transcription: we dont donate to the bigot bucket
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I’ve written my grocery store asking them to remove the bigot bucket
It didn’t help
Did you trying flaming donations?
When I was homeless, I stayed at a Salvation Army shelter. They knew I was trans and that my legal gender is male, but they put me in the women and families area. I never got misgendered or disrespected while I was there.
Thats not the only problem with them. A lot of times local branches will allow their bell-ringers to skim a little out of the donation bucket. Or more than a little. I can’t get behind an organization that doesn’t punish stealing charitable donations for yourself.
That is, last I checked, against policy. Someone decided personally to have a little mutiny and not be a dick.
It seemed like everyone knew and was cool about it. I was on a first name basis with all the staff and residents. I had to go to the front office every night to get my HRT for the first few weeks until I saw a doctor and got a note that says I can take my own medication. I never had a problem getting my estrogen pills. And at one point a crazy guy developed a harmless obsession with me and kept bugging the staff about seeing me. They told him he’s not allowed in the women’s and families area and he just has to wait until I come to the mess hall for lunch or dinner. He wanted my help finding aliens or something, the point is all the staff knew where I was and that I was supposed to be there because I’m a girl
I looked it up
https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us/inclusion/
https://others.org.au/news/2023/02/07/salvos-show-their-support-at-melbourne-pride-march/
They said they’re sorry and they’re trying to do better, and I think they are doing better
Interesting. Their US site has absolutely no mention of LGBTQ+ that I can find. I wonder if the Australian version has some autonomy.
Context?
The Salvation Army has, throughout it’s history, stuck with the anti-gay stance of it’s Christian roots, and for some reason everybody remembered that this season.
Most years people keep forgetting. There’s a lot going on these days, it’s easy to lose track.
they, additionally, are against labor unions and secular soup kitchens. they claim to want to help people, but they won’t help people unless it feeds their savior complex and control over congregation.
the funny part to me is that jesus reads as an anti-authoritarian. he preaches that it is better to help the hungry than to be dogmatic about orthodoxy. makes the salvation army seem pretty unchristian
Around December in the US, the Salvation Army(A Christian group with a bigoted history and overpriced secondhand goods stores) set up outside stores, ringing hand bells and asking for donations.
They’re everywhere that allow them. You cannot escape the ringing bells.
Here in Canada too unfortunately
I’m so sorry. But, this did lead me to learning something! I had assumed they were US-based, just given their sheer prevalence in some parts of the country.
Nope, it’s the fucking English. Headquarters in London. Just… Goddammit, England.
Feeling alone, the Army’s up the road
Salvation a la mode with a cup of tea- Aqualung by Jethro Tull
In addition to what other people have chimed in, the Salvation Army used to (might still? Last article was in 2014) not pay female workers directly. They would make out their paycheck to the worker’s husband. Because women are property.
I’ve personally been affected by Salvation Army practices. See, they used to deliver toys to disadvantaged kids around the holidays but those toys come with strings. Not only did they show up to my house when my parents were clearly not home they literally dangled toys in front of me and my siblings I was babysitting and refused to give them to us unless we said we would accept Jesus.
We were not a Christian family. In fact at the time most of us were part of a different religion (my dad was always agnostic). They cornered a gaggle of known non-Christian minors when they were alone and vulnerable. They manipulated and forced me to say I accepted Jesus so that my siblings could have presents.
Fuck the Salvation Army.
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don’t like LGBT. They are typically out in force this time of year with the red buckets in front of a lot of big box stores in the US.
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don’t like LGBT.
There are similarly big churches to the Salvation Army that are inclusive of LGBTQ+, please don’t spread misinformation.
I’m not “spreading misinformation”, I’m sharing my lived experience. I’m aware that I haven’t personally checked with every single church but my experience is typically that they all say we’re god’s creation and should be respectful, but there’s always that whispered “except them”.
I also have experienced discrimination and bigotry from churches, but I know now there are plenty of inclusive big churches and I wanted people to understand that.
I went through 4 years of high school at a Born Again church because my parents forced me there and every day was hell. They suspected I was gay and being called the f-slur was the least of my issues.
i would direct people to in particular consider coalition building with the united methodist church and evangelical Lutheran christian in america (ELCA). neither group is perfect but they’re both involved in civil rights activism
Not even a mention of Unitarian Universalist? They seem to be the most open and welcoming of the various sects of Christianity
i only have experience with my local unitarian universalist church who broke away from the organization when the organization was a little to accepting of zionism. it’s kind of a paradox of tolerance thing. but i can’t really speak on where the national organization is when i have no ties to them and the only ones i had got severed. they might be good they might not. it would be inappropriate and irresponsible for me to say. if you’ve been engaged with them or their members and are finding them helpful in these times, then i see no reason not for you to say “these guys are good, others should check them out”
i think the claim that big churches tend to be homophobic is a valid statement.
white American Christians are a scary bunch.
