Televangelist's anti-gay protest backfires
June 11, 201503:24Rev. Franklin Graham is calling for a boycott of gay-friendly businesses, beginning by pulling his ministry's accounts from Wells Fargo after the bank ran an ad featuring a gay couple. Graham, son of the famed evangelical pastor Billy Graham, runs the church his father started, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which had net assets of $295 million in 2014, according to the most recent data available on the ministry's website.
Graham may not have done much research, as BB&T has received an 80 percent score in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index and this year is the sponsor of the Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade, along with the chief sponsor of Miami Beach Gay Pride's "Legacy Couples" program, which celebrates same-sex couples in "committed relationships of 10 years or longer." A bank spokesman said the company hopes to "support the individuals and organizations that broaden our perspectives and strengthen the diverse fabric of our communities. That's why BB&T is proud to be a part of this day of pride and celebration of the 2015 Legacy Couples." In fact, BB&T hosted a same-sex couple's wedding reception earlier this year "in a makeshift chapel at event sponsor BB&T Bank South Beach branch."