Two hundred fifty thousand dollars - sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But
not if you're in the travel business - or the bigot business.
Fifteen
years ago, I was able to get some pretty remarkable local advertising
for SF's AIDS Emergency Fund. The market value for transit posters and
production of 4 black & white public service announcements:
$350,000. In 1995 dollars. In a local market.
According to FRC's Tony Perkins, however, this amount is an absolute
fortune of taxpayers' money going out to advance the "homosexual
agenda."
If there was ever proof that the Obama Administration has gone off the rails, it's Amtrak. For the first time in the train service's history, Amtrak has decided to spend a quarter-million dollars recruiting homosexual passengers. As you may know, Amtrak isn't a private business. This is a government-run business, meaning that this $250,000 is taken directly from taxpayers' pockets. In a very real sense, this ad campaign is a federal endorsement of homosexual behavior -- one of the most serious public health threats in America.
Whoa! Tony! Do you mean that Amtrack is going to turn into one big rolling bathhouse? Hmmm.
I don't think so. Even though Perkins thinks that every LGBT person is
one big horny STD, one tiny piece of outreach to get gay dollars is not
going to cause an influx of drag queens sipping martinis in the Vista
Dome lounge. Point of fact: Amtrak should be so lucky! I know plenty of
wonderful girls who could liven up that dreary run to Topeka!
Of course, Amtrak is really not so innocent or naive: for years it has
bucked the market trends in following Perkins' homophobic ideology, but
to put it in a more Biblical perspective, "They saw the Light!"
Says Darlene Abubakar, the director of national advertising for Amtrak, "Most all of the major airlines, hotels and others in the travel and tourism industry target the LGBT market segment. Amtrak 's goal is to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of train travel and increase consideration and ridership amongst this segment."
And $250k is small change to the FRC. Promoting "Family Values" and
lobbying for same costs over $20 million per year. FRC employs over 200
people and has satellites in all fifty states. FRC is a lobbying
organization and, unless I've missed something, politicians still don't
give discounts.
The Council's Finances
While I couldn't get the 2009 data on the FRC, I was able to come up with some for 2007: $12,758,000 in revenue. And what, pray tell, was it spent on?
1. Mailing out copies of its 425 (mostly) anti-gay "findings"
2. Printing and shipping out 105,000 "educational" materials.
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