It’s untrue as a generalization.
I’m a gay person who has been exposed first-hand to the ugly side of Christianity, so I am speaking from that knowing and experience. I am not a Christian.
the statement “all big churches are homophobic” would be a generalisation. “most big churches are homophobic” would not be.
Commenter:
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don’t like LGBT.
They said big churches don’t like LGBT. There are big churches that like LGBT, even if most big churches don’t. There is nuance here and I responded to that commenter’s specific words.
I only found out a few years ago how accepting some churches are, specifically meeting people who went to the Episcopal Church. I just felt it relevant to point that out.
In winter the organization Salvation Army will have people stand in public ringing bells to collect donations in buckets as pictured above.
The salvation army is notably homophobic
But make eye contact and acknowledge the slave’s presence.
This isn’t hyperbole btw. The salvation army literally uses these people as slaves.
How are they slaves?? I had assumed they were volunteers…
Court ordered community service most likely. But also people just looking for help are sent out to do this.
I know a destitute man in his 70s who rings bells for them who makes minimum wage for standing out in the cold collecting donations. I’m sure he would have no problem with the money supporting a bigoted organization. So at least some of the bellringers are compensated for their labor.
It’s complicated, but yes!
They pay minimum wage which is less than half of what it takes to live in this community. Definitely slave wages. A local deaf guy did it for years because he had a hard time finding work, then they hired his EX and decided he was no longer a good fit. Not exactly a good employer.
I’m on the side of the homeless dude. I’m curious, am I wrong?
There are never any good guys per se, but I definitely was partial to the deaf guy because I knew him personally. I thought it was cruel to fire him when he had been doing it for over a decade even if they paid him a shit wage. It was still all he had.
Very profound take.
Thank you.
I hate hearing that annoying bell in front of every store.
I haven’t given them anything in decades.
Oh, Skeleton Army tread.
I’m starting to get a bit done with moralizing though. Not like they are present in my country as far as I know, but if someone gets to sleep in a house instead of the street in the winter at the price of homophobia still existing and maybe someone in that same house being homophobic I’m not going to pretend that something despicable has just happened.
Sure in a good world we don’t need a charity doing such an important job to be bigoted but it’s not like the meme says who to donate to instead.
They refuse to let overtly LGBTQ people stay and demand that gay men break up with their boyfriends by policy. People have frozen to death outside their centers after being denied entry or being kicked out for being LGBTQ as a result of their bigoted policies.
Homeless shelters are usually locally run, and I’m sure your local Food Pantry or something would appreciate a donation (especially this time of the year), but if you want to help LGBTQ people worldwide, you could do worse than donating here: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
there’s other shelters that salvation army actively antagonizes and lobbies against so they can have a monopoly on coercing the homeless into swearing to be devout to the salvation army’s christofascist views.
Do you have a link? I was having a discussion with someone about this.
when i went looking for one all i could find was stories about how denver cancelled their salvation army contracts after violent clashes
Don’t donate cash to anyone, simple as. Make deliberate choices about who you donate to, do research, budget it, keep receipts, regardless of which organisation shows up at your grocery store. You should always give money to beggars, just not to predatory charities.
Remember that the Salvation Army behaves differently depending on the nation they’re in. The US Salvation Army has different policies to the British one, which has different policies to the Australian one.
Here in the SF Bay Area, most of the malls and stores don’t allow the Salvation Army or the Hari Krishnas or any group to solicit. I don’t even recall a Girl Scout Troupe selling cookies. I still keep the “Don’t donate” Vouchers in my wallet just in case I run across a bell ringer in front of a Chick-Fil-A or Hobby Lobby that somehow got approved by the local planning commission.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ec/23/23/ec23236932789ab99222c7df093eefdd.jpg
Does my heart good to know people are still doing this. I had a bellringer try to block my hand when he saw I was putting a slip of paper in it. I just looked at him, smiled, and pushed it in anyway. These days I tune them out entirely but I have noticed less and less of them in the past few years. The bucket will sit there but no bellringer in sight.
Refusing to donate to the salvation army and then going to hobby lobby or chik fil a is pretty wild
Maybe they’re going out of their way to express their discontent 🤷♀️
i think they were just trying to give examples of shitty places that allow SA solicitors
Those stores are also located in strip mall areas with other stores, they could just be walking by.
In my expirence they are also commonly stand alone. Especially the chil fil a
So we need answers
You can also see them as you drive by, you don’t have to crusade against everyone
Okay okay I won’t crusade.
Perhaps just a little Spanish inquisition?
Well that was unexpected…
