Wal-Mart Gives $60,000 To Homosexual Group To Support Homosexual Agenda In Workplace

This is the last straw for me. I don't need the low prices enough for this.

Wal-Mart's stock had been moving lower over the past few weeks...one wonders if it has to do with lowered earnings estimates associated with a possible Christmas time boycott by conservative shoppers over the issue of funding homosexual activism. It was rebounding earlier today after yesterday's PR appearance on Fox by one of the VPs mentioning that they were promoting the use of the phrase Merry Christmas. It will be interesting to see what it does over the next month or so.

My guess is that it ends January closer to 40 than 50.

I believe the Walton daughter that owns/started/runs the "llama bank" is gay.
I could be wrong though

It (the ad)seemed to say that they don't discriminate against them. I don't think they are legally allowed to anyway.

Sure, those links go to some kind of weird pop-up that says "Adobe".
I'll wait until I can check them out on a normal website, thank you.
Now I wonder what kind of viruses my computer just got....

How is giving $60,000 simply not discriminating? They are favoring them.

Wait until Jessie gets a hold of them.

I wonder how much money the unions dumped on this "American Family Association" to come up with this "boycott"?

oops oops

It's a drop in the bucket. From what I understand Wal Mart gives to just about everybody.

Giving, Wal-Mart style
While assorted members of the Walton family have established their own philanthropic projects, the Walton Family Foundation and the Wal-Mart Foundations are the flagship foundations. The Walton Family Foundation already gives out more than $100 million a year -- much of it to opponents of public school education -- and it may receive as much as an additional $20 billion when Helen Walton, the family matriarch, leaves this mortal coil. Helen Walton, who currently runs the foundation created by her husband Sam Walton, is in her mid-eighties and her health has declined since being involved in an auto accident five years ago. If the Walton Family Foundation does wind up with the lion's share of her holdings, it will propel it from being the largest foundation in its home state of Arkansas, to the biggest in the world.

Despite donations by Helen Walton to Planned Parenthood, and $5 million for the establishment of Walton Arts Center near the university campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Walton family has been a champion of educational causes, specializing in financing alternatives to public education. It has supported the establishment of charter schools and private school choice. "It gave a string of grants totaling nearly $3 million to the national Knowledge is Power Program, which recruits teachers to create public college prep charter schools in underserved communities," Minter reported. "The gifts included donations to 21 such schools around the country."

Steve Mancini, a spokesperson for the Knowledge is Power Program said that "The Walton family, and particularly John Walton, is building a kind of quiet revolution in public education."

"The importance of the Waltons is not how much money they are giving now, but how much money they will be giving in a few years and where the money will be going," the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's report states. According to the report, "almost all political contributions made by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Political Action Committee for Responsive Government, and individual family members are directed toward Republican candidates for public office or Republican political committees. Of $2.1 million given in 2004, $1.6 went to the GOP, while less than $500,000 went to Democrats.

Citing statistics from the Foundation Center, the NCRP report points out that in 2003 the Wal-Mart Foundation (WMF) "was the 51st-largest corporate foundation based on assets and the second-largest based on total giving," figures that includes in-kind and product donations. Newsweek reported that WMF has consistently ranked first in total giving based only on cash contributions. Wal-Mart reported that WMF gave more than $170 million in 2004, up nearly $60 million from two years earlier. According to the company's figures, "more than 90 percent" of its donations go through its local stores, and most are in the $500 - $1,000 range.

While Wal-Mart supports long-time national charities like the Salvation Army and the United Way, its foundation primarily focuses on local grants: "In our experience, we can make the greatest impact on communities by supporting issues and causes that are important to our customers and associates in their own neighborhoods." The upshot of these policies is that the foundation's money never benefits anyone outside the Wal-Mart community.

Although the foundation prohibits the funding of "faith-based organizations whose projects benefit primarily or wholly their membership or adherents," nevertheless, "churches and other houses of worship receive a large percentage of ... grants," according to the report.

Walton Family Foundation: relentlessly conservative
According to its 2003 IRS 990 tax filing, the Walton Family Foundation is smaller and considerably less complex that the Wal-Mart Foundation, and therefore easier to track. In 2003 it was the 63rd-largest foundation in terms of assets ($733+ million) and 25th-largest in terms of giving (nearly $107 million).

