Banks halt contributions to anti-LGBTQ schools
Fifth Third, Wells Fargo say institutions will no longer send money to Florida’s voucher program
Fifth Third Bank, which sent $5.4 million in 2018 to the Florida’s largest school voucher program, said Tuesday it is halting contributions until the state prohibits private schools that receive the money from discriminating against LGBTQ students.
Late Wednesday, Wells Fargo told NBC News it was also ending its support of the program.
“All of us at Wells Fargo highly value diversity and inclusion, and we oppose discrimination of any kind,” the bank told NBC.
The banks’ decision came after the Orlando Sentinel reported last week that more than $105 million from the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which pays for low-income children to attend private schools, went to campuses with anti-LGBTQ policies last year.
The program is funded by companies that receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits in exchange
for their contributions. Many of those companies that fund the scholarships, including Fifth Third, publicly support the LGBTQ community, vowing to make employment decisions without regard to sexual orientation or sponsoring events like Orlando’s Come out with Pride festivities.
Contacted last month about Fifth Third’s contributions to the program, spokeswoman Danielle Jones wrote in an email to the Orlando Sentinel that helping underprivileged students is important to the bank. She added the bank was “highly supportive of diversity and inclusion” but did not give any indication Fifth Third’s support for the tax credit scholarship program was wavering.
The Sentinel’s story published online Jan. 23 included a photo showing Fifth Third’s float in Orlando’s 2019 “Most Colorful Parade," a popular event supporting the LGBTQ community.
After the story ran, Fifth Third changed its mind.
“While the scholarship is to the parents and students and not the school, given the additional information we received, we reevaluated further participation and communicated our decision to the program officials to not participate further until more inclusive policies have been adopted by all participating schools to protect the sexual orientation of all our students,” spokesman Ed Loyd wrote in an email.
The Sentinel reviewed documents of more than 1,000 private religious schools that take state scholarships and found 156 have policies that say gay and transgender students can be denied enrollment or expelled or that explain the school opposes their sexual orientation or gender identity on religious grounds.
Those campuses served more than 16 percent of the students who received tax credit scholarships during the 2018-2019 school year, records from Step Up For Students and the Florida Department of Education show.
In its statement to NBC on Wednesday, Wells Fargo said, “We’ve reviewed this matter carefully and have decided to no longer support Step Up for Students.”
The company did not respond to a Sentinel email late Wednesday seeking comment.
Since the Sentinel first reported on the issue last summer, four other companies, including Central Florida-based Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Inc., have withdrawn support.
Fifth Third announced it was stopping contributions Tuesday night on Twitter, responding to Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, who urged the bank to stop sending money to the program.
Smith said he criticized Fifth Third on Twitter last week because it publicly supported Orlando’s 2019 gay pride festivities yet, based on its initial response to the Sentinel, seemed unconcerned that some of its scholarship donations could go to schools with anti-gay policies.
“It rubbed me the wrong way,” he said.
His tweet included a photo the Sentinel ran that showed dozens of Fifth Third employees in rainbow-decorated T-shirts on a float in Orlando’s parade, held in October as part of annual gay pride festivities.
Smith said he was pleased with the company’s change of heart. “I applaud them for their decision to stop promoting a program that supports bigotry,” Smith said.
The bank responded to Smith’s tweets with some of its own.
"We definitely stand with #LGBTQ students and parents,” the bank wrote. “We have communicated with program officials that we 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.”
Private schools that won’t admit or would discipline gay students harm LGBTQ youngsters who might be enrolled and others who absorb those bigoted messages, he added.
“It’s poisoning kids minds,” Smith said. “We should not be funding these schools.”
Publicly pressuring the corporations that fund the tax credit program may be the best option for those who want to see changes in scholarship rules because the state’s Republican leaders, who control the Legislature, seem uninterested in making changes, Smith added.
Last year, Smith tried unsuccessfully to get the Florida House to pass a law banning LGBTQ discrimination in private schools that take state scholarships. Two similar bills filed by fellow Democrats for this year’s legislative session appear dead on arrival, with GOP leaders unwilling to give them a committee hearing.
“Going after the money was intentional because they left us no other option,” Smith said. “They denied us the legislative route.”
Since the Sentinel’s reporting, other companies have contributed to support the program. Last Friday, Step Up For Students announced a $35 million contribution from Breakthru Beverage Florida, which describes itself as one of the state’s largest distributors of wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages. Breakthru did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday.
The lion’s share of contributions to the tax credit program has come from the hospitality and alcoholic beverage industries, which have kicked in $2.3 billion, or 396,800 scholarships, since 2001, according to the fall 2019 issue of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association’s magazine. Overall, corporations have given more than $3.9 billion, funding 784,000 scholarships, during the past two decades.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, DOrlando, who filed the House bill (HB 45) to ban discrimination, also applauded Fifth Third’s decision and urged other companies to do the same.
“These are all companies that finance vouchers in lieu of paying taxes and none should be helping the state subsidize the discrimination of children,” she said in a statement. “Floridians overwhelmingly support equality and passing House Bill 45 would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and disability from happening in the first place. Our bill should be heard in the Florida House and Senate immediately — its passage will not only provide comfort and security to families — it will save kids’ lives.”