The Big Business of Gay Hate

While I’ve been writing as a professional journalist for years, I’ve only been covering LGBT rights since I started my website in March.  I try my best to make sure coverage is well rounded; if it’s newsworthy I’m going to write something about it.  Keep it topical, keep it current, right?

I don’t think a day has gone by that I haven’t seen a right wring group proselytizing on their cyber-street corner how gays are the antichrist and are sure to be the reason the world ends.  These groups (and individuals) are like cockroaches; one goes away and four more take it’s place.

LGBT websites on Thursday had a field day taking America’s Survival to task for the hate-filled message they launched around gay soldiers in the military.  Their message, in part, said that:

The Pentagon understands that 19,000 soldiers already have HIV/AIDS and that some — if not most — came down with the deadly disease through prohibited gay sexual conduct.  It is common sense that opening the ranks to open and active homosexuals would only increase this problem.

Here’s another critical fact that a comprehensive review would disclose –there is no blood test that can be guaranteed to screen HIV and other deadly diseases out of the blood supply once the gay males, who are currently prohibited from donating blood, are welcomed into the services.

In addition to their 60 page report stating this would happen was a YouTube video to accompany their lunacy.  Due to the group’s copyright infringement on images they used it has since been taken down.

While America’s Survival has easily been one of the most hate filled messages on the internet, they certainly aren’t alone.  Many sites like mine will speak out against their message, pick apart their campaign of misinformation and then everything dies down again until their next YouTube moment or hateful diatribe hits the airwave.

The big question for me around groups like this is:  what’s in it for them?  There are many different ways to answer this question but it comes down to something far less altruistic than being staunch believers in their own message.

It’s money.  That’s all – coming up with the most believable, bigoted, hate-filled message that will inspire people to grab their wallets and there’s alot of money to be made in burning gays and lesbians in the town square.

Let’s start with America’s Survival:

Tax Status: 501c3, and herein lies the first problem.  Although they do indeed exist on Publication 78 from the IRS, they’ve chosen to post an IRS determination letter on their website that is 13 years old, and the exemption status on that certification expired seven years ago.  Also on their website is another inconsistency.  The group’s lead, Cliff Kincaide says on their donation page that “your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law” and that’s a nice twist in wording.  If you check their status on the Pub78 link above you’ll see that donations are only given the 50% deduction rate.

The Loot:  According to America’s Survival 990 Forms available on Guidestar, in the last three years Kincaide’s group has taken in $1,657,337 in donations and earning him a handsome two year salary to the tune of $396,422 between 2008 and 2009 (there’s no salary listed on the 2007 form).  Also worth noting is that Cliff decided to double his salary in the last two years, jumping from $138,569 in 2008 to $257,853 in 2009.  Considering that no employees are listed for America’s Survival it’s not a hard jump to make that all the salary taken goes straight to Kincaide.

Here’s a fun fact to put everything in perspective:  President Obama makes $400,000 per year.

The Big Problem:  America’s Survival spends a great deal of time speaking out on government officials, policies and legislation – in direct conflict to the IRS Non Profit Code prohibiting exactly that:

In general, if a substantial part of the activities of your organization consists of carrying on propaganda or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, your organization’s exemption from federal income tax will be denied. However, a public charity (other than a church, an integrated auxiliary of a church or of a convention or association of churches, or a member of an affiliated group of organizations that includes a church, etc.) may avoid this result. Such a charity can elect to replace the substantial part of activities test with a limit defined in terms of expenditures for influencing legislation. Private foundations cannot make this election.

While the code goes on further to say that, “making available the results of nonpartisan analysis, study or research,”  is not a conflicting action it stands to reason that publishing a 60 page report that concludes soldiers will contract HIV if gays are allowed to serve in the military runs contrary to a much-coveted non-profit status.

America’s Survival isn’t the only group taking their actions to extreme under the guise of being a public advocacy non profit group.  As I dig up more of their information I’ll be adding them to this ongoing article.  I’m all for ANY group having the ability to speak their mind, but when it’s done under the guise of a nonprofit exemption and huge salary I think it’s time to expose the hypocrisy.

I’ve never made it a secret that I think the Westboro Baptist Church is an easy leader in the gay hate movement, but I have to share this:  At least they’re not trying to make a buck when they take their hate-filled message to the streets.

They apparently hate gays and lesbians for free.

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