December 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae hurtled to financial ruin, their charitable foundations continued to pour money into homosexual causes, reports the organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX).
Their largest single gifts came in the last year — just months before both companies collapsed and were taken over by the government.
Freddie Mac gave more than $20,000 to the 2008 fundraising gala of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG-DC). Fannie Mae gave between $10,000 – $19,000 to the same event.
According to its records, the Freddie Mac Foundation gave over $125,000 to gay-activist groups since 2005. The Fannie Mae Foundation donated about $80,000 to these groups over the last decade.
Both foundations gave money to Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, DC (PFLAG-DC) for years.
Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), suggested in response that her organization should have been considered for funding from the mortgage companies. “We support individuals’ rights to self-determination,” she said. “We support families who have homosexual loved ones. We support those who have come out of homosexuality. We provide outreach and educate teens on same-sex attractions.”
“We want the same financial opportunity that gay groups enjoy,” she said.
Shawn Flaherty, a spokeswoman for Freddie Mac, however, said she was not sure PFOX would meet the grant guidelines, adding the foundation focuses on three priorities — stable homes, foster care and adoption, and youth development.
The grants have not focused on the gay community, she insisted: “It’s a piece of it.”
Yet the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest gay lobby group, also benefited from the generosity of the government sponsored mortgage giants. During the last two years, Freddie Mac gave $65,000 to HRC to help homosexual couples adopt children.
Fannie Mae has sponsored at least five Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) events for a total of nearly $40,000 since 1998. GLADD’s purpose is to pressure the media to positively portray homosexuality and censor positive portrayals of ex-gays.
Griggs said the process seems agenda-driven: “PFLAG, GLAAD and HRC are gay-activist groups that oppose the civil rights of the ex-gay community.”
Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), the openly gay congressman who chairs the Housing Banking Committee charged with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has received more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie since 1989. Frank’s former boyfriend, Herb Moses, was an executive at Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998—the same time Frank was serving on the Committee. In 2003, Frank rejected warnings about the soundness of both Fannie and Freddie as exaggerations and conjuring.