546inthemorning

The music festival Coachella just announced its lineup for this year, and people are excited. Less exciting? The owner of Coachella, Phil Anschutz, has donated thousands of dollars to anti-LGBT organizations for years.

Through his organization, Anschutz Corporation, Phil has donated thousands to anti-LGBT groups such as the Family Research Council, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the National Christian Foundation. The Family Research Council, you will remember, is designated a hate group by the SPLC. 

Reports of Anschutz’s allegeties to conservative groups is nothing new; the Freedom for All Americans infographic was produced in July 2016, and was re-printed by The Washington Post that same month. A 2009 Politico article pointed to Anschultz’s decision to purchase two conservative publications, the Weekly Standard and the Washington Examiner, in hopes of maintaining them as “a megaphone for his right-wing views.” In 2013, Greenpeace slammed Anschutz as a “financier of climate science denial groups,” highlighting his ties to Charles and David Koch, who have repeatedly backed efforts to block renewable energy standards. […]

The Anschultz Family Foundation released a statement to the Colorado Springs Independent’s Indy Blog in July 2016, saying the group “donates to hundreds of worthy organizations each year, and it does not attempt to dictate to those organizations how to spend their monies.”

That statement continued: “Those donations are made in accordance with our process and guidelines, and neither process or guidelines identify or reference in any way sexual orientation or gender issues… Mr. Anschutz, and the Anschutz companies, invest in many businesses employing tens of thousands of people. In all instances, personal lifestyles are neither a requirement or limitation to employment.”

I consider myself pretty good at noticing or paying attention to the big things women have to go through that men don’t: income inequality, pink taxes, motherhood vs. career, fear of sexual assault (on such scale), government representation, etc. The little day-to-day things can slip right on by you if you’re not living it though.