The Human Rights Campaign expressed great disappointment in the
Salvation Army for rescinding a decision to extend health benefits to
the domestic partners of its employees in a regional division. The turnabout
came as a result of a pressure campaign by anti-gay organizations, that
forced the group to backtrack on a forward-thinking policy that only weeks
ago it called “a decision made on the basis of moral and ethical reasoning,”
HRC asserts.
“We are dismayed that the Salvation Army’s national leaders stepped back in
time and usurped the strong leadership of a local division to include and
support all families,” said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. “We urge
the organization to return to basing its policies on ‘moral and ethical
reasoning’ instead of what appeases anti-gay political pressure groups. If
this decision stands, the Salvation Army will have unambiguously identified
itself as an anti-gay organization.”
On Monday, after a weeklong barrage of lobbying from anti-gay
groups, the Salvation Army’s national leadership, led by Commissioner
Lawrence R. Moretz, instituted a new policy that stripped regional divisions
of the authority to make decisions on expanding health benefits. The new
directive rescinded the group’s Nov. 1 decision allowing its Western
Corporation to provide health benefits to the domestic partners of its
employees. A terse statement by Moretz indicated the Salvation Army’s intent
to renege on this policy and hurt families, according to HRC.
“Today, the Commissioners’ Conference established a national policy
to extend health benefit access to an employee’s spouse and dependent
children only,” Moretz said in the statement. “I assure you, again, that the
Salvation Army has not changed its position on marriage and the family,
homosexuality or other position statements, nor have we changed any of our
basic doctrines or moral positions.”
In rescinding the policy and establishing a national policy on health care
benefit access to spouses and dependent children only, we must stand united
in the battle that will undoubtedly follow from those who would now
challenge our biblical and traditional position.” Moretz continued. “We
will not sign any government contract or any other funding contracts that
contain domestic partner benefit requirements.”
Birch said the Salvation Army’s decision “will surely disappoint millions of
Americas who want the group to be a unifying force in this country that
helps all American families, instead of a narrowly focused group that caters
to the whims of the extreme right wing.”
“The Salvation Army can’t have it both ways,” she said. “We urge it to
remain relevant by embracing the full diversity of America instead of
regressing and discriminating against certain families.”
In a statement earlier this month announcing the policy to extend employee
benefits to domestic partners, the Salvation Army said changes in the
American family dictated a change in policy.
“This decision reflects our concern for the health of our employees and
those closest to them, and is made on the basis of strong ethical and moral
reasoning that reflects the dramatic changes in family structure in recent
years,” said Col. Phillip D. Needham, chief secretary for the Army’s Western
Corporation, headquartered in Long Beach, Calif.
The announcement made the Western Corporation the first Salvation
Army division to make such policy modifications. The short-lived change
brought the group in line with much of corporate America and would have
brought the Salvation Army into compliance with San Francisco’s Equal
Benefits Ordinance. The number of employers that offer domestic partner
benefits has increased by more than 50 percent since August 1999 — from
2,856 to 4,337 today. And the number of Fortune 500 companies offering
domestic partner benefits has more than doubled in the past three years,
from 61 in 1998 to 151 today.
In July, a controversy erupted after The Washington Post reported on a
leaked Salvation Army memo. The memo said that in exchange for the group’s
support on the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative, the
administration had made a “firm commitment” to shield religious charities
that receive federal funds from city and statewide ordinances that protect
gays and lesbians from discrimination.
Under intense pressure from civil rights groups and members of
Congress who were outraged by the reported deal, the White House retreated
and announced it was no longer pursuing the discriminatory regulation
championed by the Salvation Army.
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