October 28, 2010

Will Gold's Gym get my gay dollar?


Yesterday was my day off, and it was a cold winter day so I took it easy. I napped with the dogs, did laundry, watched multiple episodes of The Golden Girls, bopped around the Internet for a couple of hours, read my book, went for a run with my iPod blasting, watched Jane Fonda on Oprah, scooped poop in the backyard, made dinner, and napped with the dogs a bit more.

As I have been busy and distracted the past several months, I have not been running or working out as much as I should. And as winter approaches, there will be less running and more gym (uh, I hope).

My current/previous gym was close to work and home. As we are moving into our new house soon, they do have a location vaguely in the area, but there is another gym much closer. Easily walkable. And there is a problem... this new gym is a Gold's Gym franchise. Which would not have been a problem until I read about this online:

Gay groups have publicized a petition demanding answers from Gold's Gym about the $2 million donated by its owner -- Robert Rowling -- to American Crossroads, Salon.com reports. American Crossroads, founded by Karl Rove, is spending millions to elect GOP candidates who are anti-gay, like Roy Blunt, who wants to rewrite the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage.
Rowling, says the facts have been distorted, in an interview with Fox News. "Gold's Gym is apolitical. We welcome all members without regard to race, gender, or sexual orientation. We always have, and we always will." He says his $2 million donation was due solely to fiscal policy. "I've never heard one discussion of a social issue. This is all about fiscal sanity." Rowling says American Crossroads "supports conservative candidates, and even though those candidates may disagree with them on social issues, the resounding issue is fiscal responsibility."

The CEO of Target got lots of bad PR recently for big cash donations to anti-gay groups. Is fiscal responsibility the be all and end all? Sure, if the group you are donating to is strictly about money. Not the case here, where Karl Rove, the architect of George W Bush's gay baiting campaigns, is involved. I don't think you can give your money to haters and look the other way. And I sure don't want my money to become his money.

7 comments:

Kevin said...

No to Gold's Gym. Let's sit in front of the TV eating chocolate, peanuts, popcorn, and licorice allsorts while you drink Diet Coke and I drink Tim Horton's extra large coffee with double milk all winter with the dogs curled up next to us (well, Quinn curled up next to us while Alfred chews something to destruction).

Kathy (p/t writer, f/t mom) said...

Oh Canada! I'm the boob blogger, you've got great thing going here. Don't give that goldscum one frickin' cent. If you're throwing $ away, throw some my way: i've got one in college and 3 to go. Am raising homo-loving atheist chilluns and they'll spend your money wisely. Gold's can't be the only game in town, can they?

Brahm (alfred lives here) said...

Kevin - sounds great to me, we will both need pants with elastic waists, and I will need an entirely new wardrobe for work ---- what's your credit card number again?

Brahm (alfred lives here) said...

Kathy - right you are, am not throwing money away, thanks, and not giving the dinero to the bigots either!

Jason said...

Check out the response from this Gold Gym in LA. http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150108081984358&id=626928160

Brahm (alfred lives here) said...

Hey Jason - thanks for posting, interesting to see how the California gyms are distancing themselves from the parent company. No such news up here so far.

pattypunker said...

hell no to gold! it's irresponsible of them to not know social policies of the candidates they endorse. not to mention these policies are are ignorant and hateful.

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