Posted on 01/23/2002 8:43:27 AM PST by tdadams
(CNSNews.com) - Need money for college tuition? A group of employees from telecommunications giant AT&T will help pay the bills of students who identify themselves as homosexuals.
Grades and extra-curricular activities don't count as much as sexual orientation for this type of financial help.
The scholarship comes from the AT&T Foundation's LEAGUE, which is an acronym for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay & Transgendered United Employees.
LEAGUE is one of seven "Business Resource Groups" at AT&T, serving as a homosexual advocacy resource for the telecommunications giant, its customers, shareholders, colleagues, families and the global community.
For the past six years, LEAGUE at AT&T Foundation has awarded a handful of $1,500 academic scholarships to self-identified homosexual youth. LEAGUE Foundation spokesperson Charles Eader noted that applications have doubled every year since the fund was launched.
And for those homosexual students who have demonstrated leadership in promoting diversity and understanding in the community, the LEAGUE Foundation offers a $2,500 scholarship dedicated to the memory of Matthew Sheppard, whom it considers a model of courage.
Sheppard, who was homosexual, was tortured and beaten to death by two men on Dec. 28, 1998 in Wyoming. He was 21 at the time.
LEAGUE Foundation said it hopes Shepherd's memory will inspire lesbian, bisexual, gay & transgendered applicants and recipients of scholarships to persevere against anti-homosexual intimidation both in and out of the classroom.
According to Eader, applicants must be high school graduates; identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered; have achieved a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale; be actively and substantially involved in community service; live in the United States; and have been accepted to attend an accredited college or university in the United States.
But conservatives are outraged by the notion that homosexuality is being rewarded by corporations such as AT&T.
"It's sad that teenagers are being deceived about sexuality and recruited into a lifestyle that is unhealthy and immoral," said the Family Research Council's Kristin Hansen. "It's definitely evidence that homosexual activists are organized at many facets of society -- in the corporate world, in schools and in the media."
Eader noted that LEAGUE Foundation is funded wholly by donations and does not receive any financial support from the AT&T corporation. AT&T allows LEAGUE Foundation to conduct its communication and planning activities -- including phone calls, faxes, and emails -- on corporate premises. However, Eader noted that LEAGUE and LEAGUE at AT&T Foundation "are 2 different and distinct, even though related, organizations."
Membership in the AT&T Business Resource Group LEAGUE is reserved solely for AT&T employees. According to Eader, any homosexual advocacy group or its members may become part of the 501(c)3 LEAGUE at AT&T Foundation charity . This charity also "welcomes financial support from the larger LGBT community and its allies," according to the group's Web site, which is hosted by AT&T.
"The level of organization is not a surprise," Hansen said of LEAGUE's wide-open membership requirements and financial practices.
Eader said homosexual scholarship recipients who have been outspoken in their communities are encouraged to continue such activism when they get to college, but he said they have no obligation to do so. Eader added that the names of scholarship recipients remain anonymous, no matter what path they choose to follow.
But scholarship recipients are not discouraged from performing acts of "community service." In fact, Eader said LEAGUE and its supporters would benefit from having a fresh voice on campus promoting the homosexual issues and diversity.
Hansen said LEAGUE's scholarship offering is just another example of incentives encouraging behavior. "And if there's money available," she added, "it legitimizes a behavior."
Marriage of hetrosexuals is legal, homosexual marriage is not in 99% of America.
The issue is college scholarships, and that is related to your statement how? I can find thousands of quotes by our founding fathers to support laws based on morals, not on "concenting adults". Which I have already done a few. Homosexuals are not the majority, they are not moral, they do not deserve legal or special protection. Especially if they only want to be consenting adults behind closed doors.
I never said anything even remotely like that. Are you deliberately bearing false witness against me?
Now let us return to the question. You seem to want to change the subject at every turn. The question was, do you think that Jesus admonished us to use violence and imprison people who are guilty of sins which do not involve violation of other's rights?
I am not a doctor, so I don't have any advice as to what to do with two men who want to marry each other. I do believe in concrete truths, and one of them is that the behavior shouldn't be encouraged because it brings no benefit to society--just the opposite.
I'm sorry, but I think you are so entrenched in a self-serving set of values that you can't even understand where someone who's not just like you is coming from.
Again, where have I been self-serving? And I see exactly where you are coming from. You're a relativist.
We've already seen from your previous posts that you have no problem inventing new meanings for words (morality in this case). Morality is one of the most nebulous words you could find.
To Hitler, exterminating Jews was moral. To you morality would be imprisoning homosexuals for life. That is not moral in my opinion, nor do I think Thomas Jefferson would agree.
Rational, intelligent people detest people like you who stand behind their religion and morality as some kind of absolute, and use it to defend the indefensible.
And thus is the disparity that I see is a violation of equal protection laws.
I'm so not a relativist that I'm laughing at reading that. I have firm convictions, many of which are not rooted in a vested interest but merely as a matter of principle.
You may disagree with me, but that doesn't make me relativist.
Government has no business being involved in marriage in any case whatsoever. No benefits should inure to anyone from government concerning anything other than the "benefit" of government defending our rights.
It's their country too.
I may tolerate someone's indulgence in smoking, skydiving, or mountain climbing, but I'll tell them to go to h**l if they try to send me their hospital bill when they get sick or injured.
Excuse me? Why is he considered a model of courage? I know he endured a lot of pain before his death and that is inexcusable, but don't call him a model of courage. To be in the position to be beaten to death, I believe he had been drinking with the two guys and had 'hit on' one or both of them. Sounds like he wasn't acting very smart to me. Don't get me wrong, he didn't deserve to be beaten to death, but I think its disgusting the way these folks are trying to lionize this guy.
Not at all. I merly stated that christian morals are a large part of our heritage. I did not quote you specifically. Sorry if it seemed that I did.
Up to now, I've really tried to give you every benefit of the doubt.... but the fact of the matter is, that you are a complete and utter dolt.
You richly deserve the fate you're creating for yourself.
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