Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Gold’s Gym CEO Robert Rowling is one of the four billionaires providing 97% of the funding to Karl Rove’s “grassroots” political action group, American Crossroads, which in turn is funding the campaigns of anti-gay candidates like Roy Blunt and Sharron Angle. Change.org reports:
Rowling, head of TRT Holdings, which is the owner of Gold’s Gym, is spending quite a bit of money this election cycle. Upwards of $2 million to be exact, through both his corporate and personal bank accounts. Where is he sending that money, which he no doubt earns on the backs of many an LGBT customer? Karl Rove. That’s right, the former Bush strategist, who co-founded a new political organization, American Crossroads, which is working to elect some of the most virulently anti-gay politicians in the country. Turns out that Rowling is one of a handful of big money men working to get Rove’s organization off the ground, helping to turn it into a power player among the political elite.
Who would have thought that giving money to Gold’s Gym could have such ugly consequences for the LGBT community? Among the candidates that the owner of Gold’s Gym is working to elect include Nevada GOP senate candidate Sharron Angle, who is challenging Sen. Harry Reid. Angle, you might recall, has previously said that women who are raped should turn their lemons into lemonade, and that LGBT people should be barred from adopting children. And that’s only the tip of iceberg. In years past, Sharron Angle put her blessing behind an insert that went out to voters that said homosexuality would lead to the destruction of the United States, and called gay people “sodomites” and “perverts.” She even endorsed a statement that said there was no evidence to suggest homosexuality was biological, and that scientists who argue otherwise are flawed.
Some Gold’s Gyms are corporate owned, others are very LGBT-supportive locally-owned franchises. Check with your Gold’s before you make any moves based on this report.