Walmart is never one to refuse a customer, so the company has begun to talk more about respect for the LGBT community. Unfortunately, behind the PR, the truth isn’t so rosy.
This month, we’ve discussed a variety of ways in which Walmart and the Walton family are pursuing an anti-LGBT agenda. Today, we’d like to highlight two more ways in which Walmart Board Member and Walton Family member, Greg Penner (son-in-law to Walmart Board chair Rob Walton) is connected to anti-LGBT activity.
We talked earlier in the week about Walmart’s anti-LGBT employment practices and about their support for anti-LGBT elected officials at the federal level. But, the Walton family has also gotten involved with an anti-gay initiative in their home state of Arkansas.
In a previous LGBT post, we wrote about the Walmart 1 Percent’s disproportionate support for legislators with very poor ratings when it comes to issues for the LGBT community. The numbers themselves are very compelling: Of the contributions to current members of Congress, more than 80% of the money given by the Walton Family went to those who received scores of 10 or less on the 2011 Human Rights Campaign scorecard.
We’ve talked extensively about how Walmart and the Walton family have used their money to help influence the political process. But we’re only now beginning to understand the full extent of their agenda as it pertains to the rights of the LGBT community.
As we celebrate the LGBT community this month and the ongoing fight for LGBT equality, we’ll be bringing you a series of blog posts that illustrate the ways in which Walmart and the Walton Family have repeatedly proven themselves to be enemies of LGBT-equality. Today’s post will focus on Walmart’s failure to protect the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.
