casa Ruby provides a bilingual, multicultural safe space for LGBTQ+ people in Washington, DC. Their staff and volunteers provide basic human services to more than 150 clients per week, including hot meals, support groups, case management, and emergency housing referrals.
True Colors Fund: Founded by Cyndi Lauper in 2008, the True Colors Fund works to support homeless LGBTQ+ youth through a combination of youth empowerment programs, public policy advocacy, and nationwide training with homeless service providers.
Audre Lorde Project: The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Nonconforming People of Color center for community organizing. With a major focus on community wellness and economic justice, ALP works to develop and implement culturally specific and effective programs reflecting the needs of LGBTQ+ People of Color in New York City.
Sylvia Rivera Law Project: The Sylvia Rivera Law Project is founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. Through a collective organizing approach, SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for gender nonconforming people, with a focus on low-income people and people of color.
Your Local LGBTQ+ Community Center: There are LGBTQ+ Community Centers in hundreds of cities across the country, and many centers have programs specifically designed to foster economic empowerment for folks in the community. Many, like the Los Angeles LGBT Center, provide services specifically for LGBTQ+ adults and young people experiencing homelessness.
So the next time you see an elf asking you to put money in a bucket outside the grocery store, first check that you’re not hallucinating. Then, resist your nostalgic instinct to put a dollar in the bucket, whip out your phone instead, and donate to any of these fabulous organizations — organizations that empower the most marginalized folks in the LGBTQ+ community while holding the fullness of our shimmering identities.
Jacob Tobia is a writer, producer, and author of the forthcoming memoir Sissy with Putnam Books at Penguin Random House. Named in the Forbes 30 Under 30, Jacob served as the Social Media Producer on Season 4 of the Emmy Award-winning series Transparent. Jacob's work and activism have been featured in TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Playboy, and The Guardian, among others.
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