Banks & LGBTQ Community

Banks takes a stand for the LGBTQ community

In 2018, two of the nation’s largest and most known banks pulled out of a Florida private school voucher program once they found out that the program consisted of beneficiaries who discriminated against LGBTQ students. The two banks, Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Street Bank pulled out their significantly large contributions and stated that “they will not be contributing again until more inclusive policies have been adopted by all participating schools to protect the sexual orientation of all our students”. This decision occurred after an investigation that found 156 private Christian schools, funded by the Florida taxpayers, educated over 20,000 students and carried anti-gay views.

"Florida's scholarship programs, often referred to as school vouchers, sent more than $129 million to these religious institutions," the Sentinel reported on Jan. 23. "That means at least 14 percent of Florida's nearly 147,000 scholarship students last year attended private schools where homosexuality was condemned or, at a minimum, unwelcome." The investigation found that 83 of the 156 schools do not permit LGBTQ students to attend their schools or facilities and even go as far to reject students who have gay parents.

After the pull out of these donations, there has been minimal comments from the private schools and their thoughts/actions that are going to be taken moving forward, if any. Since then, there has been other business and organizations who have also stopped their contributions to the school following the release of this discriminatory information.

- Shayla Bannert

Resources:

Sopelsa, B., & Ruggiero, R. (2020). Wells Fargo pulls Florida voucher donations over anti-gay school policies. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/wells-fargo-pulls-florida-voucher-donations-over-anti-gay-school-n1126136