Why Does the Walton Family Foundation Donate Every Year to Organization with Anti-LGBT Policies?

March 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Revelation Comes on Heels of Growing Concern about Walmart and Walton Family and LGBT Community

We’ve written recently about Walmart’s poor track record with the LGBT community and with the Walton Family’s support for an anti-LGBT agenda. From company policies to family political contributions, a worrisome image of an anti-gay empire is emerging, concerns that were expanded on in a recent article in Out magazine.

As the richest family in the nation, the Walton Family has many avenues to exert their influence. One of the ways they do this is by funding organizations through the Walton Family Foundation. Their ties to one such organization—Christian missionary group Young Life—haven’t received the attention they deserve up until now. Young Life is a Christian missionary organization that has a specific prohibition on gays or lesbians serving as staff or volunteers with the organization.

Young Life’s staff manual reads, in part:

With regard to the delicate matter of homosexual lifestyle and practice, in the light of the biblical data regarding creation, Young Life believes such activities to be clearly not in accord with God’s creation purposes.

On the basis of these theological affirmations which flow from our understanding of the Scriptures, we therefore must state very clearly that Young Life staff members and volunteers shall not engage in sexual misconduct.

We do not in any way wish to exclude persons who engage in sexual misconduct or who practice a homosexual lifestyle from being recipients of ministry of God’s grace and mercy as expressed in Jesus Christ. We do, however, believe that such persons are not to serve as staff or volunteers in the mission and work of Young Life.

When did the Walton Family Foundation give to Young Life, you ask? Answer: Every single year, since 2002, according to our analysis of the Walton Family Foundation’s 990s. Why are the Waltons associating themselves with an organization that bars gays and lesbians from serving as volunteers and staff? If the Walton Family Foundation, a consistent donor, wanted to encourage Young Life to adopt a more inclusive policy, it seems likely they would listen.

To echo the words of Out magazine, “It’s time for the Walton family and the Walmart board to reconsider the importance of its LGBT employees and the LGBT market.”

Filed Under: LGBTQ, Misplaced Priorities, Updates

Solyndra Ruling: Taxpayers Get Hit, Walton Family Gets Tax Breaks

October 23, 2012 By

Waltons: Always Tax Breaks

According to Bloomberg, yesterday’s ruling by a judge overseeing the Solyndra bankruptcy could provide $341 million in tax breaks to two venture capital firms, including Madrone Capital, which acts as an investment arm for the Walton family.

The U.S. government had opposed Solyndra’s bankruptcy plan, arguing that it was improperly designed to provide tax breaks to these private investors, at the expense of smaller creditors and the federal government, which had provided the company with more than $500 million in loan guarantees and subsidies.

When the Fremont, CA-based solar cell company Solyndra declared bankruptcy last September, conservatives attacked the Obama Administration.

But conservative critics have largely ignored the fact that one of Solyndra’s major investors is the Walton-connected Madrone Capital.

Yes, the same Waltons who together own about half of Walmart and have a combined wealth greater than the bottom 42% of the American population. Madrone Capital is run by Walmart Director Greg Penner, a former Walmart executive who is married to Carrie Walton, daughter of Walmart Chairman Rob Walton.

And now it appears that Madrone and the Waltons are going to get bailed out of the Solyndra bankruptcy, while letting the government and other creditors take a big hit.

Hospitality union UNITE HERE explains here that the bankruptcy plan gives Madrone Capital and Argonaut Ventures tax credits worth more than $300 million in exchange for those firms accepting up to $10.2 million in losses.

The plan, if passed, will heavily benefit Madrone and other major investors at the expense of Solyndra’s smaller creditors and the federal government, which will likely recoup only 3 cents and less than 19 cents on the dollar, respectively.

And, as UNITE HERE makes clear, this is not the way bankruptcies usually work.

Normally when a company goes bankrupt, the investors take the biggest hit, while the firm’s creditors (lenders and companies to whom the company owes money) get first crack at the remaining assets. That’s only fair, because the investors are risking their capital for the chance to profit handsomely if the company does well.

Welcome to Walton World – where rule #1 is: “The Waltons always win” and rule #2 is, “If the Waltons lose, see rule #1.”

Filed Under: How Rich are the Waltons?, Misplaced Priorities, Updates Tagged With: , , ,

Time for Jim Walton to dump racist candidate

October 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I'm With Stupid: Jim Walton Backs Loy MauchAccording to financial disclosure reports [1] filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State, Jim Walton recently contributed $500 to the re-election campaign of Loy Mauch, an Arkansas state legislator who has called the Confederate flag a “symbol of Jesus Christ” and acknowledged membership in the “neo-confederate” secessionist group known as League of the South.

Walton is a member of Walmart’s Board of Directors as well as Chairman and CEO of the Walton-owned Arvest Bank. He is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton.

Mauch is one of three Arkansas Republicans who have come under fire recently for racist and extremist views. According to news reports, the Arkansas state Republican Party now says it will cut off financial support to these three now that their views have been exposed.

