\u201cExperience feel-good shopping\u201d is the slogan of the AmazonSmile programme<\/a>, which enables customers to donate to charities as they shop online. Amazon says the programme has facilitated $215 million<\/a> in such donations since its launch in 2013.<\/p>\n AmazonSmile\u2019s Participation Agreement<\/a> clearly states that eligible charities cannot \u201cengage in, support, encourage, or promote: intolerance, discrimination or discriminatory practices based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age\u201d.<\/p>\n However, openDemocracy research has discovered that more than 40 organisations listed on the US AmazonSmile platform publicly oppose LGBT rights and equality. Among them are groups that have:<\/p>\n In response to openDemocracy\u2019s findings, human rights activists said Amazon should remove these groups from its platform immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies, if they really walk the talk, shouldn\u2019t be giving their platform to organisations that are working to limit the rights of other people,\u201d said Evelyne Paradis, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group ILGA-Europe.<\/p>\n It\u2019s good that Amazon has a diversity of groups on its platform, she said, but \u201cthey shouldn\u2019t be giving space to any organisation [\u2026] that is actively fuelling hatred and\/or working against the rights of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon has made numerous public pledges to non-discrimination and inclusion of LGBT people. For example, as an employer, it has, for several years, offered<\/a> benefits to same-sex partners of its employees and covered transgender surgical procedures.<\/p>\n Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos accepted the 2017 National Equality Award<\/a> from the US LGBT rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. In 2012, he and his then wife publicly pledged $2.5m<\/a> to the fight for same-sex marriage in Washington state.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s UK website advertises<\/a> partnerships<\/a> with LGBT rights charities, including Stonewall\u2019s Diversity Champions programme<\/a> for inclusive workplace environments.<\/p>\n Two major US Christian right organisations \u2013 Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Family Research Council (FRC) \u2013 were previously removed<\/a> from the AmazonSmile programme amid controversy<\/a> over their advocacy against equality for LGBT people.<\/p>\n But openDemocracy\u2019s research reveals that these are only the tip of the iceberg and many more organisations with similar anti-LGBT track records remain on AmazonSmile.<\/p>\n A director of one such outfit, Human Life International (HLI), has called on people to \u201coppose the LGBT movement<\/a>\u201d and claimed that homosexuality is linked to paedophilia. Earlier this year, openDemocracy revealed how this group has also supported anti-abortion projects<\/a> in Latin America that have been accused of spreading misinformation and manipulating vulnerable women about their health and rights.<\/p>\n The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), led by Trump\u2019s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, is also listed on the AmazonSmile platform. It has intervened in numerous US court cases<\/a> opposing LGBT marriage equality. Its European office also provided legal arguments for banning abortions for Polish women in cases of fatal foetal anomalies.<\/p>\n Another group on the Amazon platform that has been criticised for divisive and anti-LGBT positions is the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Its president, Franklin Graham, has called<\/a> Satan the architect of same-sex marriage and Islam \u201cevil\u201d and \u201cwicked\u201d. This year, several UK venues pulled out<\/a> of hosting a tour by Graham because of such views.<\/p>\n These three organisations were also among the dozens of US ultra-conservative groups that openDemocracy revealed in October<\/a> have spent millions around the world \u2013 and particularly in Europe \u2013 opposing sexual and reproductive rights including in the courts.<\/p>\n \u201cBe part of something bigger\u201d AmazonSmile invites online shoppers. The platform lets customers donate 0.5% of eligible purchases<\/a> to charities of their choice. It says<\/a> there are more than one million groups listed on the platform, and that more people have supported animal-related non-profits over any other cause, followed by education-related charities.<\/p>\n It is unclear how much money the anti-LGBT groups have raised from AmazonSmile donations, as this information is not provided by the groups or by Amazon.<\/p>\n AmazonSmile also exists internationally, but with different groups eligible for donations. None of the US anti-LGBT groups are listed on AmazonSmile in the UK, for example.<\/p>\n openDemocracy presented Amazon with a dossier of research into the anti-LGBT activities and statements of more than 40 groups listed on the US platform \u2013 and asked if the company would investigate if they had broken their Participation Agreement.<\/p>\n In response, an Amazon spokesperson reiterated its policy: \u201cCharitable organisations must meet the requirements outlined in our participation agreement to be eligible for AmazonSmile. Organistions that engage in, support, encourage, or promote intolerance, hate, terrorism, violence, money laundering, or other illegal activities are not eligible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf at any point an organisation violates this agreement, its eligibility will be revoked,\u201d the spokesperson added, though they did not say whether this will happen in these cases.<\/p>\n They said that \u201csince 2013, Amazon has relied on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Southern Poverty Law Center to provide the data for these determinations.\u201d<\/p>\n The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) produces annual lists of \u201chate groups\u201d. ADF and the Family Research Council, the two organisations that were previously removed from the US AmazonSmile programme, had been included on these lists as \u201canti-LGBT hate groups\u201d. Both groups have previously contested these designations.<\/p>\n Of the more than 40 anti-LGBT groups that openDemocracy discovered on the platform, eight have been partners of the controversial World Congress of Families (WCF) network \u2013 which is also described by the SPLC as an \u201canti-LGBT hate group\u201d.<\/p>\n Also on the Amazon platform is an Indiana \u201cstate affiliate<\/a>\u201d of the American Family Association (AFA), which is on the SPLC\u2019s current list<\/a> of \u201canti-LGBT hate groups\u201d. The AFA has linked homosexuality with Nazism and called it \u201ca poor and dangerous choice\u201d. It has also previously contested its description as a \u201chate group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Pledges betrayed?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Helping \u2018hate groups\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshots](\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/screenshots_comp_2.width-800.png\")
Screenshots of the AmazonSmile platform in December 2020.<\/div>\n