PepsiCo shareholder proposal seeks accountability in funding for homosexual causes

Mar 29, 2010 / 22:41 pm

Shareholders of PepsiCo should vote for a shareholder proposal that the food, drink and snack company disclose its standards for donating over $75 million in corporate assets to controversial groups such as those advocating homosexual causes, an ex-gay group says.

PepsiCo, Inc. is the leading corporate sponsor of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc. (PFLAG).

The group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) has charged that PFLAG’s latest publication, a religious guidebook, wrongly labels ex-gay conferences as "anti-gay" and urges PFLAG members to protest religious conferences which feature ex-gay speakers.

The guidebook instructs members to hold press conferences and issue press releases against religious ex-gay events to “remind people there is more than one faith message.”

PFOX executive director Regina Griggs asked why PepsiCo would fund organizations that urge readers to “undermine” other religions.

"Is this the best use of PepsiCo funding?" she asked.

According to Griggs, the company responded to a similar proposal last year by claiming it is “committed to diversity and inclusion without imposition of personal judgment.”

She claimed this called into question PepsiCo’s continued funding of what she said were “organizations which hate the ex-gay community.”

Griggs said PepsiCo Shareholder Proposal No. 4 asks the company to divulge its standards for funding and to account for how its charitable contributions are actually used.

In her view, this was a “reasonable request” since its actions “adversely affect its public image, goodwill and stock value.”