Pro-Family Leaders Challenge Walgreens on 'Gay Games' Sponsorship
by Ed Thomas
October 21, 2005
(AgapePress) - A leading national pharmacy and good retailer is saying its participation as a sponsor in the upcoming "Gay Games" in Chicago next year is primarily for engaging in AIDS awareness education and distributing treatment drugs. But the logic of that statement is being refuted by a pro-family organization based in Illinois.
The Illinois Family Institute (IFI) continues to spearhead petition campaigns, encouraging the state's citizens to voice their displeasure with major corporations that are sponsoring the 2006 Gay Games. IFI executive director Peter LaBarbera says if Walgreens -- with its corporate office in Illinois -- is trying to fight HIV, it is counterproductive for them to contribute $100,000 and take part in an event celebrating the unhealthy lifestyle that produces HIV.
"What Walgreens is saying is that this $100,000 gift allow them to dispense HIV drugs at the Gay Games and also to engage in AIDS awareness," LaBarbera explains. "Now first of all, a lot of those AIDS awareness programs are compromised because they promote homosexuality.
"But even if they were effective, we think it's ridiculous to say that you are stopping HIV but at the same time you're celebrating homosexual behavior, which is one of the big causes of AIDS.
"They can dispense HIV drugs," acknowledges LaBarbera, "but they don't have to give to an event which is just celebrating homosexuality in the name of sport."
He also says it is important that Chicago residents call Mayor Richard M. Daley to task for his apparent turnaround on pro-family values and issues -- including agreeing to be co-chair of the Gay Games.
"There was a time when the mayor was pro-life and pro-family -- and his father was certainly pro-family," says LaBarbera, referring to the six-term mayor who died in 1975. "We think it's sad to see Mayor Daly pandering in such an extreme way on this homosexual issue."
Another pro-family group -- the American Family Association -- also takes issue with Walgreens' justification for the financial gift to the Gay Games. AFA contends the donation was made to "placate" homosexual activists, a group it says should already know plenty about AIDS.
"If any group should be aware of the dangers of AIDS and how to prevent it, it should be homosexual activists," says a statement from AFA founder Don Wildmon. He points out that billions of dollars have already been spent to educate the public about AIDS.
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Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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