One of the few (and perhaps only) remaining voices of untarnished activism in San Francisco, Michael Petrelis, interviewed LGBT Community Center executive director Rebecca Rolfe about the Center's unyielding support of AT&T and its pending merger with T-Mobile. Last week, if you recall, six GLAAD board members, as well as President Jarrett Barrios, were forced to resign due to the organization’s involvement in the proposed merger. (What with a Democrat sitting n the Oval Office, AT&T looks to left-learning organizations to help bend Obama's ear for merger approval. If this were the Bush era of a few years ago, AT&T would probably be hitting up the other end of the spectrum, the NRA, etc.)
So, what's with the (nearly broke) LBGT Center supporting something as crucial (yet terminally tedious and unfabulous) and a big corporate merger?
Due to the meltdown at GLAAD over its support for AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile, and the role GLAAD board member and former AT&T lobbyist Troup Coronado played in the controversy, we've seen the influence peddling problems extend to NGLTF, National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and Equality California.Today the narrative shifts a bit to the local level. Since AT&T is prominently mentioned as a sponsor of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center on their site, and the secretary of the center's board is an employee of AT&T, Michael Albert, I asked executive director Rebecca Rolfe a few questions.
Check out the entire interview at Petrelis Files. It's a choice read, one that simply asks for more transparency on what "Gay Inc" and their regulatory agencies, government agenciesa and/or political operations are saying on the LGBT community's behalf. What with Gay Pride just around the corner, we cannot recommend it strongly enough.
Update: Bay Area Reporter just published the S.F. LGBT Center's letter sent to the CPUC endorsing AT&T's merger with T-Mobile.