According to the report, the WFF concentrates its giving on three spheres: "systematic reform in education" -- focusing on K-12; "the northwest region of Arkansas"; and "the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi." All of its spheres of interest include educational concerns.

The WFF concentrates on funding Charter School Initiatives, Educational Options Scholarship Initiatives, School Improvement, and Arkansas Education. Before his death, John Walton was "one of the nation's leading private individual funders of charter schools and voucher initiatives." Interestingly enough the NCRP report claims, "this type of charitable giving does not have to be legally disclosed, making it difficult to put the final price tag on his contributions."

The NCRP, looking into the WFF's penchant for spearheading the privatization movement asks: "Why is the richest family in the world so committed to education, and specifically to school choice, when they themselves mostly attended public school to apparently good effect?"

"Some critics argue that it is the beginning of the ‘Wal-Martization' of education, and a move to for-profit schooling, from which the family could potentially financially benefit. John Walton owned 240,000 shares of Tesseract Group Inc. (formerly known as Education Alternatives Inc.), which is a for-profit company that develops/manages charter and private school as well as public schools."

The WFF provides more than $1 million to each of the following so-called school reform/choice groups: the American Education Reform Council, the Center for Education Reform, Children's Scholarship Fund, Colorado League of Charter Schools, and the Florida School Choice Fund. The Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation of America (also known as Children's First America) received $10.3 million in 2003 and $8.3 in 2002.

The WFF has also supported the Washington, DC-based Black Alliance for Education Options (BAEO - website), an African American-headed group that "works to advertise and market the school voucher movement top African-American families." In October 2002, BAEO received a $600,000 grant from the Bush administration. "We want to change the conversation about parental choice by positively influencing individuals who are resisting parental choice options and get them to reconsider their outlook," Undersecretary of Education Gene Hickok said when he announced the grant. The Black Commentator characterized the BAEO as "the school vouchers propaganda outfit created by the far-right [Harry and Lynde] Bradley Foundation."

In addition to its support for the "school reform" movement, the WFF "funds pro-voucher think tanks like the Goldwater Institute and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research," People for the American Way (PFAW) has reported. In a short piece, titled "John Walton and the Walton Family Foundation," PFAW pointed out that, "on the legislative front, John Walton personally contributed $2 million to the failed 2000 Michigan voucher initiative as well as $250,000 to California's Prop 174 in 1993, another unsuccessful voucher initiative. Walton also bankrolled the California effort through his American Education Reform Foundation, as well as an unsuccessful 1997 voucher campaign in Minnesota."

John Walton may have passed, but the Walton Family Foundation appears to have an extraordinarily bright future ahead of it. With Helen Walton's $18-20 billion coming down the pike, WFF will be "propel[led] to the top of the list of largest foundations," the NCRP maintains. In addition, as the WFF grows, "so will the scope of its funding," expanding beyond its current three-pronged interests.

Yep. Walmart Facts

What's next??? The Wal-Mart Union???

Wal Mart donated more money to Democrats this year than Republicans. That also says something. Also, the 'Rats have stopped their attacks against Wal Mart all of the sudden.

--This is the last straw for me. I don't need the low prices enough for this.--

hmmm. They donate overwhelmingly to conservative causes but you wish to boycott them?

Extortion works every time.

Here is some more 'evil' donations:'

WAL-MART DONATIONS

In January 2005, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club produced and donated 42 truckloads of water to 10 military installations in the United States for personnel who were being deployed to Iraq and other international locations.

Wal-Mart and Sam's Club Foundation recently presented a $1 million matching gift to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation. In December 2004, Wal-Mart contributed a record donation of $150,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Also, Wal-Mart gave more than $1 million to support organizations providing support to U.S. troop families.

I don't need the low prices enough for this.

I agree. I'll definitely pay $40 for a pair of jeans for my daughter and not $15 because of this. Not.

Sorry but Walmart is a great American business success story. As much as I despise homosexuality, I can't join the liberal anti-business forces. However since conservatives are now joining liberals in their hatred of American business, I'll just have to watch my Wally stocks more closely.

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