Lucies Place is going for a triple Duggar

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-wooledge/response-to-defendtheduggars-raises-big-money-for-amazing-cause-in-the-south_b_6236514.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices#comments

Response to #DefendTheDuggars Raises Big Money for Amazing Cause in the South


I helped kicked off a tweet storm last week, and frankly no one was more surprised than I that it snowballed as it did. As of this writing, the #DefendTheDuggars social media campaign has delivered almost $25,000 to help the homeless LGBTQ youth population in Arkansas.

A brief background is this: The Duggar family (of reality-TV fame, appearing on TLC's 19 Kids and Counting) donated $10,000 to repeal an LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Worse, Michelle Duggar recorded a horrible robocall that equates trans people with "convicted pedophiles." So Jim Wissick started a Change.org petition calling out the Duggars for "ignorance," "fear mongering" and anti-gay political activism and asking TLC to cancel the show. This outraged the American Family Association, who said "rabid homosexual activists" were attacking Christianity and told their Christian followers to #DefendTheDuggars.

Though I actually have much respect for the power of the petition, I wondered if allies of the LGBTQ community could transform our disgust and objections into a more tangible way to help. Could gays and our allies respond to the #DefendTheDuggars bigotry eruption with a compassion eruption? Michelle Duggar's robocalls are literally reaching into Arkansas homes and spreading hateful propaganda. We can't stop that, but we can work to undo their damage -- damage like the family rejection that comes from the misguided beliefs the Duggars are working to propagate.

To be honest, I didn't know much about Lucie's Place at the time I "adopted" them. I'd discovered them by just Googling "LGBT Youth Arkansas." I was careful to confirm that Lucie's Place is an authentic nonprofit in good standing with the IRS. I saw their operating budget is around $7,500. As relatively meager as that is (according to the Campaign to End Child Homelessness, Arkansas has 14,000 homeless children and ranks third worst in the nation for homeless children), I figured even a few extra hundreds dollars could only help

$25,000 & COUNTING



Response to #DefendTheDuggars Raises Big Money For Amazing Cause In The South


Snip

[NaturalHigh]

1. I really don't pay much attention to the Duggars.

I've even stopped asking why they have a reality show because it seems like everybody has a reality show these days. What I don't understand is why people actually donate money to these people. Want to have twenty kids? Go ahead, but do it on your own dime. Oh, and don't expect me to take life advice from you because you were crazy enough to have twenty kids.

[LiberalArkie]

2. They have really helped the LBGT homeless kids in Arkansas

with their homophobic attack in Fayetteville.

[TlalocW]

3. I donated and got two emails from them

The first thanked me for my donation of 9500 W. 88th Place. Then they sent out a corrected email detailing just how much the donations are going to help and how thankful they were. I hope the Duggars hear about it.

TlalocW

[Initech]

4. I don't mind or care that the Duggars have 19 kids. Or a reality show.

I do however, have a serious problem with the fact that they use their fame to promote disgusting, bigoted hate groups like the American Family Association and Focus On The Family. It contributes to the vile anti progressive and homophobic agenda that's plaguing countries around the world.