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."
A model of courage? For what? For cruising a redneck bar and soliciting a couple of thugs who beat him to death. That's called 'courage' these days?
Dammit! Who keeps changing the definitions of all these words?
Big deal. Most private colleges give $1,500 academic scholarships to kids who don't have to identify their sexual orientation.
I think the article suggests the answer:
But scholarship recipients are not discouraged from performing acts of "community service."
To which I can only reply, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww!"
Umm...yeah. Except that this is still a free country.
Try establishing a scholarship fund for heterosexuals-only, and watch what happens.
Anonymous benefactors have endowed university scholarships in the past. But I can't think of a single scholarship that has ever been granted to anonymous recipients.
If these students are so proud of their homosexuality that they will take prize money for it, why should they not be just as proud to be declared winners of this scholarship?
Umm...yeah. Except that this is still a free country.
There is a freedom to commit sodomy? Odd...I don't recall reading that in the Federalist Papers.
So you think locking them all up is a good idea? Better check the definition of sodomy in your state. You and your wife may be guilty.
I don't think it's the government's business what someone does in their own house, given that they are a consenting adult.
Nope, not legally, If you wish to endow a scholarship at a college, you can attach whatever conditions to it you want. There are thousands of totally weird scholarships available out there: for the left-handed, redheads, being a certain height, on and on.
Of course, the college can reject your scholarship if it doesn't like your demands. And yeah, there ought to be a law that says if a college allows people to set up scholarships with qualifications, they must accept all such offers regardless of what the qualifications are.
I beg to differ, we are not free to do anything we like because it feels good. Show me that in our Constitution.
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