transcription: we dont donate to the bigot bucket
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When I was homeless, I stayed at a Salvation Army shelter. They knew I was trans and that my legal gender is male, but they put me in the women and families area. I never got misgendered or disrespected while I was there.
That is, last I checked, against policy. Someone decided personally to have a little mutiny and not be a dick.
It seemed like everyone knew and was cool about it. I was on a first name basis with all the staff and residents. I had to go to the front office every night to get my HRT for the first few weeks until I saw a doctor and got a note that says I can take my own medication. I never had a problem getting my estrogen pills. And at one point a crazy guy developed a harmless obsession with me and kept bugging the staff about seeing me. They told him he’s not allowed in the women’s and families area and he just has to wait until I come to the mess hall for lunch or dinner. He wanted my help finding aliens or something, the point is all the staff knew where I was and that I was supposed to be there because I’m a girl
I looked it up
https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us/inclusion/
https://others.org.au/news/2023/02/07/salvos-show-their-support-at-melbourne-pride-march/
They said they’re sorry and they’re trying to do better, and I think they are doing better
Interesting. Their US site has absolutely no mention of LGBTQ+ that I can find. I wonder if the Australian version has some autonomy.
gonna be honest, as difficult as it is to find housing for single men in need, they probably did you a favor.
Thats not the only problem with them. A lot of times local branches will allow their bell-ringers to skim a little out of the donation bucket. Or more than a little. I can’t get behind an organization that doesn’t punish stealing charitable donations for yourself.
Context?
The Salvation Army has, throughout it’s history, stuck with the anti-gay stance of it’s Christian roots, and for some reason everybody remembered that this season.
they, additionally, are against labor unions and secular soup kitchens. they claim to want to help people, but they won’t help people unless it feeds their savior complex and control over congregation.
the funny part to me is that jesus reads as an anti-authoritarian. he preaches that it is better to help the hungry than to be dogmatic about orthodoxy. makes the salvation army seem pretty unchristian
if this were a socialist country, we would’ve had a better alternative to the salvation army. seriously!
Most years people keep forgetting. There’s a lot going on these days, it’s easy to lose track.
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don’t like LGBT. They are typically out in force this time of year with the red buckets in front of a lot of big box stores in the US.
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don’t like LGBT.
There are similarly big churches to the Salvation Army that are inclusive of LGBTQ+, please don’t spread misinformation.
i think the claim that big churches tend to be homophobic is a valid statement.
white American Christians are a scary bunch.
It’s untrue as a generalization.
I’m a gay person who has been exposed first-hand to the ugly side of Christianity, so I am speaking from that knowing and experience. I am not a Christian.
the statement “all big churches are homophobic” would be a generalisation. “most big churches are homophobic” would not be.
Commenter:
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don’t like LGBT.
They said big churches don’t like LGBT. There are big churches that like LGBT, even if most big churches don’t. There is nuance here and I responded to that commenter’s specific words.
I only found out a few years ago how accepting some churches are, specifically meeting people who went to the Episcopal Church. I just felt it relevant to point that out.
Salvation army has put trans people out on the street to freeze to death. Churches don’t need advocates.
I’m not “spreading misinformation”, I’m sharing my lived experience. I’m aware that I haven’t personally checked with every single church but my experience is typically that they all say we’re god’s creation and should be respectful, but there’s always that whispered “except them”.
I also have experienced discrimination and bigotry from churches, but I know now there are plenty of inclusive big churches and I wanted people to understand that.
I went through 4 years of high school at a Born Again church because my parents forced me there and every day was hell. They suspected I was gay and being called the f-slur was the least of my issues.
even if there are small examples of judeo-christian denominations being tolerant of LGBTQ+ communities, the VAST majority are not and do more than enough harm to cancel out any good being done.
the VAST majority are not and do more than enough harm to cancel out any good being done.
The good ones do exist in the many millions - they don’t deserve hate and I believe they deserve recognition for their inclusivity and activism. That’s all I gotta say.
i would direct people to in particular consider coalition building with the united methodist church and evangelical Lutheran christian in america (ELCA). neither group is perfect but they’re both involved in civil rights activism
Not even a mention of Unitarian Universalist? They seem to be the most open and welcoming of the various sects of Christianity
i only have experience with my local unitarian universalist church who broke away from the organization when the organization was a little to accepting of zionism. it’s kind of a paradox of tolerance thing. but i can’t really speak on where the national organization is when i have no ties to them and the only ones i had got severed. they might be good they might not. it would be inappropriate and irresponsible for me to say. if you’ve been engaged with them or their members and are finding them helpful in these times, then i see no reason not for you to say “these guys are good, others should check them out”
In addition to what other people have chimed in, the Salvation Army used to (might still? Last article was in 2014) not pay female workers directly. They would make out their paycheck to the worker’s husband. Because women are property.
I’ve personally been affected by Salvation Army practices. See, they used to deliver toys to disadvantaged kids around the holidays but those toys come with strings. Not only did they show up to my house when my parents were clearly not home they literally dangled toys in front of me and my siblings I was babysitting and refused to give them to us unless we said we would accept Jesus.
We were not a Christian family. In fact at the time most of us were part of a different religion (my dad was always agnostic). They cornered a gaggle of known non-Christian minors when they were alone and vulnerable. They manipulated and forced me to say I accepted Jesus so that my siblings could have presents.
Fuck the Salvation Army.
In winter the organization Salvation Army will have people stand in public ringing bells to collect donations in buckets as pictured above.
The salvation army is notably homophobic
Here in the SF Bay Area, most of the malls and stores don’t allow the Salvation Army or the Hari Krishnas or any group to solicit. I don’t even recall a Girl Scout Troupe selling cookies. I still keep the “Don’t donate” Vouchers in my wallet just in case I run across a bell ringer in front of a Chick-Fil-A or Hobby Lobby that somehow got approved by the local planning commission.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ec/23/23/ec23236932789ab99222c7df093eefdd.jpg
Does my heart good to know people are still doing this. I had a bellringer try to block my hand when he saw I was putting a slip of paper in it. I just looked at him, smiled, and pushed it in anyway. These days I tune them out entirely but I have noticed less and less of them in the past few years. The bucket will sit there but no bellringer in sight.
Remember that the Salvation Army behaves differently depending on the nation they’re in. The US Salvation Army has different policies to the British one, which has different policies to the Australian one.
are there any alternatives to the salvation army?
I haven’t given them anything in decades.
Help is help
Better than being on the streets
