Pro-Family Groups Urge Sponsors Backing 'Gay Games' to Pull Out
by Ed Thomas
May 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - An annual, Olympics-style athletic contest for homosexuals, which bills itself as "The Gay Games" is set to take place in Chicago in 2006. And already, the homosexual sporting event slated for July of next year has gathered some surprising corporate sponsors.
Kraft Foods has given $25,000, and Chicago-based Harris Bank has put up $50,000 for sponsorship of next summer's "Gay Games VII." Those are just two of the well-known Illinois-based businesses that are providing funding for the games. But now, pro-family groups are mobilizing a pro-family consumer response.
The Illinois Family Institute (IFI) has joined with American Family Association (AFA) in calling for corporate sponsors' withdrawal from the Gay Games and threatening a possible boycott of the companies' products if they do not change their minds about supporting the event. IFI executive director Peter LaBarbera says the pro-homosexual games and the company sponsorships both simply reflect the fact that, today, even the sin culture of homosexuality is being marketed.
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Peter LaBarbera |
"We're at the point where homosexuality is a big business, and it's attracting major corporate support," LaBarbera says. What he and other pro-family activists feel, he adds, "is that most people have not got a grasp on what we're talking about here." But in the hopes of changing that, LaBarbera and IFI are urging Illinois and Chicago-area residents to call the corporate sponsors of the Gay Games and ask them to pull their sponsorship dollars.The IFI spokesman says the people of Chicago need to let these companies know that customers will withdraw their financial patronage of businesses that support the homosexual agenda through the Gay Games. He believes the decision to host the 2006 athletic competition sends the wrong kind of message to the rest of the country: what it suggests, the pro-family advocate contends, is that the Windy City is "gay-friendly" and that its officials openly welcome the moral climate the Gay Games presents.
"I mean, to have an athletic contest come into the city of Chicago, in the heartland, and celebrate homosexuality -- to have the mayor as the honorary co-chair and all this stuff -- really is an insult to the good sense of the Midwest," LaBarbera asserts.
Gay Games VII is scheduled for July 15-22, 2006. The opening ceremonies will be held on Saturday evening at Chicago's Soldier Field, a newly renovated outdoor sports stadium with a seating capacity of more than 62,000.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
