Seattle LGBTQ Activists Want New Seasons Nixed As Pride Sponsor

SEATTLE, WA - A group of Seattle LGBTQ activists wants an Oregon-based grocer nixed as a sponsor of the 2018 Seattle Pride festival. The activists see ties between New Seasons Market and a large nonprofit that has donated to organizations that have backed anti-gay causes.

But New Seasons, a "bronze sponsor of this year's Pride fest, and the nonprofit MJ Murdock Charitable Trust dispute the activists' claims, saying that the ties between the two are tenuous at best.

Earlier this week, the 10 LGBTQ activists released a statement alleging that "New Seasons ownership is linked to anti-LGBTQ groups behind anti-transgender initiatives, gay conversion therapy, and the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing a business to discriminate against gay customers."

The majority owner of New Seasons is a private equity firm based in Seattle called Endeavour Capital. To raise money, MJ Murdock has invested money with Endeavour Capital - among scores of other private equity funds.

MJ Murdock, based in Vancouver, Wash., has donated money to conservative groups, some that conduct anti-gay or pro-life activism. In 2016, the trust gave to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm that has fought against gay and trans rights - including in a suit against Washington in the Arlene's Flowers case. The trust has also given to clinics that steer pregnant women away from abortion (ABC Pregnancy Care Center, $95,000); the Heritage Foundation ($300,000), which has opposed gay marriage; and the National Christian Charitable Foundation ($7 million), which gives money to groups like the Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family.

But in 2015, MJ Murdock gave out about $45 million in grants to hundreds of organizations - from KCTS 9, Seattle's PBS affiliate, to the Seattle Theatre Group.

"For more than 40 years, we have served our mission of enriching the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by supporting more than 3,000 organizations through more than 6,400 projects with close to a billion dollars in capacity-building grant funding," trust spokesman Colby Reade told Patch. "When you work with such a broad array of groups and individuals, it is impossible to agree with every stance taken by every grantee or every statement made by every volunteer or staff member or every project pursued by every organization. Disagreement happens."

Reade also said that the grant to the Alliance Defending Freedom was for one specific thing - a project where ADF helped higher education institutions in the Pacific Northwest "draft policies that allow students to fairly and safely express their first amendment rights."

"This is neither an endorsement nor denouncement of any work undertaken by ADF or any of our other grantees. The Murdock Trust does not endorse any specific political agenda," Reade said.

And while it is true that the trust invests with Endeavour Capital, the investment is small. According to the MJ Murdock's 2015 IRS filing, the nonprofit had about $56,000 Endeavour Capital out of a total of about $30 million. The LGBTQ activists, however, say that MJ Murdock has invested millions with Endeavour over the last 18 years.

"No shareholder has a bearing on our policies, operations or decisions," New Seasons spokeswoman Julie Teune told Patch. Teune said New Seasons works with local LGBTQ organizations, and offers health plans that cover gender transition.

There has been an ongoing labor dispute between New Seasons and unions. When New Seasons opened its first Seattle store in Ballard in May, labor groups protested. Employees at the Portland-based grocer's Oregon stores have complained of poor working conditions, and have tried to organize a union. New Seasons hired a "union-busting" firm to "conduct information sessions" for employees, according to reports.

Several of the LGBTQ activists who have asked for New Seasons to be dropped as a sponsor are prominent labor activists, including Teamsters 117 political director Dustin Lambro and UFCW 21 political director Sarah Cherin.

As of Thursday morning, New Seasons was still listed as a Seattle Pride sponsor. Patch has reached out to Pride to get a reaction to the activists' request, and we will update this story as soon as we hear back.

Pride events have been going on all month, but the main Pride festival (and the Capitol Hill Pride Parade) happen this weekend. Find out more about Pride events here.

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