Apparently, even liberal radio show hosts forget to do their homework. On Monday's show, Current TV's openly gay and progressive talk show host Stephanie Miller, agreed with Major George Hood of the Salvation Army that the gay community’s concerns about the Salvation Army’s anti-gay history are all Internet lies:
STEPHANIE MILLER: We’ve gotten a lot of letters about the Salvation Army being anti-gay, can you address that?
SALVATION ARMY’S GEORGE HOOD: Well it’s a great misunderstanding that’s spread across the country, and we’re doing everything we can to re-educate and help people understand that the very mission of the Salvation Army calls for meeting the needs of humans without discrimination…. So discrimination is not something that we would gladly carry the banner or pride over, we want to dispel the notion that we do discriminate when the fact is we’re working very hard not discriminating and it is a part of our mission.
MILLER: You know, Chris, you can help me with some of the things, you know, again, you’re right, Major, once things get out there, you know…
HOOD: Many of those things start fueling through blog sites and postings on the Internet and it’s really really tough to shut them down when they get out there.
MILLER: And you don’t discriminate against hiring gays?
HOOD: We do not. We have many who work for us and will gladly tell you they work for us. It’s not a question that we ask in an interview process.
MILLER: Okay.
MILLER’S SIDEKICK: Are you saying there are things on the Internet that are not true?
(Everyone laughs)
After a firestorm of criticism from the LGBT community, Stephanie Miller issued an apology this morning:
http://soundcloud.com/...
Monday on my Current TV program Talking Liberally, broadcast simultaneously on my national radio program, The Stephanie Miller Show, I announced that my friend and colleague Bill Press and I were launching a three-week competition to raise money for the Salvation Army to help Americans in need.
This was in conjunction with an advertising buy by the Salvation Army on Current TV. We all thought that we were doing something positive in the spirit of the holiday season.
Where I screwed up was in not doing more research about the Salvation Army’s long and checkered history involving LGBTQ people and our issues. I sincerely apologize for that.
When I returned from the Thanksgiving holiday, I learned a lot more — much of of it from friends like John Aravosis at America Blog and Michelangelo Signorile at Sirius OutQ — and I decided that, effective immediately, Talking Liberally and The Stephanie Miller Show would no longer be a part of the Salvation Army’s Online Red Kettle Campaign.
Please understand that I do believe the Salvation Army does much good work in the world and I also believe in redemption. I sincerely hope they will change their mission statement and policies regarding the LGBTQ community and I am very willing to continue that dialogue with them.
Through yesterday, your generosity has raised $1,150 for the Salvation Army in the Stephanie Miller Red Kettle.
I am now going to personally match that amount with a donation to the Trevor Project, whose work and mission I can endorse without any reservation. The Trevor Project provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth.
As always, I am grateful to my viewers and listeners for holding me to the high standards that I always try to set for myself.
Love,
Stephanie
Read more:
http://www.towleroad.com/...
Thanks, Stephanie for stepping up and making this right. The Red Kettle Shines No More For Me, and I will be sending my support to organizations that don't discriminate: