Tag: ups

The Merck Company Foundation, the charitable arm of pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck and Company, announced last week it was halting all contributions to the Boy Scouts of America until that organization ceases discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

The corporate foundation of United Parcel Service has added a nondiscrimination policy to its grantmaking process, a move that could end the shipping giant’s funding for the Boy Scouts of America.

Intel has revealed new details about its plan to exclude organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation from its corporate giving, a move that could cost some Boy Scout troops thousands of dollars in donations.

Corporate foundations have given millions to the Boy Scouts of America and its subdivisions in recent years despite that organization’s policy of excluding gays and lesbians. Many of those same foundations have policies against giving to organizations that discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Lambda Legal, a New York-based organization committed to winning gay civil rights through the courts, announced in a press release Tuesday that it would challenge New Jersey's 2006 same sex civil unions law for failing to bring full equality to gay residents of the state. Lambda, which is teaming with New Jersey LGBT group Garden State Equality, will refer to government studies and press investigations that document the way employers have failed to recognize couples entered into a civil union and how civil unions have been ignored or misunderstood by authorities, often in instances involving critical medical decisions.