The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, has stopped accepting financial support from two defense contractors, Northrop Grumman and RTX (formerly known as Raytheon).
The change, first reported by the progressive publication The Intercept, comes amid a two-year pressure campaign from far-left and pro-Palestinian organizations who alleged that the companies were profiting off of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza by supplying arms and other military technology to the Israeli military.
In a statement to Metro Weekly, HRC said that it is not currently sponsored by Northrop Grumman or RTX, but did not directly respond to an inquiry asking specifically about how those relationships ended.
The severing of those ties also comes on the heels of a number of U.S. corporationswithdrawing — under pressure from conservatives and the Trump administration — their sponsorship of LGBTQ-related events or organizations, and scuttling their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or policies.
“What’s happening in Gaza and throughout the region is devastating,” reads HRC’s statement, in part. “The starvation of children and families, the violence to its people and aid workers is horrific. And while our focus is on LGBTQ+ equality in the United States, we have spoken out about the crisis, the rising cost of extremism in the United States and around the globe and how Islamophobia, anti-semitism and anti-LGBTQ hatred are globally linked. We have also championed the right to protest here in the United States, as it and other pro-democratic principles are being undermined and threatened by this administration.”
Among the groups demanding that HRC end its relationship with Northrop Grumman and RTX were: Gender Liberation Movement, Adalah Justice Project, ACT UP NY, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and No Pride in Genocide.
Gender Liberation Movement and Adalah Justice Project celebrated HRC’s announcement that it is no longer being sponsored by Northrop Grumman or RTX .
“It is a step in the right direction to keep genocide and militarism out of our communities and institutions,” the groups wrote in a statement on Instagram. “But the fight is far from over.”
However, the groups also noted, in a separate statement, that HRC has not committed to permanently refusing cash from defense contractors in the future, and has not called for an arms embargo on Israel.
“With Israel’s resumption of its strikes in Gaza, war crimes still taking place, accountability of war criminals still goes unchecked, and divestments still must be made. Our work is not finished, and we remain committed to the struggle,” the groups wrote, as reported by The Advocate.
“Organizations like HRC can no longer prioritize proximity to power over the well-being of our people, nor center inclusion in the very systems that are killing us,” the statement continued. “Freedom, equality, and justice for our queer and trans siblings here can only be achieved when we collectively confront the systems that are harming communities everywhere.”
Shortly after the Israel-Gaza conflict began, after the Hamas-led attacks on Israeli civilians and foreign nationals on Oct. 7, 2023 the activist groups demanded that HRC cut ties with “all weapons manufacturers and institutions profiting off genocide and militarism” across the globe, commit to not entering into any future partnerships with weapons manufacturers, and publicly call for an immediate arms embargo on Israel.
In February 2024, demonstrators protested outside HRC’s annual New York gala, objecting to the organization’s acceptance of money from weapons manufacturers, as reported by them at the time. Some critics of HRC have accused the organization of “pinkwashing” by holding up Israel’s relatively pro-gay laws as an example to emulate, to distract from the country’s violations of Palestinians’ human rights.
Israel’s military campaign — which officials have previously claimed is aimed at destroying Hamas and ensuring the terrorist organization no longer poses a threat to Israel — has seen close to 80 percent of Gaza’s pre-Oct. 7 structures being damaged or destroyed, according to satellite imagery, and has resulted in more than 69,000 Palestinian deaths, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is overseen by the Hamas-led government in the region.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been injured in the conflict, and pro-Palestinian organizations have accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes — pointing to social media videosshared by some soldiers that have circulated online as evidence for the charge — including by allegedly targeting civilians, including children, allegedly abusing or torturing detainees, and allegedly using forced starvation as a weapon of war.
In September, a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council opined that Israel was committing a genocide against Palestinians.
Ibrar Nadeem, an aide to Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, bragged to Muslim supporters about the candidate's past opposition to marriage equality during a "Muslims4Jack" event in Piscataway, New Jersey on October 18.
"We want to have a ban on same-sex marriage," Nadeem said, as recorded in a video posted to X.
Nadeem went on to note that Ciattarelli had voted against legalizing marriage equality as a New Jersey state assemblyman and claimed that his preferred candidate would continue to oppose it.
In the end, John Reid just couldn't outrun the political "blue wave" that crashed on the shores of Virginia on Tuesday. A radio host for Richmond-area talk station WRVA, Reid had sought to become Virginia's lieutenant governor. He fell short to State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond) by almost 11 points.
"We did not win tonight," Reid said during his concession speech at an election night party in Glen Allen, Virginia. "I did not win tonight, but we did not lose this fight. The 'Real Virginia Agenda' was never about one campaign or one candidate. It's about a movement for families, for freedom, and for the future of the Commonwealth of Virginia."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito hinted in recent remarks that the court is unlikely to overturn its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide -- even though he personally disagrees with it.
Part of the court’s six-member conservative majority, Alito made the remarks on October 3 during an academic conference hosted by the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
In his speech, Alito referenced the Obergefell marriage equality decision while praising what he called the "bright future" of constitutional originalism -- the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted as the founders intended when they wrote it in 1787.
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The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, has stopped accepting financial support from two defense contractors, Northrop Grumman and RTX (formerly known as Raytheon).
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