Thursday, December 16, 2010

Be Glad At That Donation!

As tired as you might be of your public radio station's pledge drive, there's a pitch you might want to grab — one that goes for marriage equality and gay rights. One well known and one outrageously famous guy will double donations to GLAD and Freedom to Marry through this month.

Those matching fellows would be the couple Sean Eldridge and Chris Hughes. Eldridge is political director of Freedom to Marry. Hughes is co-founder of Facebook, former head of Barrack Obama's online 2006 campaign, and founder and executive director of Jumo. (The screen cap from GLAD's video clip shows Hughes left and Eldridge right.)

Through this month, they are matching donations to up to $50,000 total for GLAD and $100,000 for Freedom to Marry.

You may well wonder what, beyond sexual identity, would inspire them to cough it up for the cause. Specifically, what would what inspire the well heeled Hughes to bother with good works and the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders?

You can grab the one-page GLAD newsletter piece on the pair. You can also go to the video on the site to hear Hughes give some background.

There he was, a Harvard student in 2002, when he volunteered to work for LGBT equality. He worked for GLAD's Legal InfoLine for two semesters. In other words, he didn't just talk about things then and doesn't now.

January 1 will be too late. This is a good time to chip in to one or both GLAD and Freedom to Marry. They're not handing out tote bags (you surely have enough of those), but these two good souls are doubling donations.

Head note: The post heading is a feeble play on a famous UU tale from Rev. Clarke Dewey Wells.

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