LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Talk |
by Bill Sievert |
You're Out of the Army Now
There may be a good reason why the legions of troops sent into the fields of K-Mart parking lots by Salvation Army brass at holiday time disguise themselves in beards and big floppy hatsa reason that has little to do with representing Santa Claus or being Christian. Fact is, they've been guerrilla ground soldiers (perhaps unwitting ones) in the Army's sneaky and secretive mission to deny civil rights to gay men and women. Quietly, the Salvation Army has long opposed employment rights for gay people. But now, the S.A.'s position has come out into the open, thanks to some first-rate investigative reporting by The Washington Post about a clandestine conspiracy between the Army's commanders and the faux Bush administration. The gist of the story is that the Army is afraid of the Boy Scouts. Or, to be precise, it has been worried becausein response to the Scouting controversyso many cities and states are enacting legislation to prohibit public funding for private groups that discriminate in hiring and job benefits based on sexual orientation. Being forced to give fair consideration to gay job candidates would "chew away at the theological fabric of who we are," one of the Army's generals fretfully argues. In other words, Jesus wouldn't want queers to work in thrift shops. So, sensing an ally, the Army marched on the White House and pledged to spend about $100,000 a month campaigning for Dubya's "faith based initiative" (a self-serving move in itself). In exchange, Bush would circumvent Congress and issue an executive regulation allowing "charitable" (the term is obviously used loosely) religious groups to discriminate against homosexualseven if their states or cities passed legislation to the contrary. Army officials said they came away from the meeting with a firm commitment for such a regulation. But, once The Post broke the story, Bush's spokespersons emulated their leader, stumbling over their words as they attempted to deny that a formal deal had been cut. Yet. Whatever Dubya's complicity, the Salvation Army is out of the closet with its faith-hope-and- "charity"-based agenda. So it's time to launch a counter-attack: There shall be no more coughing up coins for the Army's campaign coffers, no more searching for a cool Hawaiian shirt on the Army's racks, no more offerings of our obviously tainted donations of last season's fashions and vintage home furnishings. That last strategy will really hit the conspirators where it hurts. Without gifts of goodies from gay folks, the quality of merchandise in the hundreds of S.A. stores will plummet like Sunday-go-to-meeting hemlines. That's why Army brass was trying so hard to keep a lid on its anti-gay campaign. An internal "eyes-only" report urged its big guns to seal their mouths regarding the plot. "The Salvation Army's role will be a surprise to many," the document stated, warning everyone along the chain of command to "minimize the possibility of any 'leak' to the media." Well, the leak has sprung big-time and the war is on. There are plenty of charitable causes that would be thrilled to get all the quality merchandise we used to pop into the Army's collection boxes. Why not take the best of our discards to a local consignment shop and have a yard/garage sale with the remainder? Then contribute the proceeds to Sundance. When the Christmas holidays arrive, we can take those coins we used to drop into an S.A. kettle and place them in an envelope addressed to the Sussex County AIDS Committeeor a carefully chosen charity in our hometowns. Any charitable group, as long as it believes that the very nature of charity is inclusion. As long as the charity appreciates all of its contributors for who and what we are. One other note on the subject or else we'll start getting press reminders from S.A.'s "public information" squad: Since the scandalous news broke, Salvation Army officers have been bending over backwards (careful, there!) to say that the organization "never" discriminates in delivering servicesonly in employment. We know that Jesus loved everyone, even hypocrites. But we don't have to suffer them, or patronize them. And one final note on the S.A.'s co-conspirator in the White House: Some of you may recall that this column last month discussed the challenge of coming to closure on the 2000 presidential campaign. Well, no sooner had I put away my tablet of tabulations for the vote count than The New York Times broke yet another story of the Republican Party's "Dubious" achievement in Florida. In the weeks following the election, brother Jeb's GOP worked night and day to make sure nearly 700 overseas ballots, all late or improperly postmarked or without witness signatures, were added to the totals in Republican-stronghold counties. Had election laws been followed correctly, and I'm quoting The Times report here, "Vice President Al Gore would have beaten Bush by 202 votes" statewide. And that would have given Gore the Electoral College. With the true winner in The White House, the Salvation Army wouldn't have a presidential partner to boost its anti-gay agenda. It's one of the reasons elections truly matter, and it's why we need to continue to remind the current Washington regime that it does not represent the will of the majority of the electorate. Enough said on the subjectfor now at least. Bill Sievert, a former Rehoboth Beach resident, is an editor of Orlando Weekly magazine. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 11, No. 10, July 27, 2001. |