When I was homeless, I stayed at a Salvation Army shelter. They knew I was trans and that my legal gender is male, but they put me in the women and families area. I never got misgendered or disrespected while I was there.
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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That is, last I checked, against policy. Someone decided personally to have a little mutiny and not be a dick.
It seemed like everyone knew and was cool about it. I was on a first name basis with all the staff and residents. I had to go to the front office every night to get my HRT for the first few weeks until I saw a doctor and got a note that says I can take my own medication. I never had a problem getting my estrogen pills. And at one point a crazy guy developed a harmless obsession with me and kept bugging the staff about seeing me. They told him he's not allowed in the women's and families area and he just has to wait until I come to the mess hall for lunch or dinner. He wanted my help finding aliens or something, the point is all the staff knew where I was and that I was supposed to be there because I'm a girl
I looked it up
https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us/inclusion/
https://others.org.au/news/2023/02/07/salvos-show-their-support-at-melbourne-pride-march/
They said they're sorry and they're trying to do better, and I think they are doing better
Interesting. Their US site has absolutely no mention of LGBTQ+ that I can find. I wonder if the Australian version has some autonomy.
Considering the state of the States, I wouldn't be surprised if those policies were removed in the recent times.
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They're also still anti abortion in most cases, at least on the US site
https://www.salvationarmy.org/resources/international-positional-statement-abortion
gonna be honest, as difficult as it is to find housing for single men in need, they probably did you a favor.
Thats not the only problem with them. A lot of times local branches will allow their bell-ringers to skim a little out of the donation bucket. Or more than a little. I can't get behind an organization that doesn't punish stealing charitable donations for yourself.
I’ve written my grocery store asking them to remove the bigot bucket
It didn’t help
Did you trying flaming donations?
Context?
The Salvation Army has, throughout it's history, stuck with the anti-gay stance of it's Christian roots, and for some reason everybody remembered that this season.
they, additionally, are against labor unions and secular soup kitchens. they claim to want to help people, but they won't help people unless it feeds their savior complex and control over congregation.
the funny part to me is that jesus reads as an anti-authoritarian. he preaches that it is better to help the hungry than to be dogmatic about orthodoxy. makes the salvation army seem pretty unchristian
Most years people keep forgetting. There's a lot going on these days, it's easy to lose track.
The salvation army is a big church and big churches don't like LGBT. They are typically out in force this time of year with the red buckets in front of a lot of big box stores in the US.
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Around December in the US, the Salvation Army(A Christian group with a bigoted history and overpriced secondhand goods stores) set up outside stores, ringing hand bells and asking for donations.
They're everywhere that allow them. You cannot escape the ringing bells.
Here in Canada too unfortunately
I'm so sorry. But, this did lead me to learning something! I had assumed they were US-based, just given their sheer prevalence in some parts of the country.
Nope, it's the fucking English. Headquarters in London. Just... Goddammit, England.
Feeling alone, the Army's up the road
Salvation a la mode with a cup of tea
- Aqualung by Jethro Tull
In addition to what other people have chimed in, the Salvation Army used to (might still? Last article was in 2014) not pay female workers directly. They would make out their paycheck to the worker's husband. Because women are property.
I've personally been affected by Salvation Army practices. See, they used to deliver toys to disadvantaged kids around the holidays but those toys come with strings. Not only did they show up to my house when my parents were clearly not home they literally dangled toys in front of me and my siblings I was babysitting and refused to give them to us unless we said we would accept Jesus.
We were not a Christian family. In fact at the time most of us were part of a different religion (my dad was always agnostic). They cornered a gaggle of known non-Christian minors when they were alone and vulnerable. They manipulated and forced me to say I accepted Jesus so that my siblings could have presents.
Fuck the Salvation Army.
In winter the organization Salvation Army will have people stand in public ringing bells to collect donations in buckets as pictured above.
The salvation army is notably homophobic
Here in the SF Bay Area, most of the malls and stores don't allow the Salvation Army or the Hari Krishnas or any group to solicit. I don't even recall a Girl Scout Troupe selling cookies. I still keep the "Don't donate" Vouchers in my wallet just in case I run across a bell ringer in front of a Chick-Fil-A or Hobby Lobby that somehow got approved by the local planning commission.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ec/23/23/ec23236932789ab99222c7df093eefdd.jpg
Refusing to donate to the salvation army and then going to hobby lobby or chik fil a is pretty wild
Those stores are also located in strip mall areas with other stores, they could just be walking by.
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i think they were just trying to give examples of shitty places that allow SA solicitors
Maybe they're going out of their way to express their discontent 🤷♀️
Does my heart good to know people are still doing this. I had a bellringer try to block my hand when he saw I was putting a slip of paper in it. I just looked at him, smiled, and pushed it in anyway. These days I tune them out entirely but I have noticed less and less of them in the past few years. The bucket will sit there but no bellringer in sight.
Remember that the Salvation Army behaves differently depending on the nation they're in. The US Salvation Army has different policies to the British one, which has different policies to the Australian one.
Weird, yep, looks like they're just different flavors of bigot bucket and you should find a better organization.
But make eye contact and acknowledge the slave's presence.
This isn't hyperbole btw. The salvation army literally uses these people as slaves.
(cough) Volunteers. How could we survive Xmas without euphemisms.
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I hate hearing that annoying bell in front of every store.
Oh, Skeleton Army tread.
I haven't given them anything in decades.
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