In letters written to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (D-G) over the years, and recently posted online by Max Brantley at the Arkansas Blog, Mauch called Abraham Lincoln a war criminal on a par with the Nazis, and also suggested that slavery couldn’t have been so bad because it was not condemned in the Bible. On his campaign’s Facebook page, Mauch calls President Obama a “radical Muslim.”

Mauch has never kept his views secret so it’s hard to understand why Jim Walton would have cut him a check. Maybe Walton just wasn’t paying attention when Mauch was named one of the 50 worst politicians in America by trutv.com.

Hopefully,  Walton’s paying attention now – and hopefully he’ll have the decency to publicly repudiate Mauch and ask for his money back.

Please like and share this post if you agree that Jim Walton should dump Loy Mauch.

[1] Loy Mauch Final Campaign Contribution and Expenditure report, filed July 2, 2012 with the Arkansas Secretary of State. Retrieved 10 October 2012. See http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/filing_search/index.php/filing/search/new

Filed Under: Distorting Democracy, Misplaced Priorities, Updates Tagged With: , , ,

Selling out LGBTQ rights while cashing in on LGBTQ consumers

June 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

While the Walmart 1% sells out LGBTQ rights, Walmart cashes in on sales of books and films that are sympathetic to the LGBTQ community and/or aimed at LGBTQ consumers. For Pride month, we thought it might be fun to take note of some of the LGBTQ-oriented products available to Walmart’s online shoppers.

Born This Way Cover The 3rd highest recipient of political contributions from the Walton family is former Arkansas Congressman Jay Dickey. He once told Spy magazine “You know, we have a whole lot of dirt roads and gravel roads here in Arkansas. And you don’t find a whole lot of tolerance for homosexuals on dirt roads.” While funding intolerant politicians like Dickey, Walmart is happy to sell you Lady Gaga’s human rights anthem Born This Way, featuring the lyric: “No matter gay, straight, or bi / lesbian, transgendered life / I’m on the right track baby / I was born to survive.”
Gay Republicans Cover The largest recipient of Walton family campaign funds is Arkansas Rep. John Boozman, who supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. We can’t find any films about John Boozman for sale at Walmart, but the company would be happy to sell you this sympathetic documentary about Gay Republicans.
Lesbian Couples Cover Walmart does not provide partner medical benefits for employees in same-sex relationships but it’s happy to sell Lesbian Couples, a “guide to creating healthy relationships.” (We guess lesbian couples don’t need health insurance to have a healthy relationship). [1]
The Complete Guide In a same-sex relationship and thinking about tying the knot? Walmart would be happy to sell you The Complete Guide to Gay and Lesbian Weddings. But Jim Walton, Walmart board member and son of Sam Walton, has contributed $75,000 to the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee, an organization dedicated to supporting the state’s ban on gay marriage and prohibiting same-sex couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.

Next, we’ll dig deeper and showcase the profiles of two anti-gay “leaders” heavily supported by the Walmart 1 Percent.

[1] For information on Walmart’s failure to provide benefit parity to same-sex couples see the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index 2012, p. 65-67. Available at http://issuu.com/humanrightscampaign/docs/corporateequalityindex_2012

Filed Under: LGBTQ, Misplaced Priorities, Updates Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Where do the Walmart 1% Place their Priorities?

March 30, 2012 By

To read a summary, click here.

Filed Under: Misplaced Priorities

Walton Family Foundation grantee backs anti-gay state legislator

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We’ve argued previously that the Walton Family Foundation’s (WFF) education agenda is about systematically undermining our nation’s public education system.  But, the more research we do, the more we understand that this funding is also tied to other right-wing issues and agendas.

A prime example is the WFF’s $1 million funding in 2011 for StudentsFirst, an organization promoting corporate-style education reform.  In addition to their anti-public school agenda, StudentsFirst spent more than $70,000 to try to prevent the recall of Michigan state Rep. Paul Scott (R – Grand Blanc), a right-wing politician who is an ideological ally of the organization.

Scott also happens to be an ardent opponent of gay rights. In 2008, he criticized an opponent for accepting money from gay rights groups, which he called “far left and radical homosexual groups,” and in 2010, when he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State, he announced that preventing transgender people from changing the sex listed on their driver’s licenses would be one of his top priorities. That’s right: This was one of Scott’s main priorities, despite the fact that Michigan had an unemployment rate over 14 percent.

Scott was also a consistent ally of Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder and his budget proposals.   Snyder’s final budget included a $300 million aid reduction to schools statewide.

ThinkProgress commented:

It seems odd that an organization that says its goal is to “build a national movement to defend the interests of children in public education and pursue transformative reform, so that America has the best education system in the world” would spend so much money to defend a right-wing Republican who loyally helped his right-wing Republican governor take an axe to the statewide school budget.

StudentsFirst was founded by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.   Rhee announced the formation of the organization during an appearance on Oprah in December 2010 less than two months after she left DC.   Kathleen deLaski, StudentsFirst’s Senior Strategy Advisor, is a former Walton Family Foundation staffer.

We encourage readers of the Walmart 1 Percent to do your own research and help spread the word about the agendas of the Waltons and other members of the 1 Percent.

Filed Under: Distorting Democracy, Misplaced Priorities, Undermining Public Education, Updates
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