AT&T several weeks before the start of Pride Month 2022 announced a promotional campaign benefiting The Trevor Project, a commendable nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing suicide among LGBTQ children and teens. “Mention The Trevor Project when you get our best deal on any smartphone with an eligible AT&T Unlimited plan and we’ll donate $500 to the organization.”
But as the telecommunications company has been donating to the pro-LGBTQ organization, it's also been bankrolling bigoted politicians who’ve been introducing, and passing, often-rushed legislation targeting the very existence of these children.
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Popular Information reports that AT&T donated more than $1 million to anti-LGBTQ politicians since last year alone, including $100,000 to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and $10,000 to his corrupt state attorney general, Ken Paxton.
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Once again, Trevor Project, the organization at the focus of the company’s promotional campaign, is dedicated to preventing tragic deaths among young LGBTQ people. But just this year, Texas quietly removed the organization’s phone number from its Department of Health website. “This isn’t the first time LGBTQ resources have been removed from Texas state government websites,” Daily Kos’ April Siese wrote in March.
There’s been plenty of cash for other bigots, too. Popular Information said that AT&T gave $50,000 to Ron DeSantis in Florida, where Republicans advanced legislation targeting migrant children just hours after passing its notorious “Don’t Say Gay” bill in March. DeSantis’ degenerate press secretary, Christina Pushaw, has been central in promoting this harmful and disparaging “groomer” terminology that’s being commonly wielded by extremists against LGBTQ people. The Advocate reported that there’ve been calls for Pushaw’s firing, including from state lawmakers. But why would DeSantis fire her when she’s doing exactly what she was hired to do?
“Few companies are as aggressive in promoting their allegiance to the LGBTQ community as AT&T,” the report said. It said the company “did not respond to a request for comment.”
Other “flag-waving” companies that have made donations to anti-LGBTQ politicians since last year include GM ($1,031,900), The Home Depot ($824,200), CVS ($548,000), FedEx ($467,600), Delta ($384,000), American Express ($144,550), Target ($122,000), and Verizon, which donated more than $500,000 to anti-gay politicians and political committees even as it touted its employee contingent in a Pride parade in 2019, the report said:
“Verizon has also donated $50,450 to the [Republican Governors Association] and $4,500 to politicians in Oklahoma and South Carolina behind recent anti-LGBTQ legislation,” Popular Information continued. “This includes $1,000 to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (R), who signed a law last month that ‘bans transgender athletes from playing on public school and college sports teams that align with their gender identity.’” USA Today reports that a recent survey found the state ranking as the worst for LGBTQ people.
All in all, Popular Information said that 25 major companies donated $13.2 million to anti-LGBTQ forces since 2021. Yet several of the companies listed above sent pro-LGBTQ messages on social media at the start of Pride Month this week. “We stand with the LGBTQ community and for diversity and inclusion in all its dimensions,” CVS tweeted.
“Despite donating millions to anti-LGBTQ politicians, all 25 corporations included in Popular Information's analysis were highly rated by HRC's 2022 Corporate Equality Index,” the report said. How do they get away with that? Researchers said that HRC doesn’t include political donations in its scoring, “enabling corporations to craft a pro-LGBTQ image while bankrolling politicians that are undermining LGBTQ rights.” Happy Pride.
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